Pilates is great if you want to improve your mobility, posture and core strength

But as you age, Rebecca Daodun, Pilates instructor and founder of Pilates Prescription, says another type of workout is also needed.

Daodun recently qualified as a strength trainer, alongside her Pilates practice, because she realized that weight training is important if you want to age well.

“Perimenopause can start as young as 35 and we may not even have symptoms but our estrogen levels and hormones are fluctuating, while we're also losing muscle mass and bone density,” says Daodun.

“Strength training—lifting something heavy—is one of the only ways to counter that.”

Daodun has found that combining strength training with Pilates is the ideal approach.

Pilates helps you build and maintain strength through your core and the smaller stabilizing muscles, while lifting weights targets larger muscle groups like your glutes (buttocks), legs and shoulders.

“Pilates is going to stop you getting injured, but strength training is going to build your bones and muscles,” she says.

Below, Daodun has shared four dumbbell exercises for beginners. They can complement your Pilates training by helping you build full-body strength.

Four beginner dumbbell exercises to complement Pilates

1. Weighted Pilates bridge

Reps: 8-12

• Lie on your back with knees bent and your feet flat on the floor hip-width apart.
• Place a dumbbell across your hips and hold it in place.
• Press through your feet to raise your hips, engaging your core and squeezing your glutes.
• Pause briefly, while keeping the dumbbell stable and avoiding over arching your lower back.
• Slowly lower your hips.

2. Dumbbell squat

Reps: 8-12

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding dumbbells by your sides.
• Push your hips back, bend your knees and pause when your thighs are parallel to the floor or lower.
• Keep your chest upright and core engaged.
• Drive through your feet to stand back up, squeezing your glutes at the top.

3. Dumbbell forward lunge

Reps: 8-12

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding dumbbells by your sides.
• Step one foot forward, lower your back knee toward the floor, keeping your front knee at a 90° angle over your ankle.
• Push through your front foot to return to standing and repeat on the other side.

4. Dumbbell floor press

Reps: 8-12

• Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
• Hold dumbbells with your elbows bent at 90° and your upper arms on the floor roughly 45° from your torso, palms facing forward.
• Press the dumbbells over your chest.
• Lower and repeat.

Michael Johnson became a household name in the ’90s for his distinctive upright running style, iconic track spikes and habit for winning gold medals.

From the 1991 Tokyo World Championships to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the U.S. sprinter collected 12 gold medals in 200m, 400m and 4x400m relay races. No silver. No bronze.

At Atlanta 1996, donning custom-made gold running shoes, he broke the Olympic record in the 400m and world record in the 200m for a historic golden double.

Quite simply, he's one of the greatest, most decorated, most dominant sprinters in the history of track and field.

But that was then.

Now, as he approaches his late 50s, Johnson has had to modify the way he works out to train for longevity and long-term wellbeing, both mentally and physically.

How Michael Johnson keeps fit in his 50s

"When you're an athlete your training is all about how to be better, be faster, be ready to compete against your rivals and hopefully bring home a championship," Johnson tells Fit&Well.

"That's the objective. It changes when you retire. Then it's about fitness, wellness, mindset."

That shift began the moment he hung up those iconic gold spikes in 2001.

"The training changed immediately because I knew I was never going to run around a track doing 200m intervals at 80% effort with 20 seconds rest ever again," he says.

"Because that's not fitness training. That's specific skills training for a sport.

"Now, as I'm older, it's a lot more [about going] slower, [for] longer," the 58-year-old explains, speaking at the official UK and European launch of wearable resistance brand OMORPHO.

"I hike a lot. I like rowing. It's not so much about dynamic movements, but I wear a weighted vest when I hike, when I do my movement stuff in the gym."

He also uses a weighted vest when he’s doing a full bodyweight session, to help make it more effective and efficient.

"When I'm in the gym and I'm doing bodyweight sessions, like push-ups, burpees, lunges, squats and jump squats I use the vest too.

"If I'm doing weight training, I can put more on the bar. But if I'm doing bodyweight training, then how am I going to do that?

"The only way to do that is to add more weight to my body, with something like a vest, or I have to extend the session and that's not as efficient."

The training shift that catapulted Johnson to success

Now in his late 50s, Johnson appreciates the value of regular resistance training to preserve muscle mass and maintain bone health, but it's not always come naturally to him.

Early in his career, he says, he wouldn't always put the same effort into strength training as he would to track training.

"I would never skip a day, but I certainly wasn't putting in the same level of effort as I was on the track. It just wasn't as enjoyable, but I realized it was affecting my ability to stay healthy, to be my best."

Fortunately, he adds, it was a lesson he learned early—but, for the rest of us, it's never too late to learn from the greatest.

"What was most important and most impactful for me was understanding that the details matter. The fundamentals matter. You are not going to be able to succeed by skipping the fundamentals, no matter how difficult they are."

Everybody has their one difficulty, their one thing, he says. In his case it was weight training. For some it's stretching and mobility, or diet regulation, or hitting a daily step count.

Whatever your blind spot, Johnson says it's important to work on your weaknesses, rather than just gravitate to your strengths, to improve your overall wellbeing long-term.

"The earlier you learn those lessons the better but it's never too late."

Falls are a pressing concern for my senior personal training clients. According to the CDC, falls are the leading cause of injury for adults 65 and older, but fortunately, falls are also preventable.

Appropriate strength training is one of the best ways to prepare for healthy aging and prevent serious falls. When I work with a client in their 30s, 40s or even 50s, I make sure that the kneel-to-stand exercise is a part of their regular routine.

This movement trains multiple lower body muscle groups like the quads, hamstrings, glutes and core, promoting better coordination and enhancing full-body stability.

“The kneel-to-stand exercise is very functional and something we should all be practicing,” says Dr Theresa Marko, DPT, owner of Marko Physical Therapy and adjunct faculty at Touro University School of Health Sciences. “As someone ages and their balance decreases, there is the chance of falling. When someone falls, they need to be able to get up from the floor back to a standing position. This move is vital to make that happen.”

How to do the kneel-to-stand exercise

Before starting any new exercise or workout, notify your doctor. They may suggest alternatives or caution against certain activities based on your personal health history. “People with issues such as fractures, torn ligaments, or meniscus tears should avoid this maneuver and work with their physical therapist on modifications,” says Marko. A certified personal trainer can provide guidance on how to do the kneel-to-stand exercise correctly. If you’re a beginner, consider working with a trainer to ensure proper form.

You won’t need any equipment for the kneel-to-stand, but you may want to use a yoga mat, a rolled-up towel, a pillow, or an Airex pad to cushion your knees.

Start by doing one set of 5 reps on each side, 1-2 times per week. If you have trouble doing 5 reps with good form, drop to 2-3 reps on each side.

Once 5 reps feels comfortable, gradually increase your reps to 6-8 on each side. You can also add an additional set or two as your strength improves.

Work your way up to doing 2-3 sets of 6-10 reps, 2-3 times per week. This exercise can be done on its own or as a part of your lower body workout regimen. You can also use it as a warm-up for other activities.

How to do it:

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart.
• Engage your core muscles.
• Step your left foot behind you.
• Bend both knees to lower your left knee onto the floor, directly underneath your hip.
• Bring your right foot behind you and place your right knee onto the floor, underneath your hip.
• Step your left foot in front of you.
• Push through your left foot to stand up, bringing your right foot to the floor in line with your left foot.
• Step your right foot in front of you, bringing you back to the starting position.

Tips: Maintain neutral spinal alignment and avoid any arching or rounding through your back.

“Keeping your hips and knees at about 90° helps people not to feel knee pain as they rise to the standing position,” Marko adds.

How to modify the kneel-to-stand exercise: The kneel-to-stand exercise can be challenging at first. If you’re having trouble maintaining proper form or keeping your balance, you can modify the exercise in a few ways.

First, you can use a wall, chair, or table for assistance. Do the exercise next to a solid structure and hold on for added stability and support. When that starts to feel easy, try doing 1-2 reps without support.

You can also do only the first part of the exercise (called a split squat). This will help build the appropriate strength in the right muscle groups so that you can eventually perform the movement in its entirety. Step one foot behind your, bend both knees to lower the back knee towards the floor, then push through your front foot to stand back up. Use the same solid structure for support if needed.

How to make the kneel-to-stand exercise more challenging: If you can do 6-10 reps of the exercise without much effort, it may be time to increase the difficulty.

The easiest way to up the ante is by adding more reps. Instead of 6-10, try 12-15 on each side.

You can also hold a 5-10lb dumbbell or kettlebell as you perform the movement. Hold one weight at chest level, or hold two weights at by your shoulders. Since this increases the load your muscles will have to work against, drop your reps to 3-5 for the first few attempts. Increase your reps back to 6-10 once you feel comfortable.

Sadly, there is no magic potion that can extend human lifespan. But when the U.K. Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) released new activity guidelines this month, they wrote that “if physical activity were a drug, we would refer to it as a miracle cure, due to the great many illnesses it can prevent and treat.”

Denise Chakoian, a certified fitness trainer and owner of Core Cycle and Fitness Lagree, agrees about the power of exercise. “Regular exercise supports heart health, brain function, blood sugar control, and a healthy metabolism, all of which are linked to a longer lifespan,” she says.

“It can also reduce the risk of chronic conditions like heart disease, type 2 diabetes and osteoporosis. Staying active consistently is one of the most effective ways to maintain both quality of life and longevity.”

The CDC agrees with the U.K.’s CMOs recommendations of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise each week, plus at least two strength-training sessions.

If you’re a little lost about what to do in your strength training sessions, Chakoian has shared a simple workout featuring her top three exercises to promote longevity.

“These exercises strengthen the major muscle groups that help you stay mobile, independent, and less prone to injury as you age,” she says.

“They also improve balance, posture and bone strength, which lowers the risk of falls and fractures later in life.”

Chakoian’s top three strengthening exercises for longevity

1. Squat

Sets: 3 Reps: 8-12 Rest: 60-90sec

How to do it:

• Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart.
• Engage your core.
• Push your hips back and bend your knees, lowering until your thighs are about parallel to the floor, keeping your chest facing forward.
• Press through your heels to stand.

“Squats train one of the most important movement patterns we use every day, from sitting down to climbing stairs,” says Chakoian.

“They strengthen the glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings and core while improving balance and mobility. I like them because they give the biggest return for the time you put in.”

2. Push-up

Sets: 3 Reps: 8-15 Rest: 60sec

How to do it:

• Start in a high plank with your hands under your shoulders, arms extended and your body in a straight line from head to heels.
• Bend your elbows to lower your chest, keeping your body in a straight line.
• Press through your hands to extend your arms and return to the high plank position.

Make it easier: Perform on your knees or with your hands on a raised platform or a wall.

“Push-ups build practical upper-body strength without equipment. They target the chest, shoulders, triceps and core. I like them because they also improve stability and body control.”

3. Romanian deadlift

Sets: 3 Reps: 8-10 Rest: 90sec

How to do it:

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding the weight in front of your thighs, palms facing you.
• Engage your core and move your shoulders back and down.
• Keeping your back flat throughout, hinge at your hips and push your butt back to lower the weight down your legs until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings.
• Drive your hips forward to return to standing.

Tip: Choose a weight that makes the exercise feel challenging, but allows you to complete all the reps with good form.

“Deadlifts strengthen the muscles that support posture and protect the lower back,” says Chakoian.

“They primarily work the glutes, hamstrings, lower back and core. I like them because they improve strength for lifting everyday objects safely.”

Exercise is a great way to improve the way your body moves and feels day-to-day, and is one of the most reliable ways to extend your healthspan—the number of years you're in good health.

Both Pilates and weight training are commonly recommended as types of exercise that can improve your healthspan, but is one better than the other?

I asked two experts to discuss which exercise style is better for people in their 60s and 70s.

Meet the experts:
Alex Lyons is a Pilates instructor at JETSET Pilates with mat, anatomy, and reformer certifications, as well as being a NASM-certified personal trainer.

Lee Bell is a senior lecturer in sport and exercise science at Sheffield Hallam University, and a strength and conditioning coach.

What is weight training and what are the benefits?

Weight training improves muscular strength and muscle mass by using challenging levels of external resistance, although, depending on your ability, you can also use resistance bands or your own bodyweight to gain the same effect.

"Having more muscle mass is really important. It's perhaps the key thing for older adults," Bell says.

This is because as you age, you naturally lose muscle mass, which can impact your independence and quality of life.

"Strength training also puts you in positions that reflect everyday life," Bell adds, explaining that it teaches functional movement, which can reduce the risk of injury.

What is Pilates and what are the benefits?

Pilates is a low-impact workout that can help strengthen the core and improve mobility, alignment and balance.

It's generally a mat-based workout, sometimes incorporating light dumbbells, Pilates balls or rings. It can also be done on a reformer machine, which is a frame with a sliding carriage and adjustable straps that provide resistance.

"Pilates develops deep core strength, improves posture, enhances joint mobility, and reinforces movement patterns that support everyday activities, like carrying groceries to climbing stairs, or playing with grandchildren," Lyons explains.

"Just as importantly, it builds body awareness and balance, both of which play a significant role in reducing fall risk."

Is Pilates or weight training better for healthy aging?

One of the biggest differences between weight training and Pilates is that weight training will more effectively build muscle, even though Pilates is classified as a type of strength training.

You might build muscle with Pilates, but that's not necessarily the primary goal, and as you're generally not lifting heavy weights or increasing the weight you lift over time, you won't be progressively overloading your workouts, which is one of the principles behind effectively building muscle.

"It might get to a point with Pilates, where there's not enough of a challenge because all you've got as an external challenge is gravity," Bell says.

Lyons agrees: "If the goal is optimizing long-term health, particularly maintaining bone density and muscle mass, some form of weight-bearing or progressive resistance is strongly recommended."

How do I choose which type of exercise is right for me?

Even though weight training is optimal, there are still plenty of benefits to doing Pilates, particularly if you don't currently have an exercise routine.

