welcome to the be real podcast with your hosts Joe Sabula and Bobby Maximus now Bobby our mission on this podcast is to bring useful information to the world uh and to not sugarcoat it and given that we do talk a lot about people in our age bracket uh I wanted to try to come up with some useful information there so I dug deep I did a ton of research I Googled what are the four major mistakes that men in their 40s make when it comes to working out and the Google AI provided me with four answers and so what I'd like to do is to go through them one at a time and get your take on it okay hit me all right so answer number one and again the question is uh what are the four worst mistakes men over 40 make when it comes to working out mistake number one not training for power as men age they lose muscle mass and strength this can lead to decrease Mobility balance and coordination power training can help combat this by improving muscle strength and power what do you think so I'll buy that for a well-conditioned 40-year-old power can increase strength it can increase muscle and I think it is essential for athleticism and Longevity the problem with power is most 40-year-olds are not well conditioned like I always tell you like I'm a pessimist right 98% of the world is horrifically unfit that number climbs when people are in their 40s and the last last thing if you haven't trained in 3 years and you have a 30 lb gut that's hanging over your belt the last thing I need you to do is go to the track and start sprinting the last thing I need you to do is practice your vertical leap the last thing I need you to do is move fast and quick because you're going to tear your fat hamstrings from the bone so true for somebody like me true for somebody like you true for the person I've got a guy in the gym right now he works for Adobe he's 44 years old he's really in quite good shape Joe honestly even though he's a regular guy he can deadlift well over 400 lb his max is 495 he can bench press 225 for 10 he's worked out regularly three to four times a week for the past 25 years like yes we do power training with him he does a lot of jumps he does a lot of Sprints but again for the beginner off the couch no way and guys check your ego I know you have a memory of being 18 and running 100 m in sub 11 but you're not that guy anymore no you're the person that's playing softball in a beer league that ends up with a horrible leg injury because you're so deconditioned so the power thing we might want to pump the brakes on that a little bit until you've got a base level of conditioning yeah I feel like power training is like it it's an attribute training right so not general fitness it's like you're trying to get better at something for a reason like you're in a sport you're you're and like you said you're an athlete you're already well conditioned and you're trying to get better at a thing that's where power comes in for General conditioning it's just yeah you don't need some 88y old dude doing box jumps for example it's just notary thing right yeah yeah all right let's look at number two the second worst mistake men in their 40s make when it comes to training training too heavy lift and heavy weights can put a lot of stress on the joints and muscles this can lead to injuries especially in men over 40 who are more prone to injury what 100% like here's the thing Joe there's only one reason to lift really heavy and that's well there's two reasons fun and performance so for fun does it feel really good to put 500 lounds on a deadlift pick it up drop it and scream and tear your shirt off one 100% do I want to do that right now that I'm talking about it absolutely so it's fun two for performance you're a powerlifter you're a professional fighter you play in the NFL okay lifting heavy can help you it's what you said about power it's a performance attribute but now you take your average 40-year-old your average 40-year-old isn't competing anymore your average 40-year old is is not playing in the NFL your average 40-year-old is not trying to break the world all-time record for a deadlift when you lift heavy there is risk actually this is going to be true in any area of life when you Redline it when you push your limits you are taking on more risk think about driving your car if you drive at or under the speed limit you go slow you check your blind spots all the time you're almost in zero danger of getting in a car accident yeah if you get in that car and you floor it and you go like you're a cop light and Sirens to a destination your chances of wrapping your car around a pole they go through the roof it's the same thing with working out the minute you Redline it you go to 100% you're risking injuries so the question is when you're over 40 what are you risking injury for yeah what there's no there's no reason to do it other than fun and I'll put go in that category too or if you have a very specific goal and even if you have a specific goal I won the world master ju-jitsu championship last year at Black Belt I competed on the ultimate figh I was the oldest person in the history of the series at 43 years old I would argue that whether my deadlift one R Max was 405 495 or 550 that wasn't the determining factor in my world championship that didn't get me into the Ultimate Fighting Championship like I'll