June 14, 2025, 3:22 pm | Read time: 5 minutes
Health signifies dynamism, presents challenges, inspires a zest for life, requires self-care, is not a given, can be a true fountain of youth, and above all, needs to be nurtured daily. When it comes to healthy aging, sarcopenia—age-related muscle loss—is a crucial topic. Fitness and health experts Dr. Daniel Schwarzenberger and Daniel Schoon explain how they specifically address sarcopenia, focusing particularly on the 40+ age group.
“Sporty over Forty” is the motto. Our health is much more than a static condition. It becomes increasingly important as we age. In middle age, the first effects of natural aging processes become apparent: keyword sarcopenia. Muscle loss becomes a growing concern from age 40, and it should be countered for the sake of health. Here, we reveal how this can be achieved–including a training plan.
Overview
How to Build Muscle Over 40 or Prevent Its Loss?
Building muscle is generally less about age and more about personal attitude, discipline, and the right training system. While incorrect or no strength training in younger years “only” means not gaining muscle, in later life, the effect of biologically induced muscle loss (sarcopenia) is added. This means you not only stagnate in terms of muscles but also lose muscle mass. Therefore, our appeal is to consciously counteract muscle loss by age 40 at the latest! “Sporty over Forty,” indeed.
Beginners and those returning to training have an advantage here. For training beginners, provided all the right adjustments are made, potential growth is about 200 grams per week. Thus, a motivated person over 40 can optimally train up to ten kilos of mass in their first year. Not too shabby, right? The good news: Building muscle simultaneously combats muscle loss.
Also interesting: What to Consider When Building Muscle After 40
The Right Stimuli Are the Secret to Successful Strength Training
Targeted strength training is the most effective protection against muscle loss or the decisive success factor for building it (from 40, but essentially at any age). Naturally, we have personal growth limits due to age, gender, and genetic individuality.
Two to three training sessions per week are generally considered optimal for maintaining, improving, or rebuilding lost muscle. The key is the load: The muscle must be regularly and systematically challenged. Whether on machines, with body weight, or free weights, the principle remains the same: A stimulus above the threshold triggers adaptation.
Daniel Schoon’s Master Plan Against Muscle Loss
My “Master Plan Against Muscle Loss” combines the Hatfield System and SAID Principle–scientifically based, practical, and proven in practice. (Both methods were explained by the expert in an article for the German Academy for Sports and Health; Ed.). My plan replaces chance with a system and is particularly aimed at people over 40 who want to specifically combat strength loss and muscle atrophy.
Instead of Chance, Use a System
Muscle loss is not an inevitable sign of aging but a reaction to underuse. Those who do not train specifically lose muscle. My approach: a structured full-body workout that uses two proven principles. These bring structure to intuitive fitness activities, target all muscle fiber types (Hatfield System), and promote targeted adaptation (SAID Principle).
Through stimulus variation and pauses, an effective system is created. The body develops along the stimuli–what is not used, diminishes. The Master Plan is immediately implementable, practical, and evidence-based–because those who do not train are “trained” by atrophy.
See the Body as a Whole
To halt muscle loss, functional full-body training is needed instead of isolated exercises. Daily life demands coordination, stability, and mobility. Multi-joint basic exercises like squats, deadlifts, or pull-ups activate multiple muscle groups and improve protective mechanisms.
The training strengthens strength, endurance, coordination, and protective ability–practical and sustainable. It’s about movement quality and independence, not just muscle mass. Integration beats isolation. That’s the basis of my plan: out of the downward spiral, into functional strength.
Sample Session (after warm-up, e.g., after rowing)
- Squats: 3 sets with first 6, then 12, and finally 25 repetitions
- Deadlifts or Leg Curls: 2 sets with first 12 and then 25 repetitions
- Pull-up Machine: 3 sets with first 6 and then 12 repetitions
- Rowing: 2 sets with first 12, then 25 repetitions
- Chest Press: 2 sets, first 6, then 12 repetitions
- Dip Machine: 2 sets with first 12 and then 25 repetitions
- Ab Machine: 2 sets with first 12 and then 25 repetitions
- Set Breaks: 60 to 90 seconds–longer after 6-rep set, shorter after 25-rep set.
What I want to emphasize: “You don’t have to become dogmatic–the muscle responds to stimuli, not to rigid principles.”
Dr. Daniel Schwarzenberger’s Master Plan for Optimal Muscle Building After 40
I am convinced that the targeted combination of free basic exercises, machine, and cable training is how I, as “Sporty over Forty,” can both increase my strength level and enable visible muscle growth.
And This Is What My “Master Plan” Looks Like
- 4 training days–a 2-day split
- At least 6, ideally 8 exercises per training
- At least 3, ideally 4 training sets per exercise
- 8 to 12 repetitions per set
- Beneficial set breaks–90 to 120 seconds
- At least 10, ideally 20 min. warm-up
Day 1: Legs–Chest–combined with “Abs”
- Leg Press on the Machine
- Leg Extension on the Machine
- Seated Adductors on the Machine
- Incline Bench Press 30° with Dumbbells
- “Fly” or Flys Standing on the Cable or Pulley
- Dips on the Machine or Free (with Additional Weight)
- Optional: Standing Calf Raises
- Optional: Hanging Leg Raises on the Pull-up Bar
Day 2: Back–Shoulders–combined with “Arms”
- Pullovers Lying with Dumbbell
- Bent-over Row with Barbell in Underhand Grip
- Lat Pulldown in Wide Grip on the Machine
- Shoulder Press with Dumbbells
- Lateral Raises with Dumbbells
- Reverse Flys Bent-over with Dumbbells
- Optional: Seated Bicep Curls with Dumbbells
- Optional: Overhead Tricep Press with Dumbbell
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Our Conclusion
Studies and experience show: Without targeted training, we lose about one percent of muscle mass annually from around age 25. By age 50, it can be up to three percent. If you feel good and have no serious internal and/or orthopedic issues, your personal training journey can begin today. It’s easier than you think.1,2,3,4,5,6