"Doing Pilates consistently is better than remaining inactive and many adults achieve meaningful improvements in strength, posture, flexibility and balance through Pilates alone," Lyons says.

And despite specialising in strength training, Bell wouldn't necessarily recommend it to everyone straight off the bat.

"It should be 100% down to what you enjoy more," he says. "People who are new to exercise, regardless of age, need to try as many things as possible, and take out the things that you don't like.

"Unless you're an elite level athlete, enjoyment has to be top of the list," he adds.

Should you combine Pilates and weight training?

If you're training more than twice a week, consider making space in your routine for both disciplines.

"Pilates and strength training complement each other exceptionally well because they develop different qualities," Lyons says.

"Pilates creates a strong foundation by improving alignment, stability, mobility and movement quality.

"Traditional resistance training is highly effective for building muscle mass and bone density, which naturally decline with age," she adds.

There’s nothing quite as satisfying as hitting a forehand winner down the line in tennis—especially when you’ve hit the previous dozen into the net.

But that satisfaction is all the sweeter knowing that the simple act of playing tennis can add years to your life.

That’s the belief of former pro tennis player Mark Petchey, who has also coached Andy Murray and Emma Raducanu.

According to a landmark Danish study from 2018, tracking 8,577 participants across 25 years, people who play tennis regularly live an average 9.7 years longer than their sedentary counterparts.

That’s more than badminton (6.2 years), soccer (4.7), cycling (3.7), swimming (3.4), jogging (3.2), calisthenics (3.1), and even gym activities (1.5).

To understand why tennis can add years to your life—and life to your years—I recently joined the former British number one for an active vacation at the five-star Neilson x Mangia's Torre del Barone Resort in Sicily, Italy.

Why can playing tennis help you live longer?

My first, and most obvious, takeaway was that tennis—and all racket sports for that matter—are a full-body workout.

From advancing quickly from baseline to net and invariably back again when the ball floats past, you need to be quick and agile on your feet.

It also demands balance, coordination and strength to strike the ball cleanly and powerfully on both your stronger and weaker side.

"Tennis is the healthiest sport on the planet," argues Petchey, now 55.

For starters, he tells Fit&Well, it demands long-term commitment and discipline.

"Playing tennis is one lifelong learning curve. I don't think you ever stop learning. It's a real investment."

It's also very sociable, he adds, "which is a big hook for pickleball and padel too."

Incidentally, pickleball and padel were likely not on the Danish research team's radar between 1991 and 2017 when the study was conducted, but the authors did note that sports involving a high degree of social interaction scored highest.

"Leisure-time sports that inherently involve more social interaction were associated with the best longevity," they concluded.

Petchey has another theory on why tennis, more so than other common sports, proved to be so effective at increasing life expectancy.

Shorter, sharper sprints, he explains, rather than long, slow cardio, helps keep us young and our bodies active.

"More importantly, tennis also keeps your brain active because you're constantly problem solving on the court, constantly communicating to your partner or opponent."

And hopefully sharing a friendly coffee and a chat with them after, too.

"The dedication required to master it will help in everything you set your mind to," he adds. "For me, it's the ultimate chess match."

Why you should pick up a racket

The mind-and-body benefits of racket sports aren't restricted to just tennis.

Petchey firmly believes playing any racket sport, be it padel, pickleball, squash or tennis, will add more strings to your bow.

Firstly, he says, there's every chance you'll discover the simple joy of falling in love with a new sport.

Secondly, you'll improve your hand-eye coordination, an invaluable skill that's transferable to any activity requiring dexterity.

Third, and especially if you've never tried that sport before, it could improve your overall brain health thanks to something called neuroplasticity.

This is the brain's capacity to develop and maintain brain and cognitive function, especially in later life, which research suggests can be prompted by learning a new skill.

Last, but by no means least, Petchey says regularly playing racket sports is one of the best ways to tick off the recommended 150 weekly minutes of moderate-intensity (or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity) aerobic activity we should all be striving for.

Petchey finishes by saying: "I promise you'll have one of the best workouts of all time."

We can’t stop time, but we can take action to keep feeling physically young.

For Tatiana Schloessman, a certified Pilates instructor and the founder of Élan Pilates Studios, Westlake Village, that starts with keeping her legs strong.

“Lower body strength is one of the greatest predictors of healthy aging and independence,” she tells Fit&Well. “Your youth is in your legs.

“Strong legs and hips allow us to climb stairs, get up from a chair, carry light and heavy items, maintain balance, and reduce the risk of falls.

“The stronger your lower body, the more freedom and confidence you'll have for years to come.”

Schloessman says that age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia) speeds up when we don’t actively train.

“Building strength isn’t just about looking fit; it’s about being stronger and preserving the ability to live life on your own terms,” she says.

Schloessman thinks that Pilates offers a unique way to develop lower-body strength, with a little extra benefit that most traditional workouts miss.

“Rather than just adding resistance, Pilates emphasizes precision, control, proper alignment, and full range of motion,” she explains.

“During Pilates exercises, the legs work together with the core, glutes, hips and ankles, so you’re doing more than building muscle; you’re strengthening the hip, knee and ankle joints as well.”

I asked Schloessman to share her three favorite Pilates exercises to strengthen the lower body.

You’ll need a mat, a weight and a slider (or a towel) to give it a go.

1. Bridge

Sets: 2-3 Reps: 10-15 Rest: 30sec

How to do it:

• Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor and hip-width apart.
• Engage your core and push through your heels to lift your hips until your shoulders, hips and knees form a straight line.
• Inhale and squeeze your glutes at the top of the movement.
• Exhale and slowly lower back to the starting position.

Primary muscles worked: glutes, hamstrings, core and pelvic floor.

“If I could only choose one exercise for beginners, bridge would be at the top of my list,” says Schloessman.

“It strengthens the glutes, hamstrings and core while improving hip mobility and spinal stability. It's one of the few exercises that even people with knee issues can do comfortably.”

2. Goblet squat

Sets: 2-3 Reps: 10-15 Rest: 30sec

How to do it:

• Stand with feet about shoulder-width apart, holding a dumbbell or kettlebell close to your chest with both hands.
• Brace your core and keep your chest lifted as you sit your hips back and bend your knees, as if you're lowering yourself into a chair. Lower until your thighs are parallel to the floor, or as far as your mobility allows.
• Press through your heels to return to standing.

Primary muscles worked: quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, core and upper back.

“This exercise teaches proper squat mechanics while building strength through the ankles, knees, hips and core all at once,” says Schloessman.

“What I love about it specifically is that holding the weight in front naturally encourages better posture, a more upright torso and great core engagement.

“With this one, you’re reinforcing good movement patterns while you build strength. It’s beginner-friendly but challenging enough to keep progressing for years.”

3. Side lunge with sliders

Sets: 2-3 Reps: 10-12 each side Rest: 30sec

How to do it:

• Stand with your right foot on the floor and your left on a slider or towel.
• Engage your core and keep your chest lifted as you slowly slide your left foot out to the side, bending your right knee and pushing your hips back—stopping when your thigh is parallel with the floor, or as close as your mobility allows.
• Press through your right foot to stand upright, sliding your left foot back in.
• Complete all reps on one side, then switch sides.

Form tip: keep your stationary knee in line with your toes.

Primary muscles worked: glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, abductors and core stabilizers.

“Most people spend their entire lives moving forward and backward. We almost never train side-to-side movement,” says Schloessman. “That’s precisely why I love this exercise.”

“It strengthens the legs along a completely different plane of motion, while improving hip mobility, balance and pelvic stability.

“As we get older, lateral strength becomes increasingly important for preventing falls and moving confidently in everyday life.

“The slider adds a layer of control that makes the standing leg work even harder to stabilize. This exercise is about strength, mobility and coordination, all in one move.”

Shop core sliders

Retirement is often a time when people slow down, but in Christine Hobson’s case, she’s speeding up. When her daughter persuaded her to join a running club so she wouldn’t get bored, she had no idea she’d get the fitness bug and run 125 marathons in total, visiting all seven continents.

And the 72-year-old former teacher has plans to run the North Pole marathon in 2027.

Hobson, who believes that exercise is the best anti-aging hack, tells Fit&Well: “I think what makes you old is not doing anything and just being sedentary, sitting around watching TV all the time. I really believe the less you move, the less you’re able to move, so when I retired at almost 61, I decided that my new job was to get fit.

“Aging isn’t just about age—if you make life easier now, the future will look after itself,” she says.

Hobson, who strength trains too, has since become a fitness influencer, amassing over 132,000 followers on Instagram, where she shares workouts and her thoughts on exercise.

“I get loads of messages from people who are scared to exercise because they don’t want to fall over and get injured,” she says. “But getting stronger builds your confidence and means that you can do the things you want without needing help. It’s not about living forever. And it’s never too late to start. You’ve got to start from where you are.”

Here shares her two best tips for getting started with fitness, whatever your age.

1. Perform the sit-to-stand exercise

Hobson says an essential exercise to incorporate into your day is the sit-to-stand—a move that involves sitting and standing up from a chair without using your hands.

To build your strength, Hobson suggests doing the sit-to-stand 10 times each time you walk past a chair in your house. Once you’ve got the technique, she recommends trying it from a lower chair or couch to make it more challenging.

“The sit-to-stand is critical,” says Hobson. “If you can do that, that’s the thing that’s going to keep you independent in your own home. Because if you live alone and you can’t get up, then how are you going to look after yourself independently? The next thing will be that you can’t get out of your bed, and then you’re in trouble.”

Hobson began with the sit-to-stand exercise, and has progressed to squat with a 35kg barbell and deadlift 75kg.

Many people think motivation will just appear, says Hobson, but she says: “There’s no such thing as motivation really. It’s discipline. It’s building a habit. You’ve got to book your workouts in like a meeting at work, which is what I did when I retired. I prioritized fitness like a job.

“I also have my workout clothes ready to make sure I exercise—even if I’m planning to do it later in the day. I get dressed so I can’t talk myself out of it.”

2. Walk a mile a day

If you’re totally new to exercise, or returning after a long break, Hobson says walking is an excellent place to start.

“We are a species that is supposed to move, and even a short 20-minute walk will support your heart, your ability to control your blood sugar levels, and help you mentally and physically,” she says.

Her trick is to listen to audiobooks while she walks to encourage her to go further.

“This is how I started before I ran my first marathon,” she says. “I walked a mile a day and I really forced myself to do it come rain or shine. After about five or six weeks I found that I wanted to go more.

“And one of the things that helped was listening to audiobooks. If I got home and I had got to an exciting bit in the book I would have to go back out again to hear the next chapter so it would make me walk a bit further.”

Hobson describes herself as a run-walker, saying she has completed all her marathons that way. “I started exercising for something to do when I retired. Now I do it because it makes life easier.”

Being able to maintain and improve balance becomes more important as you age. It can make the difference between suffering a serious fall-related injury or avoiding a fall altogether.

Yoga teacher Agata Quieora recently took to Instagram and Facebook, and said the best anti-aging hack is the four ankle exercises in her video below.

Quieora wrote that these four moves are “some of the most powerful things you can do for your feet, ankles, and calves, the foundation of every step, every yoga pose, and every movement you make.”

They are all variations of the calf raise using a yoga block, although you can do some of the moves using stairs or a step.

The internet sat up and took notice, with the video passing five million views and counting on Facebook alone.

The benefits of calf raises

Physical therapist Ashley Katzenback, owner of Cape Concierge Physical Therapy, says Quierora’s calf raise variations—like the regular ones on the floor without a block—are a great way to improve balance.

“Performing calf raises in a variety of ways is a great way to improve your balance, strength, coordination and mobility,” says Katzenback. “All of these areas tend to decline with age, so it’s important to challenge yourself so your ankles are better able to respond to a trip and/or fall.

“Calf raises, especially when performed with the intent to move quickly, enhance the explosive force of the calf muscles (plantarflexors). This is critical for reactive balance—the ability to recover from something unexpected like a trip or push.”

How often should you do calf raises?

Katzenback says ideally we should all be doing calf raises every day. “But a realistic target is to incorporate them into your strength training workout and do them four times a week,” she says.

And you can expect to notice a benefit in around a month. “Like all physiological changes, it takes four to six weeks to notice a change.”

How calf exercises improve your balance

Katzenback says that strong calf muscles also help your body know where your foot and ankle are—known as ankle proprioception—and that can improve your balance and movement.

“This is especially important because as we age, we tend to sit more and our calf muscles get shorter and weaker,” she says. “Ankle balance relies on input from proprioception in your feet, ankle joints and even calf muscles. Your calf muscle spindles provide sensory feedback. Stronger, better-conditioned calf muscles will provide more reliable proprioception.”

And as we’ve already heard, when we do calf raises, this increases the capacity of the plantarflexors—which can reduce your fall risk. “The more reactive your plantarflexion is, the less likely you are to fall if you are trying to recover from an expected loss of balance,” she says.

Strength training at any age is important, but it’s essential after 70.

“As we age, we often face structural changes known as sarcopenia and osteopenia—the progressive loss of muscle mass and bone density,” says Dr Jamie Bovay, founder and lead physical therapist at KinetikChain Denver.

“By age 70, for many, this slide becomes a cliff.

“While that may sound dire, with a plan, we can minimize any losses and, more importantly, we can actually build muscle at any age.”

It doesn’t require heavy weights or a huge time commitment either. Bovay tells Fit&Well that there is a common misconception that you have to be in the gym every day to make progress, but as little as a single session a week can lead to meaningful results in health and functional strength for seniors.

“We aren’t training for a bodybuilding [competition] stage,” says Bovay, “we are training to maintain our access to all of the things we want to do.

“We are building a body that will last 100-plus years, so that at age 95, we can still easily get off the floor, carry our own groceries, and navigate the world with confidence.”

HOW SENIORS CAN BUILD FUNCTIONAL STRENGTH TRAINING ONCE A WEEK

The good news is that you don’t need heavy weights to maintain your muscle mass.

“The most important thing to understand is that your body doesn’t care how much weight is on the bar,” says Bovay. “It only cares about the signal you send to your nervous system and we can do this in a variety of ways.”