bet you there are people in the Ultimate Fighting Championship right now Joe that don't deadlift that don't squat that don't lift heavy and that's in their 20s so even if you want to argue the performance thing unless it's powerlifting specific you probably don't need it and I'd rather you be safe yeah and I think it's a it's a comfort zone thing right like you want to be pushing the boundaries of your capabilities a little bit but you don't have to jump outside the comfort zone you don't have to like like go go like a a Mad Bull towards the edge and just get right into that danger zone because like you said the risk is high and the reward the reward is non-existent let's be honest well you've you've and I'm I'm gonna I got to cut you off because I got to get this point off but like with the risk reward thing right the other thing is Heavy's a relative term Joe yeah like you've seen me deadlift 600 lb you've seen me deadlift 65 lb I've seen you deadlift 615 lb but neither of us has deadlifted over 405 in the past year right like it's just not necessary so if you open my Instagram you open my YouTube reels you like well you had 405 on the bar well that's not heavy for me like it's you know 70% of my one rep max or whatever it is so that's the other thing and that's what I wanted to add it with the comfort zone like this has to be individual in nature but you should never in your 40s and I say never there's an asteris there because there are those conditions that you might but I don't want you to load a weight that you don't know if you can lift on a barbell wrap yourself up with a weightlifting belt and you know blow your eye sockets out trying to lift this thing like it doesn't blood vessels in your neck it doesn't it doesn't make sense there's no that's a great point I I look at it almost like a like a belt testing in the martial arts like by the time you go to test for your next belt rank like you've already passed the test you got to know you can do it you're you're not there to see if you've got the goods you already know and you're just proving it more to yourself than anybody and I think when it comes to lifting heavy if if you're going to go for like a new PR on your deadlift it's not news you know like you've been working towards it you've been consistent and it's already like mathematically a fact that you're capable of lifting that weight before you step up to it you're not just throwing weight on the bar walking up and then just trying to Ego your way through it yeah there's a safe way and I'm glad you brought this up because someone's going to listen to this and be like well you told me I should do some heavier deadlifts heav is a relative term but I also want to mitigate risk so even with my clients that are in their 40s Joe we do some fairly quote unquote heavy deadlifts but it's always safe we rarely Redline I always make sure they leave a couple of pounds in the tank and there people by the way the people that I train beginners don't usually come to me for training it's people that have trained for years and the rules are a little different like I feel like this episode needs to be aimed at The 40-Year-Old that's trying to get back in shape because my answer is going to be different if you've been training for 30 years if you told me hey I want to lift heavy tomorrow I'd be like oh cool like have at her you know what you're doing yeah good answer all right next mistake that men in their 40s make uh when it comes to training not doing enough isolation exercise oh my God what's with people in isolation train isolation exercises Target specific muscles this can help to improve muscle strength and balance however many men over 40 neglect isolation exercises in favor of compound exercises okay so first of all many men neglect all exercise in their 40s so let's be clear about that I do want to preface this with a positive isolation training can have it have its benefits it's great for bodybuilding it's great for hypertrophy it's great for rehabbing injury but the number one thing in my opinion that 40-year-olds need even 20 and 30y olds is mobility athleticism balance and that doesn't come from isolation exercises that comes from more full body compound exercises in my program you'll see me do some bench press you'll see me do some machine stuff you'll see me do some bicep stuff just for fun but I would say Joe a good 90% of my program is body weight and compound movements maybe even 95 like it's rare I do the isolation type type stuff and that's how I train almost all of my athletes unless again they have a very specific hypertrophy or bodybuilding goal or they're hurt like you know Joe you just had your shoulder surgically repaired you had your knee surgically repaired we got to sit you on a machine and have you do some one armed bench press like that's fine but men you probably don't need more isolation exercises that said the dude we're aiming this at the dude that's off the couch the dude that is Raging because they showed Taylor Swift one too many times on his football game the guy who is screaming at the halftime show I don't understand a word this guy's saying to Kendrick Lamar and then goes puts on his Pearl Jam and I I can't understand one single Pearl Jam lyric that dude who hasn't worked out in five years who's eating buffalo wild