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What Happens to Your Body After 40 That Makes Fitness More Challenging
Once you hit 40, your body naturally encounters physiological changes that make staying fit more challenging. A significant change is the reduction of muscle mass, which results in diminished strength and endurance. Additionally, with less muscle mass, your metabolism slows down, leading to fewer calories being burned while at rest. Other challenges you may face include decreased bone density, less flexibility and joint strength, and hormonal changes.
Why Burpees Are Such a Good Overall Fitness Test for You
Burpees are highly effective for assessing overall fitness because they evaluate and challenge numerous crucial fitness elements in a single, equipment-free movement. For those over 40, these components are particularly important for maintaining practical strength and mobility in everyday activities. A burpee will engage your cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength and endurance, coordination, mobility, and anaerobic capacity. Assessing these elements after 40 gives a comprehensive view of functional movement while helping you measure yourself against peers.
The Proper Form for Your Standard Burpee
The proper form for a standard burpee is:
- Begin by standing straight up with your feet shoulder-width apart and your arms at your side.
- Bend your knees and push your hips back as you lower into a squat.
- Keep your chest up and feet flat on the floor.
- Squat down until your hands are flat on the floor in front of your feet about shoulder-width apart.
- Jump or step back into a high-plank position as you keep your body in a straight line.
- Bend your elbows and lower your chest to the ground to perform a push-up.
- Press back up followed by jumping or stepping forward to bring your feet back to your hands.
- From the squat position, explode straight up into the air while reaching your hands straight over your head.
- Land softly and bend your knees to absorb the impact. Repeat these steps for a selected number of reps.
What Your Burpee Test Score Says About Your Fitness
Most adults over 40 can perform about 10 to 14 burpees in one minute. Here’s how your results stack up:
- Beginner: 8–10 reps
- Intermediate: 11–14 reps
- Advanced: 15–20 reps
If you’re only able to perform 5–10 consecutive burpees, it reflects an average yet sturdy fitness level, offering a good foundation for further improvement with regular training. Successfully completing 20–30 burpees in succession, however, demonstrates outstanding cardiovascular fitness, strength, and endurance, placing you in an elite category.
The Best Way to Build Up Your Burpee Endurance if You Test Poorly
The best way to build burpee endurance is to begin with low-impact modifications, build foundational strength, and increase endurance gradually. Focus on form first and foremost by breaking down the steps into slower, individualized movements. From there you can build up endurance through a lower time or rep count.
Some low-impact versions to try would be elevated burpees, step-back burpees, and push-up free burpees. These will help with reduced intensity as you work up towards higher-intensity workouts. Build foundational strength and ability by training individual components of burpees like mastering planks, bodyweight squats and jump squats, and push-ups before putting it all together. Lastly, you can implement endurance-building strategies such as interval training, focusing on pacing, and practicing consistency.
Looking for more easy ways to lose fat? Here’s How Long Your Walking Workout Should Be To Shrink Belly Fat.