All of those ways, however, require you to work hard to challenge your body. So you can use light weights, but you need to pair them with a relatively high number of reps.

“When you perform high repetitions (20-25) to the point of near-failure (when you can’t do another rep), you create a chemical stimulus in the muscle that signals the body to initiate the protein synthesis that builds muscle,” explains Bovay.

“Make sure your first set is easy to challenging, your second set is hard, and for the third set you should be pushing it to near-failure where the last two to three reps feel challenging to finish,” says Bovay.

But which exercises should you include in your workouts?

According to research, sessions should prioritize multi-joint, full-body movements, including a leg press (such as a squat), an upper-body pull and an upper-body push exercise, using free weights or machines.

Separately, Bovay has shared a five-move workout for seniors to build strength and maintain independence, and the first three exercise types match the recommendations from the research. The workout can be done from home too.

It’s a great place to start.

Taxes. Death. Rain on state holidays. Some things in life are inevitable—but becoming weaker and more frail as you age doesn’t have to be.

That's according to the Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS), the U.K.’s largest national charity dedicated to improving bone health and beating osteoporosis.

This condition, associated with weakening bones and fractures, can affect everyone, but it is accelerated in women after the menopause due to falling levels of the hormone oestrogen.

The ROS states bone density peaks around the age of 30 to 35 for most people, before a steady, natural decline.

That means 50% of all women and 20% of all men over 50 will break a bone because of osteoporosis.

But that's not to say weaker bones are inevitable.

“Strong bones aren’t just something to think about later in life,” says Julia Thompson, a senior osteoporosis specialist nurse working with the ROS.

“They’re living, dynamic tissues that respond to how we move at every age, from childhood right through to our 70s, 80s and beyond.”

Thompson says that, while calcium and vitamin D are important for bone health, exercise is one of the most powerful tools we have for building and protecting bone strength at any age.

She and the ROS recommend everyone incorporate four forms of exercise into their weekly routine to “create a lifelong foundation for healthier bones”.

Four forms of exercise to protect your bones as you age

Thompson says the magic formula for strong and healthy bones is a combination of exercises that involve weight-bearing movements, strength training, balance and posture.

“You don’t necessarily need a gym membership or complicated exercise routines to see the benefits,” she tells Fit&Well.

Instead, a weekly mix of brisk walking, a couple of strength sessions and a few minutes of balance practice can “make a meaningful difference”.

“Your bones are with you for life—and the way you move today helps protect them for tomorrow,” she adds.

Include these four ROS-recommended exercises in your weekly routine to keep your bones healthy and ward off osteoporosis as you age.

1. Weight-bearing exercises

“Weight-bearing exercises tell your bones to stay strong,” says Thompson.

These typically involve moving your feet, like walking, hiking, climbing stairs or running, so your bones support your bodyweight.

Incorporating light-impact movement, such as skipping, hopping or even just brisk walking, can also stimulate bone cells to renew and strengthen.

“In your 20s to 40s, impact training in the form of plyometric exercise, with moves like broad jumps and box jumps, can help maximize peak bone strength,” she says.

“In midlife, light-impact work helps maintain density and in older age, gentle, low-impact weight-bearing exercise continues to stimulate bone health and maintain mobility.”

Exercises to try: Thompson suggests marching on the spot, brisk walking, jogging, running, stair climbing, aerobics using a low step, skipping, hopping and even dancing, if appropriate for your fitness level.

2. Strength training exercises

Next, Thompson highlights the importance of “building the muscle that builds the bone” with regular strength training.

This can involve working your muscles against any force or load, whether that’s your own bodyweight, resistance bands, dumbbells and kettlebells.

“When muscles pull on bones, they send powerful signals for bones to strengthen,” she explains, adding that “stronger muscles mean stronger bones—the two systems work together”.

Stronger muscles will also improve posture and joint support, reducing strain on your spine and hips, while helping prevent falls by improving stability.

“Strength training also becomes increasingly important as we age because muscle naturally declines with age too,” she says.

Exercises to try: Thompson suggests aiming for two to three sessions a week, working all major muscle groups with exercises like squats, lunges, step-ups, wall push-ups, rows and everyday activities such as carrying grocery bags or gardening.

If you own dumbbells (or plan to buy some), you can follow our beginner strength training routine.

3. Balance exercises

Good balance and coordination can help reduce the risk of falls, which can lead to painful fractures that further restrict activity, especially for those with osteoporosis.

That's why it’s essential you hone this skill throughout life, from the time you first learn to walk through midlife and old age.

Combined with weight-bearing and strength-building exercises, balance training can help keep you on your feet for longer, further protecting your bone health as you age.

Exercises to try: Thompson recommends standing on one leg for a few seconds at a time, practicing heel-to-toe walking along an imaginary straight line and marching firmly on the spot with high knees.

4. Posture exercises

Good posture and body alignment isn’t just about standing tall—it can help protect your spine by reducing strain on your joints, muscles and tendons, says Thompson.

“This is especially valuable for anyone who has suffered a spinal fracture or is concerned about height loss associated with osteoporosis,” she adds.

Postural exercises strengthen the muscles that support your spine, they improve flexibility, reduce pressure on your joints and can even ease symptoms like back pain, indigestion and breathlessness that Thompson says can be linked to spinal changes.

“They also make everyday activities, from lifting shopping bags to sitting at a desk, far easier on your back,” she says.

Thompson advises performing posture exercises two to three days per week, either by enrolling in a Pilates or yoga class to engage in exercises that naturally promote a healthy posture, or performing gentle moves in an armless chair.

Exercises to try: Practice sitting upright, tucking your chin toward your chest or tilting it to the side to stretch and strengthen deep neck muscles. Draw your shoulders back and squeeze them together to activate your upper-back muscles or perform a cat-cow stretch to mobilize your spine.

To learn more about how to look after your bones as you age, the Royal Osteoporosis Society has created this helpful guide on exercise for bone health.

Building strength and maintaining muscle is important no matter your age. However, it becomes a crucial pursuit for anyone nearing their senior years.

“As we age, we begin to lose muscle mass as well as bone density. This can lead to reduced balance, possibly resulting in falls or injuries,” says 83-year-old fitness trainer Harry King.

“We seniors—I include myself in this group—can minimize episodes of falls and injuries through a resistance training program. Resistance training has been proven to strengthen muscles and combat bone density loss in seniors.”

Despite being diagnosed with advanced osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, King still works out four days a week and trains others.

While starting a strength regimen later in life can come with its own challenges, he believes that seniors can train similarly to younger athletes as long as they progress appropriately and listen to their bodies.

If you’re 65 or older, have a gym membership and don’t know where to start, try King’s routine below.

How to do the workout

King recommends a five to 10 minute cardiovascular warm-up prior to any strength training, using a treadmill, bike, rowing machine or elliptical trainer.

“I prefer the rower because it gets more muscles involved during the warm-up phase,” King says.

King then suggests 45 to 60 minutes of resistance training with the following upper-body and lower-body routines.

“In this time frame, the goal is to perform five to seven exercises, doing three sets of 12 reps each,” he says. “My normal workout would be to focus on upper-body and lower-body muscle groups on separate days, with a two-day rest before working the same muscle group again. This rest period is important in preventing injuries.”

These exercises are done using a weight bench, a set of moderately-heavy dumbbells, a cable machine, a leg press, a hamstring curl machine, a leg extension machine and a hip abductor/adductor machine.

If you’re unable to complete 12 reps of an exercise with good form, work with a lighter weight. If you can complete 12 reps easily without much fatigue, work with a heavier weight.

“It’s a good practice to use an exercise program such as this for two to three months then change it up to avoid boredom,” adds King.

Speak with your doctor before beginning any new exercise program. Consider meeting with a certified personal trainer for advice on proper form, exercise modifications and progressions when you’re ready. A trainer can also help you learn how to use the gym equipment in this workout.

Upper-body workout

1. Chest press

Reps: 12

• Lie on a weights bench, holding dumbbells by your shoulders.
• Squeeze your chest and press the dumbbells straight up.
• Lower the dumbbells back to your shoulders.

2. Lat pull-down

Reps: 12

• Sit and hold the ends of a lat pull-down bar.
• Maintain an upright spine with shoulders and core engaged.
• Pull the bar toward your chest, squeezing your shoulder blades together.
• Extend your arms with control, letting the bar rise back to the starting position.

3. Pec flye

Reps: 12

• Lie on a weights bench holding dumbbells above your chest with a slight bend in your elbows.
• Lower the dumbbells out to your sides with control, until they’re in line with your chest.
• Squeeze your chest muscles and raise the dumbbells back to the starting position.

4. Seated row

Reps: 12

• Sit upright holding the cable machine handles.
• Roll your shoulders back, maintain a neutral spine and engage your core.
• Pull the handles toward your chest, squeezing your shoulder blades together.
• Extend your arms back to the starting position with control.

5. Biceps curl

Reps: 12

• Stand upright, holding dumbbells by your sides, palms facing forward.
• Bend your elbows to lift the dumbbells to your shoulders.
• Lower the dumbbells back to the starting position with control.

6. Triceps rope pull-down

Reps: 12

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding the ends of the rope, with your elbows tucked into your sides and bent.
• Extend your arms to pull the ends toward the floor, keeping your elbows close to your sides and squeezing your triceps.
• Bend your elbows, returning the rope to the starting position with control.

Lower-body workout

1. Leg press

Reps: 12

• Sit with both feet on the platform.
• Engage your core and push the platform away from you, extending your legs.
• Bend your knees, bringing the platform back toward you with control.

2. Seated hamstring curl

Reps: 12

• Sit with your ankles on top of the leg pad.
• Engage your hamstrings, bend your knees and pull the leg pad down.
• Extend your legs, returning to the starting position with control.

3. Leg extension

Reps: 12

• Sit with your shins underneath the leg pad.
• Extend your legs to lift the pad to hip height.
• Lower the pad to the starting position with control.

4. Hip adduction

Reps: 12

• Sit with your feet in the supports and the leg pads against your inner thighs.
• Engage your inner thighs and press your knees together.
• Return to the starting position with control.

5. Hip abduction

Reps: 12

• Sit with your feet in the supports and the leg pads against your outer thighs.
• Engage your hips and press your knees apart.
• Return to the starting position with control.

6. Squat

Reps: 12

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart.
• Push your hips back and bend your knees to lower your hips, keeping your chest facing forward and spine extended.
• Raise your arms in front of you for balance if needed.
• Press through your feet to stand back up.

Since 2012, certified personal trainer Karen Nelson has refined a routine for her senior clients at Sun Health Grandview Terrace in Arizona to restore balance.

The nonprofit organization, founded in 1966, is dedicated to empowering people to live longer, healthier and more purposeful lives.

For Nelson, that starts by inspiring its residents to have fun while exercising, learn proper movement techniques, and instill healthy habits for mind, body and spirit.

Which, she explains, can all be acquired by committing to a 25-minute full-body workout, three times per week.

"I call this class Balance," Nelson tells Fit&Well. "It's a basic name," she admits, "to ensure there's no confusion and no excuse not to come."

The routine is built around exercises that help reduce risk of falls, while developing strength to avoid injuries caused by imbalance or lack of coordination.

"We use a chair for extra stability and bands for muscle toning," she says, listing benefits including "improved cognitive function, coordination, posture, stability, strength, joint health, reaction times and reflexes".

"There are numerous benefits associated with working on your balance," she continues "and this routine will absolutely build your confidence and independence too."

To perform this workout you'll need a sturdy chair or wall for support and a mini band. If you don't have a mini band, you can skip that section of the workout until you do.

Warm-up

Before starting, Nelson recommends taking a few minutes to prepare mentally and physically for the session.

"Spend one to two minutes loosening up your body and mind while performing gentle hip circles," she says. "Inhale deeply through your nose, exhale deeply through your mouth."

Next, spend another two to three minutes cycling through a series of heel and toe lifts to mobilize your ankle joints and warm up the calf muscles in the back of your lower legs. These can be done seated or standing.

How to do the heel and toe lifts:

• With feet flat on the floor, lift your heels, then lower under control, five times.
• Next, lift your toes while keeping your heels down another five times.
• Repeat this sequence for two to three minutes.

"Heel and toe lifts help strengthen your ankle joint to help you lift your feet when walking to reduce risk of falls," says Nelson.

If you have them available to you, she recommends performing a series of exercises using mini resistance bands to wake up stabilizing muscles in the glutes, hamstrings and core.

How to do the resistance band sequence:

• Position a mini band around the largest part of both calf muscles.
• Push your hips back and bend your knees slightly to lower into a quarter squat, then step side-to-side (crab walks), then diagonally forward and back (monster walks) or a mixture of both.
• Work for around four to five minutes, taking short rests as required.

How to do the workout

Now you're warm, proceed to the main body of the workout.

Spend up to four minutes on the sit-to-stand exercise, then five to 10 minutes in total performing the five balance exercises.

These moves incorporate pauses and holds that keep your muscles under sustained tension. This approach strengthens your muscles and trains your balance while being kinder on your joints.

Take your time, aim to improve gradually in each session, and rest when you need to.

To wrap up, Nelson suggests concluding the session with a few minutes of gentle stretching, focusing on the calves, quads, hamstrings and glutes.

1. Sit-to-stand

Time: 1-4min

• Sit on a sturdy chair with your knees bent at 90˚and your feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart.
• Push through your feet to rise out of the chair and stand upright, avoiding using your hands to push off.
• Slowly push your hips back and bend your knees to lower yourself back into your seat, again without using your arms to control your descent.
• If you can perform this with good form, continue for one minute, then move on to the next section.
• If your technique requires practice, continue for up to four minutes, resting as required.

Nelson says: "Keep looking straight while sitting and rising and avoid plopping onto the seat. If you find that you cannot sit without letting the muscles go and plopping, then only lower as far as you can with control, building up your range until you can lower all the way with control."