wings and drinking have I painted an accurate picture for you Joe drinking his Bud Light right that dude he actually probably needs the isolation exercises because that's all he's capable of doing he's not doing compound anything he ain't doing box jumps he ain't doing thrusters he ain't doing clean and jerks despite the fact he thinks he's a super athlete and bench press 315 in high school like that's the other side of the coin isolation can be good for people just trying to get back in the game well I I would take the approach of saying don't try to train muscles because muscles don't work in isolation even doing a bicep curl it's not just the bicep muscle that's working like the shoulder is there stabilizing the ABS are engaged to help mitigate any swinging like everything is a system your body is a system a system so you need to train movements so we're not training bench press because it targets the chest we're training bench press because it's a push you know pushing strength exactly we're doing pulls so we're doing pull-ups we're doing rows right we're doing a squat pattern a lunge pattern a hinge pattern like think of the movement that you're trying to get good at and if your end goal is to be you know healthy and have a good life you need to have that Mobility which is why I'm so glad you said that up front because that's way more important and even if you're an elite level athlete if you're if you're uh uh Aaron Rogers in his 40s trying to win a Super Bowl as as quarterback of the New York Jets why you got to bring into this poor guy man he's trying to mind his business and do his Pat McAfee show come on manue isn't that he hasn't done enough lat raises you know what I mean like that's not the thing that's separating him from where he's trying to go so I think it's easy to go down that rabbit hole because there's so much out there that is specific to bodybuilding and and I would say isolation exercises are good in the beginning because because they're approachable and they're good when you're a really highlevel bodybuilder who's just trying to get that one again that that sliver of a percent to look better in the shoulder a little better on the outside of the ab that you're trying to really isolate that and make that one muscle stand out a little bit more then it makes sense but for the 95% of us in the middle range compound exercises is where it's at train let's also talk about isolation though Joe and I'm going to quiz you because you've got like 90 million certifications you're an exercise expert and I I'm not saying that to be like that's genuinely who you are there's a difference you correct me if I'm wrong I'm just going to go on a tangent and you tell me if I'm on a line here I would argue that a machine bench press is pure isolation you're taking away all stability the weight is on a slide you don't have to use your core a machine bench press is pure isolation yeah but I would argue I consider that bench pressing on the moon because there's just no gravity at that point fair I would argue that doing a bench press with just a barbell requires some amount of balance requires some amount of core stability it's like why you see professional bench pressers Arch because you've got to engage your legs and your hip and your core and you've got to have a strong core and you've also got to by the way when you see big bench pressers fail sometimes it's their lat that are the issue and the lats are in the back so I would argue that uh that a that a that a barbell bench press is is not true isolation and then if you take it a step further and do it with dumbbells well now you're even further from isolation and just on our lad app um on team Maximus you programmed a workout for next week which was single arm bench press and that's not isolation in the least at all so I think we have to have a talk because I don't want you on machines but I am okay with you doing dumbbell strict press I am okay with you doing laying bench press I am okay with you doing pull-ups or inverted rows like I don't necessarily consider those isolation well in in the beginning when I'm working with a client who's maybe never worked out never lifted before I like to start them on machine circuits because they can learn the movement they can learn like what muscles are being targeted I always tell them the machine has a picture on it that tells you what muscles it's it's usually like highlighted if it's the PEX or the back like focus on that learn that and then we're going to go over to the dumbbells six to eight weeks of circuits we're going to go over to the dumbbells so now you actually have to work on stabilizing and when you get good enough at the dumbbells then we'll move up to barbells then we can get into heavier weights but like you got to have that that consistency and that competency before we add that intensity and so that's the least intense right the easiest to be consistent at is the machines and then again on the other end of the spectrum when you're an elite level bodybuilder you are specifically trying to Target a particular muscle and not the surrounding muscles then there's a place for that as well yeah exactly but know your know your place but in general guys you need more Mobility than anything it's not all about being mobility and I always say stability as well