approaching 50 and big pecs when younger are now looking rather sad .presume it’s just a case of better diet and plenty of press ups ?. I’m reasonable fit and strong and do get plenty of exercise but Moobs and gut are where the flab lie!
your experiences please

stop the beer.

Lol, if I drink more beer will I get bigger boobs? 😯

Will they tuck under your armpits ?

Press ups on their own won’t help. You can’t choose where to burn fat from- you just need to burn more fat!

Can you hold pencils under them?

eat/ drink less , exercise more press ups won’t make much difference reducing overall bodyfat is what you need to do

You’re a brave man putting this up on the forum ……. never seen so many ‘piss takers’ in one place 🙂
As another who’s 50 this year I know what you mean though .. try inclined bench pressing or inclined flies … anything that will build your muscle back up in the upper part of your chest … should stop the moobs heading south!
As for the gut …… core exercises are the only answer to flattening your stomach …… loads of different ones but basically its like pulling your belly button towards your arse …. hold it for 20 sec then let it out … repeat for the rest of your life!…… or until you really don’t care any more 😀

best of luck

Eat better, exercise more and lower your body fat. This place will help: Weightloss Resources I know a few guys of your errr age with the same problem who have used that site with good results.

P90x.(google it) I did it from September to December and it took 3 stone off. Not easy though. I’m 50 in March and am now in better shape than when I was 18.

As others have said, you need to lose fat by lowering your calorie intake. It’s all about what you eat and drink.

If all that you change is to lower your intake your body fat will decrease. If you add extra fat burning exercise, cycling being one of the best, this will help to speed up the process.

Bench pressing and the like will have no visible effect unless you have a small amount of body fat but it will help to burn off some calories and increase strength and muscle tone for when the fat goes.

What is happening to this place? The answer is, of course……
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iDave.

🙄

Nevermind rolling your eyes, it works very well! 🙄

Weight training will help, its a geat way to burn calories especially in the off season.

In addition you will be s
changing the shape and hardness of the muscle clearly a good thing for moobs.

The one drawback is that you will prbably increase your food intake if you train hard in the gym. You really have to make sure you take in good calories and increase protein uptake, not as easy as you think.

Go swimming lots. The added advantage being that until you lose the moobs you should never drown

ourmaninthenorth – Member

What is happening to this place? The answer is, of course……
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iDave I’mDave.
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Adding some extra muscle will speed up your metabolism, so you will burn more fat at rest. Press ups only work the middle and lower pec, as said above some incline bench work will help improve shape and reduce the moob effect, but ultimately you need to reduce overall body fat levels.

I’ll have them!!

😆

you won’t build muscle at 50 (unless you want to use some drugs) so you got to lose fat.

This being a cycling forum, maybe longer on the bike ?

Wont build muscle at 50! Utter pish.

I’m nearly 50 and it’s a fact that as we age our metabolism slows and we exchange muscle for fat. So to “stand still” we have to watch what we eat and excessive more. Some simple free weights can help with the moobs but that alone won’t shift them.

Bagstard, I’m always willing to learn. Please post an effective protocol.

flap jack, you can build muscle at any age and I would advise most people to do so. As we age and become more sedentry our muscle mass diminishes, essentially use it or lose it!As our muscles shrink from lack of use our metabolism will slow down making us less efficient fat burners.

You often hear people claim to be the same weight in their late forties as they were in their twenties, maybe so, but chances are the balance of fat and muscle is very different and not for the better. My Mum is 63 and in good shape, she regularly weight trains as well as playing golf and walking. Provided you are reasonably healthy and have no injuries, the only barrier is yourself.

I’m sure I read somewhere that certain types of food groups accumulate in different areas of the body? It was an article about eating the right foods to develop a six-pack – basically you just avoid the ones that accumulate on your mid-section.

On the same principle, losing moobs, may be as simple as identifying the food groups which automatically gravitate – not sure if that’s quite the right word, but it’ll do – to the chest area and eliminate them from your diet.

This isn’t the same as just eating less, it’s a lot more scientific, I think. Or that’s what the article I remember reading said anyway. Worth a look and certainly a lot easier and less painful than over exercising, which could be dangerous, and starving yourself.