2. Calf raise

Sets: 1 Reps: 5-10

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding on to a chair or counter for support.
• Raise your heels as high as you can.
• Lower your heels slowly to the starting position.

3. Squat hold

Sets: 1 Reps: 5-10

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding onto a chair or counter for support, if needed.
• Slowly push your butt back and bend your knees to lower until your thighs are parallel to the floor, making sure your knees don’t cave in, and your chest is upright and gaze forward.
• Pause at the bottom of the squat for five to 10 seconds.
• Push through your feet and drive your hips forward to rise slowly to stand, making sure your knees don’t cave in.

4. Single-leg knee lift

Sets: 1 Reps: 1-5 each side

• Stand, holding onto a chair or counter for support, if needed.
• Lift your right knee to hip height, or as high as you can manage.
• Keep your body straight and avoid leaning to one side.
• Hold this position for 10-20 seconds, then lower slowly and repeat on the other side.
• Continue, alternating sides with each rep.

5. Reverse leg lift

Sets: 1 Reps: 1-5 each side

• Stand holding onto a chair or counter for support.
• Slide your right foot behind you, keeping your toes on the floor.
• Keeping your right leg straight and without leaning your torso forward, lift your right leg behind you—you may only be able to lift a small distance.
• Hold this position for 10-20 seconds, then lower slowly and repeat on the other side.
• Continue, alternating sides with each rep.

6. Lateral leg lift

Sets: 1 Reps: 1-5 each side

• Stand holding onto a chair or counter for support.
• Slide your right leg out to the side.
• Keeping your right leg straight, raise it as high as you can without leaning to the left—you may only be able to lift a small distance.
• Hold this position for 10-20 seconds, then lower slowly and repeat on the other side.
• Continue, alternating sides with each rep.

We all know that staying active is essential to aging well and maintaining independence.

The challenge is knowing what to do, where to start or how to do it without risking injury.

"In clinical practice, I work with many individuals who want to stay active but are unsure how to do so safely," Dr Corbin B. Skinner, a doctor of physical therapy at Houston Methodist in Texas, tells Fit&Well.

The solution, he says, is short, accessible routines that focus on balance, mobility, strength and endurance while minimizing risk of injury.

"I often recommend a simple routine that can be done most days of the week and focuses on controlled, repeatable movements rather than intensity," Skinner continues.

You don’t even need a gym. Just a chair, wall or counter for support, plus an optional pair of light dumbbells or a resistance band.

This workout has proven effective, Skinner says, because it "rebuilds confidence by breaking movements into manageable steps and allowing people to succeed before progressing".

Over time, those small wins restore trust in your body.

How to do the workout

Skinner is keen to stress that the exercises he has recommended below are for general informational purposes only—they are not intended as a personalized exercise prescription.

If you have a history of falls, underlying medical conditions, or any concerns regarding how to do the moves safely, you should consult a physician or licensed physical therapist before starting.

Modifications may be necessary to ensure they are safe and appropriate for you, he adds.

1. Tandem stance

Sets: 1 Time: 30-60sec each side

• Stand facing a counter or wall for support.
• Place one foot directly in front of the other as though on a tightrope.
• Hold this position for 30-60 seconds.
• Switch feet and repeat.

Skinner says: "This is a very functional position that demands full core control. By simply stacking one foot in front of the other and holding the position, it challenges most individuals beyond what they expect. It can be progressed from holding onto a stable surface in front, to one on the side, to eventually not holding onto anything. Being able to hold this position in either of the variations for 30-60 seconds is a strong starting point."

2. Child's pose

Sets: 1 Time: 30-60sec

• Kneel with your toes together and knees hip- or shoulder-width apart.
• Sit your buttocks back onto your heels and lower your forehead toward the floor.
• Stretch your arms along the floor in front and relax into the stretch.
• If your forehead can’t reach the floor, rest it on your stacked hands.

Skinner says: "This is a very common and easy exercise that helps with knee, hip and low back mobility. The pose can be held for minutes at a time or you can work in and out of it with small oscillations [back and forth movement] if desired."

3. Seated hip stretch

Sets: 3 Time: 30-60sec each side

• Sit in a stable chair and cross one foot over your other knee.
• Apply a light pressure on your bent knee to increase the stretch in the outside of your hip on the same side.
• Keep your foot flexed to help protect your knee joint.
• Hold, then swap sides.

Skinner says: "A highly practical exercise, it can be used at home, in the office or when out and about. By crossing one leg over the other and applying a slight pressure on your knee, you can create a gentle stretch in your hip joint. Striving to hold for 30-60 seconds for three sets each side is a moderate starting point.”

4. Supine bridge

Sets: 3 Reps: 15-20

• Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor close to your buttocks, hip-width apart.
• Place your hands palms down on the floor by your sides for stability.
• Push through your heels to raise your hips until your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your knees.
• Pause at the top, then lower with control.

Skinner says: "Your glutes are a large and important muscle group that is often ignored but key for any tasks requiring you to squat or lower to the floor. The bridge is a simple exercise that can be done on your bed, couch or floor. Starting on your back and lifting your hips into the air activates the all-important glutes."

5. Sit to stand

Sets: 3 Reps: 10

• Sit on a sturdy chair with your feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart, and the back rest of another chair in front of you that you can reach toward.
• Press through your feet to stand, reaching toward the chair in front.
• Push your hips back and bend your knees to lower back onto the seat with control.

Skinner says: "Building upon the bridge, simply standing up from a chair and sitting back down with control can be a very effective strengthening exercise. The key to a safe and effective performance is making sure there is a stable surface in front of you. With this configuration you will instinctively reach forward and mimic the natural motion of a squat."

6. Marching in place

Sets: 1 Time: 60sec

• Stand in front of a counter or wall for support.
• Lift and lower each foot alternately on the spot.
• To progress, perform without a support and aim to raise your knees until they’re parallel with your hips.

Skinner says: "Combining the foundations of balance with movement, marching in place in front of a stable surface can be a safe and effective way to improve endurance and balance. Not only can this be done in most places of your home, but it can also easily be progressed by removing one hand to increase the challenge and demand."

7. Walking

Sets: 1 Time: 15-20min

• Walk, allowing your arms to swing by your sides.
• To progress, increase your pace or walk on different terrain to make it more challenging.

Skinner says: "Walking may seem basic but simple activities are usually the most effective. For beginners, cardiovascular improvement is driven by consistency more than intensity. Brisk walking, light cycling, or similar activities for 15-20 minutes several days per week can gradually improve endurance and heart health without overwhelming the body."

It’s widely accepted that for most people, living a long, healthy life depends on getting enough sleep, eating well and staying physically active. However, there’s one muscle group that it may be worth paying extra attention to to maximize your longevity.

“Having stronger and larger quads are associated with better outcomes across multiple populations,” says Corey Podbielski, a board-certified doctor of physical therapy at Gaylord Specialty Healthcare.

Podbielski says quad strength is important because it is closely related to many functional movements. “Getting up from the floor, getting out of a chair, climbing up/down stairs, and squatting to lift objects all require strong quads,” he says.

“When we build strength in these big muscles in the front of the thighs, it keeps us more independent with our mobility, leading to decreased falls, improved quality of life, and higher capacity for exercise and activity.

“If someone were to end up on the floor, having sufficient strength and flexibility might better allow for that person to be able to stand back up on their own,” says Podbielski. “This would be particularly useful if they fell in a situation where they were alone.”

To counteract this decline, he says building and maintaining strength and flexibility is key. This can be crucial after a fall, helping people to regain their footing and maintain independence.

How to build quad strength

The key strategy he recommends is progressive resistance training, which helps maintain a healthy muscular system that communicates with the brain and nervous system, and supports bone density.

“It also ensures that our muscles are able to accept the challenges we put on them with our daily activities, such as walking, lifting, climbing stairs, getting on and off the floor.”

To build quad strength, he says functional movements such as squats and deadlifts are good. Ideally, resistance training should be done two to three times a week. Follow our beginner strength training plan at home and you’ll perform both of those exercises in the three-workout-a-week routine.

This can be combined with exercise guidelines of at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity per week—such as brisk walking, cycling or dancing—or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity aerobic exercise like running, swimming or fast cycling.

He also recommends improving flexibility through activities like yoga, practiced two to three times per week.

Standing on one leg might serve as a handy method to assess your balance, but how do you improve it?

You can start to work on it with this beginner-friendly circuit designed to improve stability, designed by Jacque Crockford of the American Council on Exercise (ACE).

Fundamental to this workout—and any routine intended to boost balance—is strengthening the core, challenging coordination and working the body unilaterally (one side at a time) in a safe and controlled manner.

“A strong core helps stabilize your spine and pelvis during daily activities such as walking, climbing stairs, carrying groceries and getting up from the floor,” the ACE-certified personal trainer tells Fit&Well.

And good balance helps people “react quickly to changes in terrain or unexpected movements”, reducing the likelihood of falls and injuries as we age so we can “confidently and comfortably move through daily life”.

Crockford says this workout will develop the “multiple systems” needed to improve balance, including “muscular strength, neurological function and mobility”.

How to do the workout

All you need is a sturdy chair, bench or box to perform this balance and core circuit, making it accessible to practice at home or in the gym.

Crockford suggests aiming for two or three rounds. Each round should take approximately seven minutes, but avoid rushing and rest as required.

1. Single-leg stand

Time: 20-30sec each side

This exercise is similar to the one-legged stance test used to assess balance.

• Stand upright with your arms relaxed by your sides, looking straight ahead.
• Raise one foot off the floor, resting it against your upper calf on your standing leg.
• Aim to maintain your balance for 20-30 seconds.

Make it easier: use a wall, chair or counter for support.

Make it harder: raise your leg higher until your knee is level with your hip.

2. Heel-to-toe walk

Reps: 10-15 steps

• Stand with a clear space in front of you.
• Step one foot directly in front of the other, placing your heel just in front of the toes of your other foot.
• Walk forward for 10 to 15 steps in this manner, keeping your heels and toes touching with every step.
• Move slowly and with control, maintaining an upright posture and looking straight ahead.

Make it easier: use a wall for support.

Make it harder: walk forward for 10 to 15 steps, then back to return to the start.

3. Bird dog

Reps: 8-10 each side

• Start on your hands and knees with your hands directly below your shoulders and your knees directly below your hips.
• Keep your spine neutral, looking at the floor between your hands.
• Extend one arm forward and your opposite leg back, to form a straight line from your hand to your heel.
• Keep your hips stable and parallel to the floor.
• Return to the starting position and repeat on the other side.

Make it easier: Extend one arm or leg at a time.

Make it harder: Pause for two seconds at the top of the movement with each rep.

4. Glute bridge

Reps: 12-15

• Lie on your back with your knees bent, with your feet flat on the floor close to your buttocks.
• Place your hands by your sides, palms facing down for extra stability.
• Gently press your lower back into the floor to engage your deep core muscles.
• Push through your feet to lift your hips until your body forms a straing line from your shoulders to your knees.
• Pause at the top of the movement, then lower with control.

Make it easier: Position your arms wider on the floor to increase stability.

Make it harder: Hold the top of the movement and alternate lifting your legs, as if marching.

5. Side plank

Time: 15-30sec each side

• Lie on your side with your weight supported on your forearm and your legs together.
• Lift your hips to form a straight line from your head to your heels.
• Breathe normally and engage your core muscles to avoid letting your hips drop.

Make it easier: Perform this on your knees, keeping a straight line from your head to knees.

Make it harder: Lift and lower your hips for the time, while maintaining core stability.

6. Step-up

Reps: 10 each side

• Stand facing a sturdy chair, bench or box.
• Place your right foot on the platform, press through your midfoot to extend your right leg and bring your left foot onto the platform.
• Step down, leading with the right foot.
• Complete all the repetitions on one side, then switch sides.

Make it easier: Use a lower step, such as the first or second step on a staircase.

Make it harder: As you step up, lift your other knee to hip height, pause briefly, then lower with control.

7. Dead bug

Reps: 8-10 each side

• Lie on your back with arms extended straight up and your knees above your hips, with your shins parallel with the floor.
• Keep your lower back pressed into the floor to engage your deep core muscles.
• Lower one arm behind you, until it’s just above the floor while you extend your opposite leg away from you.
• Return your arm and leg to the starting position, then repeat on the other side.

Make it easier: Extend only one arm or leg at a time.

Make it harder: Extend both arms and legs at the same time.

Nearing retirement age is a time to slow down for most people. Not for Jim Owen.

At 70, the former Wall Street executive with a sedentary lifestyle challenged himself to shed 35lb, resolve excruciating lower back pain, and get fit.

Then he went one step further.

He entered the San Diego Senior Games, an annual event for over-50s. The fitness category Owen entered featured 10 tests of strength and endurance, like hanging from a bar, hurling a heavy ball and skipping with a jump rope.

Owen won all 10.

“I found my inner athlete when I was about 75,” he tells Fit&Well, reflecting on this transformation.

In the jump rope category, Owen completed 49 jumps in 60 seconds. He threw the heavy ball 20 feet. He hung from the bar for an astonishing two-and-a-half minutes.

He beat his training personal bests in nine of the 10 events.

“Practice, practice, practice,” he says, is the motto that underpinned his performance.

So too, he adds, did building a foundation through regular strength training.

The training plan 85-year-old Jim Owen uses to live young

Owen says it took five years to build a foundation that made exercising feel fun.

Now he trains six days a week for an hour per day, combining strength, cardio and mobility.

“Jim Owen is the epitome of health and vitality,” comments his trainer, Greg Laird.

“He has vigor for life, lives with purpose, and always gives his best, which translates to everything he does being done at a high level.”

Laird met Owen when he was already well on his way from overworked exec to serial Senior Games winner, but he lacked mobility and range of motion like most men his age.

“Particularly, he had very tight hamstrings and limited thoracic extension,” says Laird.

To combat this, Owen completes a full-body stretching sequence three to four times a week, targeting his ankles, hips and thoracic spine.

“He stretches in an upright position using points of stability so he can maximize the range of the stretch he is in,” says Laird.