which is why I love single arm bench press and on that point you got one more you got one more to tell me and please please say it's guys skipping cardio not doing enough cardio cardio is important for overall health and fitness however many men over 40 neglect cardio in favor of strength training this makes me so angry I am 6'3 that's 191 CM if you're a metric system kind of person I'm 232 lb that's about 107.3 kilos you go to my social media Joe I'm jacked I'm shredded I got muscles everywhere you know what I do a lot of cardio Henry Caville when he was getting ready for Mana steel I wrote a lot of the programming when Michael and Mark were training him there was a big cardiovascular component to his training even when he was doing Nas Game type stuff there was some breathing and Henry 6'2 210 lb pretty shredded and like a person people want to look like and then you take professional rugby players I was actually going to look for a rugby ball to show you but rugby players are 120 kilos and they're running all day guys have got it in their head that cardio is going to make them burn muscle the cardio is going to make them weak the cardio is going to make them small that is not the case you need more cardio what you've done is you've taken your cardiovascular definition or you've taken that from guys that are running 120 miles a week yeah from guys that are running 80 miles a week from tour to France cyclists Mark Cavendish was doing 30,000 miles a year on a bike when he was winning the tour of f that's not you yeah you haven't had a year in your life where you put over 500 miles on a bike like let's be real so to be clear cardio is not going to make you small in fact cardio is the number one predictor of your immune system the number one predictor of how you're going to age the number one predictor of your life expectancy the number one predictor in almost any area of overall health you need more cardio that's just we've talked about this program uh God for years and and we've come back back to this notion multiple multiple times but let's just use a 10-minute mile as as a good example of a not difficult Pace to maintain so if you did as a warm-up before your strength training a 10-minute mile and then you did it as a coold down afterwards we're talking 20 minutes of cardio you've got 40 minutes to get some serious strength training in in the middle uh and you do that three times a week Monday Wednesday Friday go that's what six miles a week and then on your off days you go for an easy jog for an hour so you do that three days a week so now we've done six miles on our off days three days a week that's 18 plus six I mean what are we at 24 miles a week at an easy Pace like that's not that much compared to the marathon runner who's putting in 80 90 120 miles a week but if you were good and strong from doing your strength training and you had that capacity I mean you could run a four half hour marathon without really dying you know like you're not that far off and honestly 24 miles is nothing like it's it's a it's it's a lot of work it'll keep you fit but that's not the cardio when I say it's nothing to be clear so something's not taken out of context that's not the kind of cardio that's going to make you skinny like you still have 50 miles a week to go before you're going to start that's not intense training that's not heavy intervals that's not sprinting that's just like easy conversational pace like it's not that hard to get into that amount of shape and and I would even add to this conversation that the cardio thing you do for Heart and Lung Health you know as as men age you know the instance of of cardiac arrest goes up and is that because we're aging or is it because people just quit working out and quit having healthy Hearts people stuck cardio and they're too big Joe like people are too big big people die young so do your cardio and I'll say this to in the podcast I I think this is the last Point are we on number four this is the last one yep I don't even care what kind of cardio you do it could be easy cardio like a warmup and a cool down it could be a dedicated couple of cardio days it can be lifting weights faster like if you do circuit type training and that gets your heart rate up that will count as cardio I'll even count the sauna is cardio like something that gets your heart rate up I'm going to say three to four times a week at a medium it could be a walk for an hour a day while you listen to your favorite podcast like that's that's that's literally all it could be but guys you need more cardio your typical three sets of 10 and 12 it's not going to do it yeah yeah so there we have it real answers from real Fitness people that's why we call it the be real podcast showe because we don't lie we don't sugarcoat it we just tell you what you need to hear not what you want to hear what you need to hear if you like this type of content if you like the hours of research that Joe Sabula did today typing a line into Google subscribe turn your notifications on and share the show with every one of your friends I know there's a bunch of 40-year-olds in your life that need to hear I'm not even going to say 40y olds there's a bunch of people over 30 that need to hear this advice so share the show with your friends and we'll see you for the next episode for