I’ll post back if I can find the original article as I reckon it could help a lot of posters on here. Is this partly how the iDave diet works?

I have used body builder protocols and have good muscle mass despite being 51. 18 inch biceps, with shoulders, chest and legs in proportion if you fancy some willy waving.
Physiology tells us that humans produce reducing amounts of growth hormone as they age beyond puberty. As you get onto your 40s this tails off to near nothing. You need the GH to grow muscle (as well as lots of other things). You can trick the body into increasing its production a bit by controlled eccentric overload but unless you’re very careful you can easily damage tendons.
So I agree it is technically possible but you either need to take GH or one of its analogues (a course I would not advise) or be blessed with resilient connective tissue.

Whereas, if the OP just gets on his bike and knocks out some centuries the fat should fall off. Weights ain’t going to cut it IMO.

BadlyWiredDog

are you referring to Poliquin Biosignature Analysis ?

Jambalaya, There is no direct metabolic path from muscle to fat, as far as im aware. and according to a number of scientology studies there hasn’t been any conclusive proof that your metabolism changes significantly until you are right up in your 70s. which points out that changing muscle to fat doesn’t happen, you just become more sedentary and gain more fat while losing muscle mass. plenty of lean muscly 50 year olds out there, they are just the ones that stay active to levels similar to their youth.

flap jack,

clearly you know your stuff, but it’s a matter of context, we are not talking competetive bodybuilding here and of course genetics will play a part. What I’m talking about is more lifestyle rather than losing some fat for a short while then putting it back on.

Warning*anecdotal evidence* a naturally skinny 56 year old friend of mine, regularly drinks around six cans of lager a night, diet is ok has managed to put an inch on his little arms in around four months of training only his arms twice a week. No extra protein, no squats or deadlifts, just 3 sets of curls and three sets of standing curl bar extensions twice a week. Think what he could achieve if he actually trained his whole body, cut the drinking and ate well.

I’m 38 with 17 inch arms, in proportion with 9% body fat which is dropping by the day.

according to a number of scientology studies

That would explain why Tom Cruise is so buff… 😉

increased cardio excercise
try tabbata or crossfit or boxing include rowing and spinnig
weights have a place but concentrate on supersets and not just chest exercies, squats burn a lot of calories deadlifts and hang snatch.
Press ups in sets with sit ups, burpees and box jumps.
ride your bike more and eat less.
Muscle growth is possible well past 50 but if you want to look like Arnie or Sly you wont, if you want real muscle then all the above will develop strength and endurance with a correct diet.
It will be hard work but enjoy

flap jack is talking horseshit I’m afraid.

Youtube Tony Horton. P90X bloke.

Mid 50’s and as fit as ever. Scarily so.

work on your posture, cycling can give you a rounded upper back and shoulders that fall forwards. if this sounds like you then do something to pull your back straight and shoulders back. stretch the muscles at the chest and front of your shoulders and neck, at the same time as working your back.

flap_jack – Member
you won’t build muscle at 50 (unless you want to use some drugs) so you got to lose fat.

Utter rubbish.

Science

more science

or

hype

you choose

define build muscle?

If you want an bodybuilders body in the 1970/1980 sense then steriods are the only way to achieve that regardless of your age….look at the difference between ‘natural’ bodybuilders and bodybuilders.

If you wantg to get fitter and stronger than you are now then all the above will help, you can grow muscle at most ages, your strength and muscle size will decline with age BUT if you use it and train it will be retained to some degree.

If you train sensibly and with some intensity you will develop muscle definition when combined with a good diet.

Grow muscle or create muscle defintion?

Part of the problem as you get older is that the mass of earlier data is based on generations who smoked and did not do aerobic exercise into their 60s.

Thus expectations based on this data may be suspect, and if you go to a doc with a sports type injury/problem the general attitude is “what do you expect, you’re old?”.

Of course, they’re right about getting old, but what I want to know is how to keep going rather than sink into sedentary decrepitude before necessary.

The GH approach looks more and more attractive as I age. Maybe when I’m frail enough to need gears I’ll do that. 🙂

Or do as I did – gyneocomastiaplasty.