“We then drive the specific body part we are stretching in three planes of motion: sagittal (forward and back), frontal (side-to-side) and transverse (rotational)—just like the body experiences in daily life.”

To maintain cardiovascular conditioning, Owen walks for up to an hour, three times per week.

Twice will be uphill to challenge his conditioning, yet limit the pounding on his joints, which Laird says “is key to training for longevity and staying healthy throughout the aging process”.

To preserve strength and muscle, Laird gets Owen to perform three full-body workouts per week.

“Our focus with strength training is on maintaining and mitigating the loss of strength through the natural aging process,” explains Laird, rather than trying to build bulk.

“Each strength workout incorporates a push, pull, squat, hinge and lunge—movements that are essential to daily life, to help Jim to function at the highest level day to day.”

How to do the SuperAger strength workout

Laird recommends readers follow this routine two to three times per week.

“Overall, it’s about consistency over intensity and engaging in what you enjoy so you can move at a high level for years to come,” he says.

“Jim embodies this and is always looking to improve in any capacity he can.”

1. Resistance band twist

Sets: 2 Reps: 10 each side

• Loop a resistance band around an anchor point at chest height.
• Standing side on, hold the band in both hands close to your chest.
• Extend your arms until straight, bracing your core against the resistance.
• Now rotate your torso away from the anchor point, then slowly return to the center.
• Complete all reps one direction, then switch sides.

Laird says: “We begin by activating his core so he can engage it throughout the remainder of the session. This move helps you build symmetry throughout your core because you must rotate through tension in both directions, preventing overcompensation on one side.”

2. Weighted exercise ball crunch

Sets: 2 Reps: 12

• Sit on the floor and lie back on an exercise ball or Bosu ball, with your back extended over the ball.
• Place your feet wide apart for stability, holding a light dumbbell at your chest.
• Curl your body up, lifting your shoulders and upper back off the ball, using your abdominal muscles to control the movement.
• Slowly lower to the start.
• Progress this movement by holding the weight behind your head.

Laird says: “We also perform weighted physio ball crunches to promote thoracic extension, a limiting factor seen in most older adults from years of sitting hunched over.

“By incorporating the weight behind his head, his body must adapt to the forces placed upon it, creating more length and extension through his spine.”

3. Prone single-leg drive

Sets: 2 Reps: 8 each side

• Get on your hands and knees with your hands directly under your shoulders.
• Lift your hips and extend your legs into a downward dog position.
• Lift your right leg behind you, keeping your hips level and stable.
• Lower your right leg and move your right knee towards your chin, lowering your hips.
• Go straight into the next rep, raising your right leg behind you.
• Complete all reps on one side, then switch sides.

Laird says: “This full-body exercise integrates mobility and strength. Your shoulder girdle is strengthened through this range of motion while challenging your core as you drive your knee forward.”

4. Side plank

Sets: 2 Time: 30sec each side

• Lie on your side with your weight on your forearm.
• Stack your feet one on the other or have one in front to evenly distribute your weight.
• Raise your hips to form a straight line from your head to feet.
• Maintain this position without letting your hips drop for 30 seconds.
• Repeat on the other side.

Laird says: “We use side planks to build the lateral lines (the oblique muscles) of his body. This also incorporates shoulder stability, plus hip and core strength for your entire body.”

5. Exercise ball hamstring curl

Sets: 2 Reps: 12

• Lie on the floor with your heels on top of an exercise ball and your arms on the floor, palms down.
• Engage your core and lift your hips so your body is in a straight line from shoulders to knees.
• Extend your legs to roll the ball away from you.
• Bend your knees to roll the gym ball back toward you—you should feel the muscles in the backs of your thighs working.
• Go straight into the next rep, keeping your hips raised.

Laird says: “This move targets the posterior chain muscles of the glutes and hamstrings to help protect your lower back and keep your body balanced with the pushing muscles of the quads.”

6. Dumbbell goblet squat

Sets: 2 Reps: 10

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, feet pointing out slightly.
• Hold a dumbbell vertically at your chest, both hands cupping the top of the weight.
• Inhale and brace your core, then sit your hips back and bend your knees to lower.
• Keep your knees wide apart and your chest facing forward.
• Lower to a comfortable depth, then exhale as you push through your heels, extending your knees and hips to stand.

Laird says: “Jim performs dumbbell goblet squats to engage his core while working on the depth his hips can achieve under load to make daily squatting easier.”

7. Push-up matrix

Sets: 3 Reps: 10 per position

• Start in a high-plank position with your hands shoulder-width apart, directly under your shoulders.
• Form a straight line with your body from your head to your heels.
• Bend your elbows to lower your chest toward the floor.
• Push back up powerfully.
• Perform 10 reps, then rest for 30 seconds.
• Wide push-up: for the second set, place your hands wider apart and repeat.
• Narrow push-up: for the third set, place your hands closer together and repeat.

Laird says: “Jim performs this push-up matrix, utilizing different hand positions, to add slight variety through his pushing exercises and build more functional strength.”

You can always adjust the number of reps you perform, or choose one of these modified push-ups, to better suit your ability.

8. Lateral lunge

Sets: 2 Reps: 8 each side

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart and step your right foot out to the side.
• Bend your right knee and push your hips back to lower, keeping your chest facing forward.
• Lower your hips as far as your mobility allows, while keeping your left leg straight.
• Push through your right foot to return to the starting position.
• Repeat on the other side.
• Continue, alternating sides with each rep.
• To progress this, hold a dumbbell at your chest or two dumbbells by your sides.

Laird says: “Lateral lunges help load the glutes differently from split squats and forward or reverse lunges, challenging the body to move from side to side.”

9. Single-arm dumbbell row

Sets: 2 Reps: 10 each side

• Stand with a bench to your right side, placing your right knee and right hand on it for support.
• Extend your left leg out to the side to create a stable base.
• Hold a dumbbell in your left hand, arm extended straight down.
• Retract your shoulder blades, holding the weight to engage your upper-back muscles—this is your starting position.
• Lift the dumbbell toward your hip, keeping your elbow close to your side.
• Pause briefly, then lower with control.
• Complete all your reps on one side, then switch sides.

Laird says: “Incorporating a single-arm dumbbell row helps target back and shoulder stability while working unilaterally, to again avoid compensating on one side of your body.”

10. Single-arm dumbbell farmers carry

Sets: 2 Distance: 25 yards

• Stand with a medium to heavy dumbbell by your feet.
• Bend down to pick up the weight, keeping your back flat and torso facing forward.
• Engage your core and drive through your feet to stand upright, holding the weight by your side.
• Engage your core to keep your body evenly balanced and chest upright.
• Walk forward, or in a figure of eight, for 25 paces or yards.
• Lower the weight safely to the floor, then repeat on the other side.

Laird says: “Heavy carries challenge your grip strength with duration, which is a key component in statistics tied to longevity. It also creates symmetry through your hips and core by calling on the opposite side of the body to stabilize the weight as you walk.”

Can you stand steady on one leg for 10 seconds?

That was the test put to 1,702 individuals in one longitudinal study on over-50-year-olds, with findings showing that those who can have a lower risk of all-cause mortality.

In the study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2022, participants across an 11-year period were assessed on their ability to stand on one leg for 10 seconds without losing balance.

This data was then cross-referenced against anthropometric measurements, including waist circumference and body mass index (commonly known as BMI), to interpret the role of these variables on survival rates and risk of mortality.

“That research has shown balance can actually be a meaningful marker of overall health and longevity,” says Jacque Crockford of the American Council on Exercise (ACE).

“Balance and core strength are foundational components of healthy movement and long-term independence,” she tells Fit&Well. “For older adults in particular, balance training is one of the most effective strategies for preserving independence and reducing fall risk.”

How to perform the 10-second one-legged stance test

In the study, the balance test was performed barefoot, with arms relaxed by their sides and eyes open.

They were asked to lift one foot off the floor and rest it against the back of the opposite lower leg, rather than holding it raised in free space.

Both left and right legs were tested and timing only started once in position with one foot resting on the other leg.

A pass was determined if the participant could hold this one-legged stance unbroken for a full 10 seconds.

What did the results show?

Of the 1,702 individuals assessed in the prospective cohort study, 20.4% failed the balance test, with pass rates declining with age.

For example, 4.5% of participants aged between 51-55 failed the test, compared with 53.6% for those aged 71-75.

How to interpret your score

While Crockford acknowledges that tests like this can provide useful information in structured assessment settings, they’re really “just snapshots” in time.

“[The 2022 study] doesn’t mean standing on one leg causes longevity,” she says.

“But it does suggest balance reflects multiple systems working well together, including muscular strength, neurological function and mobility.”

Most people, she adds, don’t necessarily need a formal balance assessment to know whether balance and core stability are areas they should work on.

“The real question is: how confidently and comfortably can you move through daily life?”

How to improve balance at any age

For most people, Crockford says you should focus less on passing a test, and more on “maintaining the ability to move confidently, react quickly and stay independent as you age”.

For example, can you walk up stairs without grabbing the railing? Can you step over a curb smoothly? Can you get up off the floor easily? Or stand on one leg while putting on a shoe?

“Those are all real-world expressions of balance, stability and core control,” she says.

So, while there is value in practicing the single-leg stance test to improve your score, a better use of your time would be to include real-world activities that challenge your balance in a safe setting.

“Strategies include simple things like single-leg exercises, walking on uneven surfaces, strength training, yoga, tai chi and even standing on one foot while brushing your teeth,” says Crockford.

“These can all help improve balance and stability over time.”

At Fit&Well, we often talk about the importance of maintaining your core strength and balance as you age to minimize the risk of falls. But that shouldn’t mean you neglect other parts of your body. According to physical therapist Jamie Bovay, you should be paying particular attention to your upper body.

“Your upper body is your main interface with the physical world,” Bovay tells Fit&Well. “If you don't maintain it, you are going to lose it and slowly give up your independence.”

He explains that age-related muscle loss, known as sarcopenia, often disproportionately impacts the upper body.

If you’re a relatively mobile person, you’ll use your leg muscles to walk around, stand up, sit down and climb stairs. For that reason, those muscles will tend to remain functional for longer.

The upper body can atrophy more quickly without direct attention, especially if you begin to avoid using your upper body because you’re afraid of injuring yourself.

Well-meaning family members may take your grocery bags off you or support you with cleaning, but their kindness may be speeding up the muscle-weakening process and cumulatively contributing to sarcopenia.

Why is upper-body strength important?

Bovay says you need upper-body strength to support yourself in everyday life for two main reasons:

1. Fall defence: “The ability to perform a powerful stiff-arm to catch yourself against a wall or the floor can be the difference between a minor bruise and a catastrophic hip fracture,” he says.

Plus, if you fall, you will need to push yourself back up, once again relying on upper-body strength.

2. Respiratory function: “The muscles of your chest and back are essential secondary respiratory muscles,” says Bovay.

“Maintaining strength and mobility ensures your chest wall remains supple, supporting efficient, deep breathing.”

Signs of upper-body weakness

1. Significant shaking when holding a glass of water.
2. Needing to use two hands to lift a light object overhead.
3. Increased difficulty opening jars or carrying grocery bags.

How to improve your upper-body strength

Bovay recommends setting aside some time for these exercises once or twice a week. Adjust the number of sets and reps you do to suit your ability, but make sure you are working hard. If it doesn’t challenge your muscles, it won’t do you any good.

Once you can perform three sets of 25 repetitions and still feel like you could achieve five more reps, progress to a harder exercise.

1. Wall push-up

Sets: 3 Reps: 20-25

“This exercise reinforces the push pattern needed to get out of bed, get off the ground, or catch yourself during a slip,” says Bovay.

How to do it:

• Stand with your palms on a wall at shoulder height, a little wider than shoulder-width apart.
• Step back so your arms are extended and your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your feet.
• Bend your elbows to bring your chest toward the wall.
• Push through your hands powerfully to extend your arms and return to the start.

Progression: To make it harder, step further away from the wall, then swap the wall for a sturdy kitchen counter or the back of a couch for an incline push-up.

2. Doorway row

Sets: 3 Reps: 20-25

“This exercise directly counters the forward slump many older adults experience, and strengthens the posterior chain to support your spine,” says Bovay.

How to do it:

• Stand in a doorway and hold either side of the frame.
• Extend your arms to lean back slightly.
• Pull your chest toward the doorframe, bending your elbows and squeezing your shoulder blades together.
• Extend your arms with control.

Progression: Instead of holding a doorframe, invest in a suspension trainer and door attachment to perform the incline row.

3. Vertical reach

Sets: 3 Reps: 20-25

“Overhead mobility and strength are the first things to go,” says Bovay. “This exercise maintains the reach mechanics required for daily kitchen and closet tasks.”

How to do it:

• Sit or stand upright with your hands by your shoulders, palms facing away from you and your elbows below your hands.
• Raise your arms overhead, as though you’re pushing something heavy.
• Lower them to the starting position with control.

Progression: Hold a small water bottle or book in each hand and perform the same overhead press.

Liz Hilliard is a STOTT-certified personal and group Pilates fitness trainer with decades of experience in the industry.

She created the Hilliard Studio Method (HSM) in 2008, based on her experience. It combines Pilates and strength training for balanced, full-body training.

She has also written Be Powerful: Find Your Strength at Any Age and co-hosts the Be Powerful Podcast.

At 72, she says she’s fitter than she was in her 40s and has no intention of slowing down.

“I fully expect to be at least as strong and healthy in my 90s as I am now, if not stronger,” she says. “My aim is longevity and joie de vivre through strength training, a healthy diet and strong, rewarding relationships.”

I asked Hilliard what she most wants to get out of her workouts and she told me her number one priority is to increase muscle mass.

Everyone should have this as a priority, because age-related muscle loss reduces independence, increases risk of falls, and impacts strength and mobility.

Hilliard leads four to five HSM classes a week at her studio, and she walks or goes for a bike ride most days as well, taking Sundays off.

“Movement of any kind throughout my day is crucial to both my physical and mental health,” she says, “and I aim for 7,000 to 10,000 steps per day on average.”

