The Only 5 Exercises Men Over 40 Need to Build Muscle at Home
Five home exercises covering the five patterns the video argues are sufficient: a push, a pull, a single-leg squat, a hip extension, and an anti-rotation core movement. The emphasis throughout is on tempo and control rather than repetition count — the recurring instruction is a slow lowering phase to increase time under tension.
Full written guide: step-by-step form, the muscles worked, common mistakes and easier and harder versions in our inverted row guide. Browse more moves in the exercise library.
What are the five exercises?
| Pattern | Exercise | Sets and reps | Scaling |
|---|---|---|---|
| Push | Push-up | 3 sets of 8 to 15 | Incline on a bench or table to scale down; feet elevated, bottom pause or slower tempo to scale up |
| Pull | Inverted row under a table, rings or a suspension trainer | 3 sets of 8 to 12 | Knees bent and feet closer in to scale down; legs straight or feet elevated to scale up |
| Single-leg squat | Bulgarian split squat, rear foot on a couch or chair | 3 sets of 8 to 12 per leg | Regular split squat with both feet down first; add a loaded backpack later |
| Hip extension | Single-leg hip thrust, upper back on a couch | 3 sets of 10 to 15 per leg | Both feet down to start; slower descent, longer pause or added weight to progress |
| Core | Plank to shoulder tap | 3 sets of 20 to 30 total taps | From the knees or with wider feet to scale down; feet closer together to scale up |
How is the session structured?
Three to four sessions a week, 60 to 90 seconds of rest between sets. The video is clear that the programme only keeps working if something increases over time — reps, tempo, pause length, range of motion, or load added with a backpack or dumbbells. Its stated rationale for including the row is postural: pressing without pulling, on top of a day spent sitting and looking down, leaves the upper back weak and the shoulders rolled forward.
Read the research behind it
Our written companion is the bodyweight workout guide for men over 40. The progression principle the video keeps returning to is covered in progressive overload: how muscles actually grow, and how hard to push each set in training to failure. For the split-squat knee question, are Bulgarian split squats bad for your knees?, and for the posture argument, how to fix bad posture.
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