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Improving your conditioning after 40 often requires more intention than it did in your 20s and 30s. A Sunday jog around the park doesn't always cut it anymore, so it's worth being more purposeful with your training to keep your fitness moving in the right direction.
Coach Tom Ragusa has a simple solution. He says you don't need complicated programming or hours of cardio – just a straightforward rowing workout built around repeated sprints and quality recovery.
'Simple. Not easy,' he writes in an Instagram caption. 'That's the best workouts – and it's one of my favourite conditioning pieces I still do myself and countless others.'
'A 1:2 work-to-rest ratio gives you just enough recovery to keep sprint quality high round after round, instead of grinding yourself into junk volume,' Ragusa explains. The key, he says, is including hard efforts that you can repeat consistently, rather than generating so much fatigue that performance quickly falls away.
The short recovery periods give your body just enough time to reset before going again, allowing you to maintain a higher output across the session than you would with minimal rest or one sustained effort.
'Let it be a conditioning piece for your week – not a daily habit, not something you chase for hours,' says Ragusa. He adds that the workout can be completed on any erg, whether that's the rower, BikeErg or SkiErg.
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For men over 40 looking to improve their engine without committing to long cardio sessions, it offers an efficient way to fit high-quality conditioning into a busy training week.
'You don't need more volume. You need more intent,' says the coach.
The Workout
Warm up thoroughly for 5-10 minutes before starting.
For 20 minutes:
- Sprint as hard as you can for 20 seconds.
- Recover for 40 seconds.
- Repeat until the 20 minutes are up.
- Record your total calories at the end of the session.
If you're new to interval training or short on time, scale the workout to 10-15 minutes using the same 20:40 work-to-rest ratio.
Aim for 8-12 calories per sprint on the rower and try to maintain that output for the duration of the workout.
If there’s one thing Kori Sampson knows, it’s how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio.
Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.
Kate is a fitness writer for Men’s Health UK where she contributes regular workouts, training tips and nutrition guides. She has a post graduate diploma in Sports Performance Nutrition and before joining Men’s Health she was a nutritionist, fitness writer and personal trainer with over 5k hours coaching on the gym floor. Kate has a keen interest in volunteering for animal shelters and when she isn’t lifting weights in her garden, she can be found walking her rescue dog.