She is an early bird, preferring to work out at 9am or 9.30am, leaving the rest of her day free for activities.

Here’s what a recent week of training for Hilliard looked like.

Liz Hilliard’s weekly workout routine

Monday
1hr morning Method class at HSM focusing on full-body strengthening, and a 30-45min walk in the late afternoon

Tuesday
1hr morning Method class at HSM, focusing on the upper body with heavy weights and the lower body with light weights

Wednesday
1hr morning Method class at HSM, a 35min workout in the studio in a full-body express class, and a 30-45min afternoon bike ride or walk after work

Thursday
1hr morning Method class at HSM focusing on the lower body with heavy resistance

Friday
1hr morning Method Class at HSM focusing on full-body strengthening with heavy resistance

Saturday
1hr morning Pilates reformer session at home for a good stretch, and an afternoon bike ride to lunch with friends

Sunday
Complete rest day with an easy walk or bike ride to lunch or the movies.

Liz Hilliard’s top workout tips

1. Choose a type of movement that makes you happy

“My number one tip for workout motivation is to find something that you enjoy and is challenging, but that you also look forward to doing,” she says.

2. Exercise with friends

“It’s also a great idea to invite a friend to work out with you to not only keep you motivated but also to keep you accountable. Many of my clients at HSM have made friends at the studio and schedule their classes together.

She adds that the community she has built around HSM is active, vital and most importantly, supportive.

“It’s where I get my workout as well as where I see my friends,” she says.

“A sense of community is an important aspect of my overall health.”

As you get older, you may understandably feel wary of throwing yourself into high-intensity workouts in case you damage your body, and this nervousness may mean you end up avoiding exercise altogether.

If that sounds familiar, kinesiologist and certified yoga therapist Bobbi Lalach recommends building confidence and body awareness.

“I work with people who have often been told they are fine or cleared [to exercise by their doctor], but still don’t feel confident, strong or comfortable in their body,” she tells Fit&Well. “I help them rebuild trust in their body through simple, structured and doable movement.”

Lalach has put together a 10-minute routine for people in their 50s, 60s and 70s who are feeling hesitant about exercise. Perhaps you’re stiff, achy or hesitant to move after injury or long periods of inactivity.

“Rather than focusing on intensity or pushing through discomfort, this routine helps people reconnect with their body through small, manageable movements that build awareness, confidence and ease,” Lalach explains.

“The exercises are beginner-friendly, require minimal equipment and can be done at home in about 10 minutes,” she adds.

10-minute body awareness and confidence-building routine

1. Walking check-in

Time: 15-30sec

Before starting the exercises, slowly walk around your space for 15 to 30 seconds.

As you walk, notice different parts of your body:

• Feet
• Ankles
• Knees
• Hips
• Chest
• Shoulders
• Neck
• Head

“There is nothing to fix. The goal is simply to notice what feels tense, heavy, stiff, light, easy or effortful before beginning,” Lalach says.

2. Triangle of support squat

Reps: 5-8

• Stand near a chair, wall or counter for support with your feet hip-distance apart.
• Bring awareness to the triangle of support in the soles of your feet: your big toe, the base of the little toe and your heel.
• Inhale and exhale here, lightly holding your support if needed.
• Gently bend your knees and hips to lower, as though you’re sitting in a chair.
• Move within a range that feels comfortable and safe.
• Return to standing slowly.

Expert tip: “Repeat and notice whether anything changes in your triangle of support and if there’s any tension in your body. If you notice gripping or tightness, pause and take a breath then reduce your depth of movement and try again with less effort. The goal is not a deeper squat—the goal is ease and awareness,” says Lalach.

2. Shoulder blade slide

Reps: 5-8

• From a seated or standing position, feel your base of support—either through your feet or your hips.
• Take a slow inhale and exhale.
• Bend your elbows to 90° in front of your body with your palms facing each other.
• Gently slide your elbows behind you and back to the starting position.

Expert tip: “Pay attention to your neck, shoulders, jaw and rib cage to notice whether you’re holding or bracing. If you feel any strain or tension, make the movement smaller and slow it down,” says Lalach.

3. Supported hip swing

Reps: 5-10 each side

• Stand with one foot on a yoga block or thick book with a wall, counter or chair beside you for support.
• Feel your triangle of support—from your big toe, the base of your little toe and your heel—on your standing foot.
• Take a slow inhale and exhale.
• With your moving leg straight, but without locking your knee, gently swing it forward and backward.
• Allow the movement to come from your hip socket without moving your ribs, chest or lower back.
• Do all your reps on one side, then switch sides.

Expert tip: “As your leg moves, notice whether your body braces or stiffens, particularly around your ribs and chest. Pay attention to your breathing too. Only move within the range where your leg can move freely in the hip socket without tension elsewhere,” Lalach explains.

4. Supported hip rotation

Reps: 5-8 each side

• Stand with one foot on a yoga block or thick book with a wall, counter or chair beside you for support.
• Bring your moving leg next to your standing leg.
• Slowly rotate your leg inward and outward within the hip socket—this is a very small movement.
• Keep your hips stable and facing forward throughout the movement.
• Do all your reps on one side, then switch sides.

Expert tip: “Imagine your pelvic bones have headlights on and these should point forward at all times while your leg rotates. Notice if your pelvis tries to turn or if your ribs shift. Be aware of your jaw tightening and try to keep the movement small and easy,” says Lalach.

5. Foot rolling

Time: 1-2min each side

• Either sitting or standing, place a weighted ball, tennis ball or another small, firm ball under the arch of your foot.
• Slowly and gently roll your foot over the ball, controlling the pressure carefully—it should feel like a gentle massage.
• You can also explore the heel, ball of the foot and outer edge of your foot’s arch.

Expert tip: “Pay attention to pressure changes, tension and sensations in your foot and leg,” says Lalach.

6. Walking check-in

After finishing the exercises, repeat the original walking check-in.

“Does anything feel different?” Lalach says. “Do your feet feel lighter or heavier? Is there less tension anywhere? Do you feel more grounded? Does walking feel smoother or easier?

“There is no right answer. The goal is simply building awareness and helping your body reconnect with movement in a gradual, supportive way.”

One of the things that worries me most about getting older is losing the ability to use my hands properly.

I’ve been helping my grandmother to catalog several lifetimes’ worth of pictures—some taken, some inherited—because she struggles to hold a pen for more than a minute or two.

While spending more time with my grandmother has been a wonderful experience, watching her struggle has left me thinking about how grip strength and fine motor skills can begin to deteriorate later in life.

“Grip strength often doesn’t get much attention, but it plays a huge role in overall health,” explains Devin Trachman, clinical director of Physical Therapy Central. “This is especially true as we get older.

“It is about so much more than opening jars or carrying groceries. Strong hands help us stay independent and continue doing the things that make daily life feel normal and enjoyable.

“As the years go by, we rely on our grip for countless small but important tasks like holding a glass of water, using silverware, buttoning a shirt, or safely using a walker or cane. When grip strength starts to fade, these everyday moments can become frustrating or even unsafe.”

Trachman explains that physical therapists use grip strength as a clinical indicator for a number of different health factors.

“It is closely linked to overall muscle strength, functional ability and even long-term health,” she says. “That is why it is often used as a quick check-in on neuromuscular health, because it tells a much bigger story than most people realize.”

While it may seem to be a problem that only affects the hands, Trachman says that a person’s grip strength can reflect overall muscle loss, nervous system changes, and impaired coordination and control. It is also an indicator that someone may be becoming more frail.

“In some cases, declining grip strength has been linked to a higher risk of falls and a reduced ability to bounce back after illness or injury,” she says.

“In other words, what’s happening in the hands can give us valuable clues about strength, resilience, and overall health.”

She stresses that while declining grip strength is a good indicator of health, it is not an inevitable part of aging.

How to check your grip strength

“In a clinical setting, grip strength is most accurately measured using a handheld dynamometer,” says Trachman. “This gives us objective information that we measure in pounds that can be tracked over time and compared to what’s typical for someone’s age.”

But there are indicators you can look out for in your everyday life, too.

“People may notice they are dropping things more often, like cups, phones, or utensils,” she explains. “They may report struggling to open jars and packaging.

"Tasks like turning a doorknob, using keys, or writing can start to feel harder than they used to. Even simple activities like buttoning clothes or handling silverware may cause noticeable hand fatigue.”

Trachman explains that these changes can be easy to brush off, as they tend to happen gradually. “Over time, they can begin to affect confidence, safety, and day-to-day independence.”

How to improve your grip strength

As Trachman says, deteriorating grip strength isn’t inevitable, and even if you have started feeling some decline, there are a few things you can do to work on improving grip strength.

She recommends the following exercises, stating they are joint-friendly and accessible for someone with already reduced grip strength. You don’t need any specific equipment to perform them, just things you already have around the house.

How to do the grip strength exercises

1. Towel squeeze hold

Time: 2min each side

“This exercise builds baseline grip strength without requiring any specialized equipment,” says Trachman.

How to do it:

• Roll up a small hand towel and hold it in one hand.
• Squeeze the towel as hard as possible for five to 10 seconds.
• Relax your hand for a few seconds.
• Continue until the two minutes have elapsed, then repeat on the other side.

2. Rubber band finger extension

Time: 2min each side

“Grip strength needs both squeezing and opening hand strength. This exercise works on the latter,” says Trachman.

How to do it:

• Place a rubber band around all five fingers.
• Slowly open your hand, stretching the fingers against the resistance of the band.
• Hold for five to 10 seconds.
• Relax your hand for a few seconds.
• Continue until the two minutes have elapsed, then repeat on the other side.

3. Seated dumbbell hold

Sets: 2 Time: 2min each side

“You get the same grip stimulus as a farmer’s carry, but without adding in balance or walking,” says Trachman.

How to do it:

• Hold a light dumbbell, a water bottle or a can of food in one hand with your arm positioned comfortably by your side. The object should be heavy enough that you experience fatigue by the end of the hold.
• Hold for time.
• Repeat on the other side.

Jill Jones is on a mission to change the status quo of aging.

The ISSA-certified personal trainer, owner of Colosseum Gym in New Jersey and co-founder of online platform FitQuo, believes building muscle is the ultimate aging defence.

“Strength training should be accessible, sustainable and part of everyday life at any age,” she tells Fit&Well.

It’s why she launched FitQuo with co-founder Elizabeth Reeder, to help people get stronger, feel more energized and better able to take charge of their health in the gym or at home.

Now, after years of working with older adults and beginners, she has realized that a handful of factors underpin longevity.

“I’ve found that five things matter most when it comes to aging well,” says Jones.

“Not just living longer, but living better.”

1. Balance and stability

“Falls are one of the leading causes of injury in adults over 65,” says Jones.

Most are preventable. “Balance is a skill, and like any skill, it gets better with practice,” she says.

Jones urges everyone to incorporate single-leg work, slow and controlled movements, and exercises that challenge your coordination, like single-leg deadlifts, to “train your body to catch itself” if you trip or stumble.

“My clients come in wanting to look better. They stay because they feel better, safer, steadier and more confident in everything they do.”

2. Mobility and joint health

Pain and tightness are not inevitable.

“Many of my clients come to me believing that pain is just part of getting older,” says Jones.

Then, within weeks of working together, their stiff hips, tight shoulders or aching knees become a thing of the past.

“Joints need to move to feel good, and when we stop moving through our full range of motion, the body starts closing those ranges off permanently,” she explains.

“Our bodies adapt to our level of movement. A sedentary lifestyle is the real enemy, not our age.”

3. Resistance training for bone and muscle strength

After 30, we naturally start losing muscle mass.

“This process accelerates after 60,” says Jones. “But here’s what most people don’t realize: resistance training doesn’t just slow that loss, it can actually reverse it.”

Building strength is equally protective for your bones too, she adds.

“Using weights signals the body to maintain bone density, which is critical for preventing fractures.

“You don’t need heavy weights, you just need to show up consistently and do the exercises that actually matter.”

4. Cardiovascular fitness

Traditional cardio isn’t the only way to improve your heart health.

“You don't have to run a 5K to improve VO2 max—the measure of how efficiently your body uses oxygen during exercise,” explains Jones.

“For beginners and older adults, simply raising your heart rate in a controlled, rhythmic way through marching, stepping or brisk walking is enough to make meaningful progress.”

The goal is effort, not speed.

As your fitness improves, Jones says you can introduce new movements like dynamic mountain climbers to keep sessions physically challenging and mentally stimulating.

5. Confidence and independence

“Confidence is built through habit and progression,” says Jones.

“This is the transformation I love watching most, when people who once moved through the world with hesitation start to stand taller, moving more freely, and choose to work out not out of fear but because they’ve worked hard for that fitness and they refuse to lose it.”

When that lightbulb goes off, she adds, there’s nothing quite like it.

“That shift is worth more than any fitness metric.”

Jones has designed this 21-minute full-body workout, which she believes addresses all of the above.

“It can be done entirely from your living room,” she says. “All you need is a chair and a light pair of dumbbells.”

We all know we should clean our teeth daily, but good oral hygiene can do more for you than give you a healthy smile. According to experts, it could improve your brain health and reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Poor dental care can lead to gum disease (gingivitis) when bacteria builds up around the teeth and gums, which can result in more severe and irreversible gum disease, known as periodontitis. These bacteria don’t always stay put—they can enter the bloodstream and trigger chronic inflammation, which is linked to brain aging and conditions like Alzheimer’s.

“Multiple large studies and scientific reviews now show a consistent link between gum disease and an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia,” says dentist and oral health expert Dr Kami Hoss, author of If Your Mouth Could Talk.

“A 2025 umbrella of reviews—covering 52 studies spanning two decades—suggests that people with gum disease are significantly more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those with healthy gums.”

Hoss, who is also the founder of oral care brand SuperMouth, adds: “None of this surprises me. The mouth is not a separate system. It has never been. And science is finally catching up to what dentists have understood for a long time.”

How can bacteria in the mouth influence the brain?

