5 Testosterone-Boosting Workouts for Men Over 40

This article was produced in partnership with Nugenix

In your 20s, prioritizing health and fitness isn’t a difficult balance to strike. But when it comes to the hierarchy of priorities in your 40s, 50s, and 60s, your physique often falls under your career and family in order of importance. It gets harder to maintain your fitness—even more so if you’re trying to get back in shape after a hiatus.

It doesn’t help that building muscle gets harder as we get older and testosterone levels begin to wane. Levels start to drop when most men hit their late 30s or early 40s. From here, testosterone levels drop about 2 percent a year. But that doesn’t mean you have to relinquish your physique—at least not without a fight. Sure, you’re not 25 anymore (or even 35), but you can still have bulging biceps, strong legs, and a huge chest.

“I’m a big advocate of doing as much of a workout via compound exercises as possible,” says Mark Mcilyar, a 57-year-old bodybuilder. “These movements are proven to maximize a man’s natural production of testosterone, which is critical for men over 40, because we have much lower testosterone levels than we did 10 or 20 years ago.”

How to Train to Boost Testosterone

To naturally stimulate the production of testosterone, you want to focus on exercises that recruit a significant amount of muscle mass. That means multi-joint exercises that hit the body’s largest muscle groups (think glutes, legs, chest, and back).

Note: If you’re not as experienced with equipment or lifting, you can still up testosterone levels with compound bodyweight exercises and entry-level free-weight moves, such as:

• squat
• deadlift
• bench press
• row
• pullup or chinup
• overhead press
• pushup

Mix and match these moves to create a multitude of at-home workouts. Perform three times per week on nonconsecutive days. Do 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps with minimal rest in between sets.