Protein – The Building Blocks For Muscle
Protein powder is the first and most obvious muscle building supplement for any age. If you want to build muscle you need protein and probably more than you are getting right now because many women fall short.
If you follow a more plant-based style of eating, it will be even harder to get enough protein unless you are supplementing. While foods like beans and tofu are sources of protein – they aren’t as high in protein as the animal based sources like meat and eggs. This is easily remedied by including a protein powder in your dietary regime at least once or twice per day.
It’s also important to understand that as you get older your protein requirements increase not just for building muscle but for longevity reasons as well.
Experts in the field of protein and aging recommend a protein intake between 1.2 and 2.0 g/kg/day for elderly adults.
Now we are by no means elderly in our 40s, but as we age our bodies get less responsive to amino acid intake which is why we need even more. Studies in this area focus on adults over 65 compared with younger adults (from what I could tell younger means around 30 years). However, we don’t just end up having higher protein requirements at 65 and it would be interesting if they studied protein requirements of women at 45 or around menopause. I suspect our needs are already changing in our 40s along with our changing bodies and hormones.
I usually recommend at least 100g of protein/day. This is easy to remember – if you eat 4 meals per day it means you need to get about 25g of protein per meal.
The other thing you need to be aware of is that certain types of protein have a more optimal composition of amino acids for muscle building. Whey and egg protein are considered some of the highest quality proteins for muscle building. I think that as we get older we need to give our bodies the best support possible to build muscle and that’s why I’ve started using whey protein again.
Creatine – Increase Strength And Energy
Creatine is an organic acid that we can get from eating certain foods – namely meat – but in the fitness world it’s also widely used as a supplement.
Creatine is one of the most common bodybuilding supplements for many reasons including:
-it improves energy production in the body which means you can train longer and harder,
-it helps stimulate muscle protein synthesis and prevent muscle breakdown, and
-it may have anti-inflammatory effects.
Basically, the more creatine you have in your muscles the harder you should be able to train which means you should build more muscle.
The really cool thing about creatine is that in addition to it’s muscle building effects it has a whole lot of benefits relating to longevity including possibly positively impacting cognitive health, bone health and insulin sensitivity. Creatine has often been shown to help older adults regain strength, muscle mass and function after bed rest, falls or other injuries and illness. It may even protect your brain in the event of a stroke! When I read the literature on creatine I can’t help but think it’s a supplement that I should take for the rest of my life.
There are two regimes you can follow with creatine. First, you can “load” it which means you have a loading phase for 5 to 7 days (taking about 20g in divided doses through the day) and then continue on taking it at 5g per day. Or, you could just start taking it at the recommended dosage on the label of the creatine bottle (usually this will be 5g).
One reason I don’t suggest creatine to most of my clients is that often you may see the scale increase a bit because water gets pulled into your muscles. In fact, this is my favourite thing about creatine because I feel like my muscles are more visible and full when I’m taking it. However, I know that this makes creatine unappealing to anyone who is concerned about the scale weight.
Curcumin (and Fish Oil) – For Recovery and Pain
Curcumin works similar to popular anti-inflammatories like Ibuprofen to reduce inflammation in your body and it’s often recommended as part of a muscle building supplement protocol. After 40 you’ll probably notice that joint and muscle pain get worse. I wish it wasn’t true but it seems to be the case for most of us.
Curcumin has a lot of benefits when it comes to fitness and your overall health, and it can also help with your recovery from training too. I usually recommend it to my clients who have joint pain, arthritis or who have more DOMS (muscle soreness after training) than the average person.
Fish oil has been shown to work synergistically with curcumin to reduce inflammation so I recommend taking the two of them together.
I have an article and video that goes into more detail about both curcumin and fish oil which you can check out here.
Preworkouts – Increase Motivation and Stamina
Our 40s are often a time of life when we face many challenges and setbacks so it’s normal to lose motivation for training. There will be so many days when you don’t feel like training and preworkouts can help.
While they aren’t a magical fix, they can make you feel more alert and perky when you head into the gym. When you understand how a preworkout will make you feel, you can push through that lack of motivation and start a workout because you know you’ll feel better once the preworkout kicks in.
This can sound a bit scary if you are new to preworkouts but the gentler brands marketed for the average person (rather than the bodybuilding brands) can be a great addition to your fitness regime. They will usually have caffeine (similar to the amount in a strong cup of coffee) and other ingredients to help with alertness, engery and recovery.
I recommend consuming the preworkout about 15 minutes before training because I’ve found that 30-60 minutes (which is sometimes recommended) is way too soon for me and it peaks before I get into the gym. I actually don’t usually fully finish my preworkout until I’m about 15 minutes into my training session and I find this means I have a nice level of energy throughout the full workout (assuming it’s a 45-60 minute workout).
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