“There are multiple pathways—the most direct route is through the bloodstream,” explains Hoss. “When gums are inflamed, the tissue lining becomes compromised and the bacteria from your mouth spill into your blood every time you brush, eat or even chew.”

This means the bacteria can travel to distant organs, including the brain.

“Oral pathogens [microorganisms that can cause disease in the body] may also migrate directly to the brain through your nose or gut,” explains Hoss. “When the balance of bacteria in your mouth is disrupted, it can alter your gut bacteria too, and through what researchers call the gut-brain axis, that gut disruption promotes inflammation in the brain.”

Hoss says bleeding gums are a sign of inflammation. “That inflamed tissue creates a gap in your mouth's protective barrier that allows bacteria and their toxic byproducts directly into your blood.

“Once in the bloodstream, the primary gum disease bacterium, Porphyromonas gingivalis, releases toxins that damage the brain’s protective shield—the ‘blood-brain barrier’.”

Once that barrier is weakened, harmful substances can reach the brain more easily, potentially triggering inflammation and changes linked to conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, he adds.

Hoss says the evidence that poor dental hygiene can affect brain health is compelling. “It’s strong enough that we can’t dismiss it. The risk of developing Alzheimer's disease has been reported to double within a decade following a diagnosis of gum disease. That statistic stops people cold in my lectures—and it should.”

He points to a 2019 study published in Science Advances that found evidence of Porphyromonas gingivalis—the primary bacterium behind chronic gum disease—in the brains of some Alzheimer's patients.

Hoss says: “They also identified toxic proteins produced by this bacterium called gingipains in those same brains. The levels of gingipains correlated directly with the hallmark damage seen in Alzheimer's disease.

“You are finding a gum disease bacterium living inside the brain of an Alzheimer's patient, and the more of it you find, the worse the neurological damage.”

He adds: “More recently, the National Institutes of Health funded a $2.8 million research project at the Dental College of Georgia specifically to understand exactly how these oral bacteria may be invading the brain. The scientific community is no longer treating this as a fringe theory. It is a serious and active field of investigation.”

How to improve your oral and brain health

So, what can you do other than regular brushing and flossing? Hoss shared four things we can all do to reduce the risks further.

1. Avoid ultra-processed foods, especially refined sugars

“Diet is one of the most powerful levers we have and most people dramatically underestimate it,” says Hoss. “Refined sugars and ultra-processed foods directly feed the bacteria that cause gum disease, while also driving the body-wide inflammation connected to cognitive decline. That is two harms for the price of one.”

Hoss offers up some good news: “On the positive side, diets rich in whole foods, healthy fats, fermented foods, and colorful vegetables support both a healthier oral microbiome and a healthier brain.

“Fiber-rich plant foods act as natural prebiotics, feeding the beneficial bacteria in both your mouth and gut. Leafy greens support nitric oxide production, which benefits blood vessel health in both the brain and the gum tissue. What feeds your gums tends to feed your brain. The overlap is not coincidental—it is biological.”

2. Exercise regularly

Yes, there’s yet another benefit to exercising. Hoss explains that it “reduces the inflammatory proteins circulating in your blood, improves blood flow to the brain, and supports a more resilient immune response in your gum tissue.” This means white blood cells can combat bacteria more effectively.

“The lifestyle patterns that damage your gums tend to damage your heart and brain simultaneously. And the lifestyle patterns that protect one tend to protect all three. That is not a coincidence–it is a shared biology.”

3. Try an after-meals mouth spray and/or xylitol sugar-free gum

Hoss suggests that sugar-free gum containing xylitol can help reduce the bacteria that most causes cavity and gum disease, it does this by stimulating saliva production and raising oral pH between meals.

“Saliva is your mouth's natural defense and repair system. Not all sugar-free gum is xylitol gum, so read the label,” says Hoss, who also thinks there’s another tool that deserves far more attention than it gets: a mouth spray designed for use after meals.

“Most people have no oral care option between brushing sessions, which means hours of acid exposure, bacterial activity, and pH imbalance going unchecked throughout the day,” he explains.

“A well-formulated mouth spray with no artificial ingredients, no alcohol, an alkaline pH, and prebiotic ingredients can quickly neutralize the acid environment after eating, support the beneficial bacterial community, and freshen breath without disrupting your microbiome the way that alcohol-based sprays and rinses do.”

4. Focus on good quality sleep and stress reduction

How stressed you are and your sleep quality can negatively impact gum health.

“Stress hormones like cortisol and catecholamines can directly alter the behavior and growth of gum disease bacteria, essentially making them more aggressive,” says Hoss. “When you are chronically stressed, your immune system is suppressed and the pathogens in your gums are receiving a biological signal to become more harmful.

“Sleep compounds this. Poor sleep raises systemic inflammation, weakens immunity and reduces salivary flow.

“Managing sleep quality and stress is not just about your mental health. It should genuinely be part of your oral health strategy.”

Ideal oral hygiene routine

Hoss shares the routine he thinks you should be following:

• Brush for two minutes twice a day with a sonic electric toothbrush with PBT bristles, a pressure sensor and a UV sanitizing hub—to ensure your brush head is not reintroducing bacteria into your mouth with every use.
• Angle your toothbrush towards the gumline where the most dangerous bacteria colonize.
• Floss daily to break up the bacterial film between teeth—where your brush can’t reach.
• Choose toothpaste, mouthwash and floss that contain prebiotic ingredients including inulin (plant-derived fiber) and xylitol (a natural sugar alcohol) that feed and support the good bacteria in your mouth.

Strength and stability can quickly diminish as we age, leading to increased risk of falls and injury when performing everyday tasks.

It’s something certified personal trainer Carter Lee from BetterMe has often observed when working with seniors, but he says this four-move routine can help arrest that decline.

“This circuit delivers a full-body workout using resistance bands to improve mobility and build functional strength,” he tells Fit&Well.

The routine starts with a seated drill to strengthen the stabilizer muscles around your feet and ankles. The exercises then move up the body to address tightness and weakness around your chest and shoulders.

Bands, Lee says, challenge muscles and joints without the impact often associated with lifting weights, making it an especially useful tool for older adults training.

“Beyond their convenience, training with resistance bands can make daily activities significantly easier, supporting independence in everyday movements,” he adds.

How to do the resistance band workout

Lee recommends starting with a light to medium tension band.

“Work each exercise for 45 seconds, then take 15 seconds to rest and transition to the next move,” he says.

You can do the circuit once as a gentle daily routine to mobilize your ankles and shoulders or two to three times in total for a slightly more intensive standalone workout.

1. Banded foot activation

Time: 45sec Rest: 15sec

• Sit in a chair with your right leg extended.
• Loop a long resistance band around the ball of your right foot, holding the ends firmly.
• Flex your foot forward against the band’s resistance, then slowly return to the starting position.
• Continue for 45 seconds on one side, then repeat on the other on the next round, or switch halfway through if you’re only performing one round.

Lee says: “Strengthening the small muscles in the feet and ankles is critical for seniors, helping improve ground feel and ankle stability. A strong base can help reduce the risk of trips and falls.”

2. Seated band pull-apart

Time: 45sec Rest: 15sec

• Sit on a chair with your feet flat on the floor, holding a resistance band in both hands.
• Raise your hands to chest height in front of you, with your arms extended.
• Keeping your arms straight, move your hands out to the sides, slowly pulling the band apart and towards your chest, until you feel a stretch across your chest.
• Slowly return your hands to the start.

Lee says: “This exercise counteracts desk posture or slouching, by opening your chest and strengthening your upper-back muscles responsible for an upright, confident stance.”

3. Shoulder dislocation

Time: 45sec Rest: 15sec

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding a long resistance band in both hands in front of your thighs.
• Move your hands apart to create tension in the band.
• Slowly and with control, raise your arms overhead and as far back as you can, then return to the starting position.

Lee says: “This movement improves shoulder flexibility and warms up your upper body, making it easier to reach for items on high shelves or get dressed in the morning.”

4. Alternating shoulder dislocation

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding a long resistance band in both hands in front of your thighs.
• Raise your right arm overhead, then behind you, bringing the band past your left ear.
• Raise your left arm overhead, then in front of you, bringing the band past your right ear.
• Continue, alternating the leading arm with each rep.

Lee says: “This variation of the shoulder dislocation exercise focuses on unilateral stability, helping to identify and correct strength imbalances between your left and right shoulders.”

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Jim Owen, 85, is living, breathing, push-up repping proof that it’s never too late to get fit.

Today he’s a 10-time gold medal winner at the San Diego Senior Games—an event that included a remarkable two-and-a-half minute dead hang.

He’s also the filmmaker behind a three-part documentary series, “Virtuous Circle: A Geezer’s Guide to Successful Aging”, now streaming on PBS.

But just 15 years earlier, a three-decade-long career on Wall Street and subsequent book tour had left his body broken.

“When I turned 70 I was in god-awful shape,” he tells Fit&Well.

“All the travel got to me—it damn near killed me.

“Excruciating lower-back pain—I’m talking crawling-on-the-bathroom-floor kind of pain. My right rotator cuff was frozen. I had no energy at all. I said, ‘I’ve got to do something’.”

In that moment, Owen resolved to transform his life, spending the next decade reintroducing movement into his daily routine, building a foundation of strength and, in his own words, “fighting off old age”.

Here, the octogenarian breaks down the small steps he made to start reclaiming his health and fitness—steps he hopes could help anyone at a similar crossroads.

How to reclaim your health and fitness at 70

Before telling his story, Owen is keen to stress that he’s “a very, very ordinary guy”.

“Yes, I played football in high school but I was never a star athlete. I found my inner athlete when I was about 75,” he explains from his home in California.

“Now I’m a competitive athlete. It’s been a fun journey and, believe it or not, the best is yet to come. That’s my attitude.”

Rather than aiming to live longer, he’s thinking in terms of living better.

“I’m not trying to live to 100. I just want to make every day count. It’s been a good ride so far and I want to encourage other people,” he says.

“Anybody can do this.”

1. Get specific

Having resolved to turn his life around, the first thing Owen did was grab a pen and paper.

“I strongly think that the first step is setting very, very specific goals,” says Owen.

Rather than simply committing to exercise more, as doctors would tell him to, the retiree identified three specific goals:

1. Reduce or eliminate his excruciating back pain
2. Boost his energy
3. Lose some serious weight

“I was about 35lbs overweight,” he remembers.

“I was a certified couch potato. My doctor said I need to exercise and my wife said I need to get off the couch, but that’s not motivation.”

Owen wrote those goals down as a daily, tangible reminder.

2. Start small

Next, he challenged himself to move in some way every day for a month.

“I believe in starting small,” he explains.

“Small steps over time add up to big strides. To anyone just starting out at 65 or 70, don't be overly ambitious. Start small.”

For Owen, that meant walking.

“I did a 30-day test. I said I’m going to walk every day for 30 days and see what happens. On day one, after four blocks I was puffing and huffing.

“Then every day I walked a little bit farther. By the end of 30 days I only walked probably a mile, but everyone seemed to notice, telling me I looked like I had more energy.”

With that positive reinforcement, Owen kept walking.

“All I did was walk. I walked for probably three months.”

3. Build your foundation

After 90 days, daily movement was now part of Owen’s routine, but walking alone wasn’t going to cut it.

“It does nothing for your back,” he continues. “It strengthens your lungs and all, but I decided I needed to build a foundation of strength.”

Owen joined a gym, insisting on wearing a figure-hugging compression T-shirt rather than hiding under a baggy top.

“People must have been looking at me thinking this guy has no pride,” he jokes. “But that has been a motivating factor. I’ve worn a compression T-shirt ever since.”

On day one, Owen says he couldn’t muster one push-up.

“That’s how weak I was. It took about two to three weeks to do a real push-up. But I kept at it. At the end of three or four weeks I was doing two or three.”

After five years, now 75, he was repping out sets of 50 push-ups.

“What it shows you is, don’t be too ambitious at the beginning. Take the long view.”

4. Track your progress

Taking up strength training was a “life changer”, but Owen needed a plan to see results.

“I have a schedule,” he explains, “and I believe that everybody needs a schedule, like a commitment, and I write this down. I can tell you how many days I exercised four years ago.”

Now, Owen works out six days a week for one hour at a time.

“Three days of strength training, three days of cardio, which I do by walking up hills at a pretty good clip, and then I stretch three times a week.

“People often say they don’t have the time to commit to an hour a day. I tell them it’s just 4% of your day. I don’t care how busy you are.”

To fit sessions in, Owen suggests breaking those 60 minutes into bite-sized chunks, such as stretching in the morning and walking after lunch.

But, he adds, it’s important to work on your weaknesses, not just your strengths. For Owen, strengthening his core and working on his balance are “critical”.

5. Be patient

Lastly, Owen remembers to be patient.

“No matter what you do, there will be setbacks, plateaus, there will be injuries,” he says.

“I broke my wrist a few years ago. I broke my hip about a year ago. These are all setbacks, but you have to keep at it and say, this is life.

“The progress is not a straight line. People think this guy must have found the secret. There is no secret. Show up, do the work, try to have fun with it and don’t be too hard on yourself.”

On low-energy days, Owen will cut back, do fewer reps and a lower weight.

“And guess what, I feel so much better. I’ve never worked out and not felt better afterwards,” he says. “That's the motivation to keep coming back.”

After five years of coming back for more, Owen says he has built a foundation of strength. “Once you have that foundation, it becomes easier. It becomes fun.”

6. Keep moving

Owen admits that you don’t have to work out like he does.

“You don't even have to lift weights," he says. You certainly don’t have to enter competitions like the Senior Games, which he’s won all four times that he’s entered, incidentally.

“The key is you just got to keep moving.”

He felt so strongly about this last point that in 2017, Owen wrote a book about it, called Just Move!

“You don’t have to have a gym or a trainer. But you have to move,” he says.

“If I had known what I know now [earlier in my career], I would not have let one day go by without doing some kind of physical activity.

