Summary

The author shares their personal experience and top four exercises for staying fit and lean at 42, emphasizing the importance of adjusting fitness routines with age to prevent injury and maintain health.

Abstract

As the author enters their 40s, they acknowledge the challenges of aging on fitness, such as increased susceptibility to injury and the necessity to adapt their exercise regimen. They outline their four favorite exercises: running, power yoga, outdoor walks/hikes, and a gym circuit focused on bodyweight exercises. These activities are chosen for their effectiveness in providing a lean and fit physique while minimizing the risk of injury. The author values the mental and physical benefits of these exercises, particularly the way they contribute to injury prevention, creativity, and overall well-being. They also stress the importance of mixing up workout routines to keep the body and mind engaged and to allow for recovery.

Opinions

The author believes that aging does not mean one has to give up on being lean and fit, but rather that adjustments to fitness routines are necessary.
They express a strong preference for running, particularly outdoors, for its quick impact on heart rate and endorphin release.
Power yoga is considered essential for injury prevention and maintaining the ability to work out.
Outdoor walks and hikes are highly regarded for their mental health benefits and as a catalyst for creativity.
The author advocates for bodyweight exercises over heavy weightlifting to avoid injuries common in their 40s.
They suggest that mixing up workout activities is crucial for long-term fitness and motivation.
The author values the opportunity to exercise both the body and mind, as evidenced by their habit of listening to self-improvement audiobooks during walks.
They encourage readers to share their own favorite exercises, indicating a community-oriented approach to fitness and wellness.

Try my 4 favorite exercises to stay fit and lean at 42

I’m not going to lie to you, getting older sucks.

I know I’m not that old yet, but I sure as heck don’t feel as spry as I did in the preceding two decades.

Back then, I could do basically do whatever I wanted fitness-wise with not a single consequence.

Since entering my 40s, however, there’s been a bit of a “letting go” process.

Goodbye, high-impact sports like hockey — my last game ended with a sports hernia and I’ve never been back.

Adios, lifting heavy weights, which started to hurt my joints more than they helped my muscles.

Having said that, getting into your mid-40s doesn’t have to mean the end of a lean and fit mind and body (though many use the more onerous effort it takes to maintain both as an excuse to let them wilt).

In my experience, it just took a few little adjustments to stay happy, healthy, and injury-free.

Over the past few years, I replaced damaging pursuits like the ones I mentioned above with lower-impact activities that I still really enjoy.

In fact, there are 4 in particular that I cycle through during any given week.

Let me walk you through them.

Can you guess what №1 is? (Licensed by the author under the Unsplash+ License)

Exercise 1

My Number 1 favorite exercise to stay lean and fit at 42 is running — preferably outdoors.

I always feel better after any type of workout, but nothing gets my heart rate going as quickly — or my endorphins pumping as effectively — as going for a run.

I appreciate it more too, because I know what it’s like not to be able to do it.

I get into the backstory of my loss of, and return to, running in this recent piece, but the tl;dr version is that, after herniating a couple of discs in my back, I had to make huge adjustments to my fitness strategy at around Age 40.

Not being able to run was crushing to me, and I always make sure to manage my body now so that I can keep my favorite exercise in the mix.

Not even Canadian winters can prevent me from running outside now. (Author’s photo)

Exercise 2

My second favorite exercise to stay lean and fit at 42 is power yoga, and it earns the 2 Spot out of necessity.

One thing you learn fairly quickly in your early 40s is that, if you don’t manage your body appropriately, you won’t be able to work out at all.

That’s because you’ll always be dealing with either:

Injuries that prevent you from hitting the gym
Nagging aches and pains that sap your motivation to get to the gym

After a series of setbacks including the aforementioned slipped discs, sports hernia, and a seemingly endless string of annoying setbacks, I started taking injury prevention much more seriously.

Doing power yoga allows me to stretch and stay loose while also providing a decent full-body workout.

Exercise 3

My third favorite exercise to stay lean and fit in my 40s is long walks/hikes outdoors.

Recently, I was looking at the sleep patterns registered by my fitness watch (here’s an affiliate link to the one I use if you’re interested) and noticed that my weekly average sleep quality was much, much higher in the summer.

Now there were probably a few different factors that went into that, including my inclination at the time to work out late at night, but I think a major contributor was the fact that I added a one-hour, outdoor walk every day on top of my regular workout schedule.

The mental and physical health benefits of this activity would be enough to rank it this high on their own, but long walks outdoors also provide an amazing multitasking opportunity.

As a creative professional who also runs a content side business, I need to come up with a lot of ideas.

And I can’t tell you how many of them have just pop into my head while I’m walking down a trail on a nice, sunny day.

Getting out of your workspace and getting out of your house is a great way to allow your mind to quiet down and relax, which is typically when your good ideas start to flood in.

When I’m not enjoying nature sounds and letting the creative juices flow, I’m usually listening to a self-improvement audiobook.

That way, I’m exercising my body and mind at the same time.

Exercise 4

As I mentioned up top, I became quite injury-prone once I hit my 40s.

That meant heavy weights were out and bodyweight exercises were in.

My gym circuit was the topic of my most popular piece ever here, so check that out if you’re interested, but when I go to the gym, I also typically focus on just 4 exercises:

Stairs (30–40 minutes)
Push-ups (5 x 15)
Pull-ups (3 x 5)
Chin-ups (3 x 6)

I feel these give me a good mix of resistance training and muscle development in place of weight-based activities that started causing me a seemingly endless string of pulls, strains, and joint problems.

After doing that workout, I typically hop in the sauna for 15–20 minutes.

Mix it up

I think mixing up your workout activities is an important part of maintaining fitness in your 40s.

Not only does doing different things all the time keep your mind interested, engaged, and motivated to work out, it allows the different parts of your body to rest and recuperate while you work on others.

For me, this results in a consistent, daily fitness routine that keeps me lean, fit, and injury-free.

What are your absolute favorite exercises? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

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