“Not necessarily the gym. Maybe just walking. Walking up the steps rather than taking the elevator. Walking to my car. Parking it a mile away. Something to get you moving.

“That’s what I would have done differently. I would have started moving when I was 50.

“My message is very simple,” he concludes. “If I can do it—and I’m nobody special, believe me—anybody can do it. The sooner you start, the easier it is. But it’s never too late.”

Worried about how mobile you are? Scared of losing your balance and falling? There’s a simple clinical test that’s used by physical therapists that you can try at home.

The Timed Up and Go (TUG) test measures how quickly you can get out of a chair, walk three meters, turn around, and then walk back to the chair and sit down.

But it’s not just about speed. The TUG test assesses a bunch of other important physical skills, from functional mobility—how well you move in everyday tasks—and balance, to gait (your walking pattern), lower-body strength, coordination and turning ability.

“The TUG is a physical performance test I use to assess mobility and locomotor performance in my elderly clients with balance issues,” Dr Ashley Katzenback, physical therapist and owner of Cape Concierge Physical Therapy, tells Fit&Well.

In other words, how well and efficiently someone can move from one place to another.

She says it’s a useful test to determine the risk of falls. “More specifically, it helps me to assess my client’s ability to perform sequential motor tasks—a series of movements in a certain order to achieve a goal—such as walking and turning.”

So why is mobility so important, especially as we age? “Mobility is what keeps you out of a nursing home,” explains Katzenback. ”Getting up and down from a chair, which the TUG tests, is a critical activity of daily living.”

Read on to find out how to do the TUG test at home, what your results mean, and how to improve your mobility.

How to do the Timed Up and Go test

For this test you’ll need:

• A chair with arms
• Tape measure
• Tape or marker
• Stopwatch

You can have one trial run, which isn’t timed, before doing the real thing.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Put a piece of tape or another clear marker on the floor three meters away from the chair, you need to be able to easily see it.
2. Sit with your spine pushed against the back of the armchair. The chair needs to be stable enough that it doesn’t move when you go from sitting to standing.
3. Get ready with the stopwatch in your hand.
4. As soon as you press start, stand up and walk to the line on the floor at a normal pace, then turn around and walk back to the chair and sit down.
5. Stop timing when you are sitting down again with your back resting against the chair.

What your result means

“If you are under 60, you should be able to complete it in under 10 seconds,” says Katzenback. “Between the ages of 60 and 79, you should be able to complete it in under 12 seconds. If it takes a person over 14 seconds to complete, this indicates a high risk of falling.”

How to improve mobility

If you failed the TUG test or were slower than you hoped, Katzenback has a few things you can do to change that.

“Building up your calf and glute strength will allow you to get out of the chair faster,” she says. “Improving hip extension (the movement of straightening the hip joint) and ankle mobility will allow you to walk faster.

“If you don’t do regular mobility work, you are more likely to fall, which increases your fear of falling. This fear then keeps you sedentary and the ripple effect just grows.”

Try this simple ankle mobility workout, this full-body strength workout for over 50s, or these four mobility moves from Olympian Sally Gunnell to help improve your TUG test.

Nothing beats in-person help, though. To find a physical therapist near you, search the American Physical Therapy Association’s directory.

When my parents hit retirement age they embarked on a fitness campaign with triathlons, cycle treks and active adventures to fill their time. But what if you’re new to fitness and want to stay active and healthy as you age?

I asked Jeff Fish, a NASM-certified personal trainer and senior director of coaching at D1 training, how people should approach fitness later in life.

“Once you reach 60, the key to working out is to listen to your body and focus on movements that improve your daily life,” he says. “It’s not about doing more, it’s about doing enough, consistently.”

Firstly, he says that if you’re a novice over 60 you should consult your doctor before starting a new exercise program.

But once you get the green light, keep these tips from Fish in mind to get you moving safely.

1. Consistency beats intensity

He explains that a common pitfall for beginners is overexertion, which increases injury risk and causes burnout.

“Small movements every day equate to better results than one or two high-intensity workouts per week,” says Fish.

“After 60, your nervous system’s tolerance for intensity drops. Recovery windows are longer and stress accumulates differently than it did at 40.”

Finding a moderate pace and committing to that leads to better results, he says.

“Consistent moderate movement builds sustainable habits and allows for gradual adaptation, producing better long-term health outcomes than chasing intensity ever will.”

2. Build mobility, stability and functional strength

“As we age, we naturally lose muscle mass—a condition called sarcopenia—and by 60, this loss is noticeable, making everyday movements more challenging,” says Fish.

The process begins 30 years earlier, with a 3-8% of muscle mass lost per decade, but Fish says the muscle loss alone isn’t the worst of it.

“The loss of coordination, balance and reactive stability is what makes falls the number-one functional threat for the older population,” he says.

“I prioritize single-leg stability exercises to build the neuromuscular connection between your brain and your body—improving balance, posture and your ability to react when the ground isn’t perfect.”

He is also a big advocate for functional movement.

“Squats, step-ups, lateral shuffles, and hip hinges transfer directly to real life and protect the joints and lower back in the process,” he says.

3. Do more low-impact cardio and strength training

“A realistic weekly routine for someone over 60 should include at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity five days a week,” says Fish.

Before you decide that’s unachievable, remember it should be low-impact to protect your joints.

“Walking, swimming and cycling are excellent choices. They build cardiovascular capacity without compressing joints or stressing the lower back,” says Fish.

Fish breaks the mold with strength training, encouraging his clients to push for three sessions a week over the more common two.

One of the main reasons younger people can’t make three sessions a week is lack of time, which might become less of an issue after retirement.

If you have an effective training program and a good recovery plan, this should be achievable without too many sore days in between.

“The goal at this stage isn’t aesthetics, it’s preserving bone density, maintaining joint integrity and keeping the muscles that protect your hips, knees, and spine strong and responsive,” explains Fish.

“Three sessions a week, with appropriate loading and adequate recovery between, gives your body the stimulus it needs to adapt without accumulating the kind of stress that breaks you down.”

You might assume that jumping exercises are something you should avoid as you get older, but you’d be mistaken.

Although low-impact workouts are great for helping you build strength, recover from injury and protect sensitive joints, incorporating some high-impact moves into your routines could also support your body, particularly for women.

“Jump training can improve bone health, balance, and your ability to perform all kinds of activities from walking up the stairs to catching yourself if you step off a curb,” says Dr Elizabeth Knight, who researches women's health at menopause wellness platform Respin.

“These are all key areas for long-term health, and midlife is the time when these indicators can start to decline, often slowly, so you might not notice until you’ve lost a lot,” she says.

According to Knight, a solid workout routine includes strength, cardio, mobility and impact exercises—such as jumping movements.

“Adding exercises like jump training to your routine before you experience falls, fractures and weakness is the goal,” she explains. “This is a proactive and evidence-based approach to longevity: keep it, so you don’t have to try to rebuild it later on.”

Want to get in on the jumping action? Respin Health have partnered with fitness company Peloton to create workouts and programmes designed specifically for midlife women navigating perimenopause and menopause.

Below, Peloton trainer Katie Wang has shared a 10-minute jumping workout you can try at home.

The 10-minute jumping workout for midlife women

The routine that Wang has shared doesn’t require any equipment and can be done from home.

Even though it might look like a lower-body workout, Wang says you should be engaging your upper body too. “Don’t forget to leverage your arms when you’re getting into jump training,” she advises.

“Focus on your body positioning to avoid injury. In general, think about starting and landing your jump in the same position, with full hip extension at the peak of your jump.”

The workout starts with a single round of warm-up exercises to perform back-to-back. Rest for 30 seconds then move onto the jump section of the workout.

Perform two rounds of the three jump exercises. Do each move for 60 seconds, taking a 15-second rest before moving onto the next exercise.

If this is too challenging, shorten the exercise time and extend the rest time. For instance, work for 45 seconds and rest for 30 seconds.

The warm-up and workout time is just under 10 minutes in total.

Warm-up

1. Alternating knee lift

Time: 30sec Rest: 0sec

• Stand with your feet hip-distance apart and arms by your sides (or with your hands on your hips to aid balance), and engage your core.
• Lift one knee to hip height, keeping your core engaged and your chest facing forward.
• Repeat on the other side.
• Continue at a steady pace, alternating sides with each rep.

2. Unweighted squat

Time: 30sec Rest: 0sec

• Stand with your feet just wider than hip-distance apart with your toes pointed slightly out.
• Push your hips back and bend your knees to lower, keeping your chest up, until your hips are at knee height, or as close as your mobility allows.
• Push through your heels to stand back up.

3. Unweighted squat to calf raise

Time: 30sec Rest: 30sec

• Stand with your feet just wider than hip-distance apart with your toes pointed slightly out.
• Push your hips back and bend your knees to lower, keeping your chest up, until your hips are at knee height, or as close as your mobility allows.
• Push through your heels to stand back up and lift your heels.
• Pause on your tiptoes momentarily, then lower your heels to the floor with control.

Workout

Complete two rounds of the following exercises.

1. Front-to-back hop

Time: 60sec Rest: 15sec

• Stand with your feet hip-distance apart and your toes pointing forward.
• Bend your knees slightly and swing your arms behind you.
• Jump forward by about one or two feet, swinging your arms overhead to aid momentum.
• Jump backward to your original position, again swinging your arms.
• Stay light on your feet and keep the jumps small and quick.

2. Side-to-side hop

Time: 60sec Rest: 15 sec

• Stand with your feet hip-distance apart and your toes pointing forward.
• Bend your knees slightly and swing your arms behind you.
• Jump to the side by about one or two feet, swinging your arms overhead to aid momentum.
• Jump back to your original position, again swinging your arms.
• Stay light on your feet and keep the jumps small and quick.

3. Broad jump

Time: 60sec Rest: 15 sec

• Stand with your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart.
• Push your hips back and bend your knees to lower until your hips are at knee height and swing your arms behind you.
• Jump forward as far as you can, swinging your arms forward to help generate momentum.
• Land softly with your knees bent, absorbing the impact.
• Stand, turn around and reset your stance, before repeating the movements to jump back to the start position.
• This move is more about controlled explosive power than speed, so take your time to jump as far as you can.

How to add jump training into your exercise routine

It’s important to start small with jump training and give your body time to recover after a jump workout. But, equally, it’s important to start. A 10-minute workout like this, which spends time warming up your joints, is an ideal starting point.

Perhaps you've been wary of high-impact exercises previously, but Knight says there's no need to be. “I think a lot of people in midlife (or older) worry it might cause injury, but jump training is safer than many people think,” she says.

“Most people can safely start adding jumping in place to their routine, even people with low bone density.”

However, Knight warns that there are a few injuries and issues that don’t respond well to jump training. “If you’ve had a vertebral compression fracture, have a current foot or lower leg injury, have severe balance difficulties, or have pelvic organ prolapse, you should chat with your healthcare team to find a plan that’s safe for you,” she advises.

“Often, with the right plan, you’ll still be able to progress to impact training, it just might take a little extra time and care.”

Strength training becomes more important than ever as you get older. That's because we naturally lose muscle with age, which can lead to aches and pains, and increase your risk of injury, making something you take for granted, like walking, an uncomfortable experience.

Plus, the more muscle mass you have, the better your metabolic health, which in turn has a positive effect on blood pressure and weight management.

The good news is that you don’t need to pay for an expensive workout class or even a gym membership to build muscular strength. Samantha Bilby, founder of Bloom Flourish Fitness and a certified personal trainer who regularly trains people in their 60s, says strength workouts can be very simple.

“We use dumbbells or bodyweight exercises,” she says. “I’m a firm believer that you don’t need a ton of time, space or equipment to get in a great workout that you also enjoy.”

Bilby has helped her clients reduce back pain and stay on their feet for longer without discomfort through her strength training programs.

Here’s her 20-minute dumbbell workout designed for building functional strength in your 60s.

1. March in place

Time: 2min

Use this move as your warm-up to raise your heart rate and prepare your muscles for the exercises ahead.

• Stand with your feet hip-distance apart.
• Raise one knee to hip height.
• Return to the start, then repeat on the other side.
• Continue, alternating sides with each rep.

“Put on some of your favorite tunes and march to the beat,” says Bilby. “This gets the body moving and the heart rate up so that you are ready for the workout.”

2. Single-arm single-leg shoulder press

Sets: 3 Reps: 10 each side

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding a dumbbell in your right hand by your right shoulder.
• Raise your left knee to hip height, and bend it to 90°.
• Use your free hand to hold on to a chair or wall for support if needed.
• Extend your arm straight up to press the dumbbell overhead.
• Lower it slowly to shoulder height.
• Complete all the repetitions on one side, then switch sides.

“The ability to stay balanced is essential as we age,” Bilby explains.

“It helps to prevent falls and allows you to move more freely throughout your day. Shoulder presses also help you to lift items overhead.”

3. Goblet squat to chair

Sets: 3 Reps: 10

• Stand with a chair behind you, feet hip-distance apart and toes slightly turned out.
• Hold a dumbbell in both hands at your chest.
• Push your hips back and bend your knees to lower slowly onto the seat.
• Push through your heels to extend your knees and hips to stand upright.

“The ability to sit and stand without the use of your hands is a great tool as you age,” says Bilby.

4. Single-arm supported row

Sets: 3 Reps: 10 each side

• Stand behind a chair, holding a dumbbell in your left hand.
• Place your right hand on the back of the chair and hinge your torso forward from your hips.
• Step your left foot back so you’re in a stable, staggered stance, with a slight bend in your right knee.
• Pull the dumbbell to your hips, keeping your elbow tucked to your side and your torso still.
• Lower the dumbbell with control.
• Complete all your repetitions on one side, then switch sides.

Rows will help you build strength in your back, which becomes an essential asset as you age to maintain independence. “Having a strong back is essential for bending, lifting, walking and preventing falls,” says Bilby.

5. Standing rotational punch

Sets: 3 Time: 30sec

• Stand with your feet hip-distance apart.
• Tuck your elbows to your ribs and raise your fists in front of your face.
• Rotate your torso to one side and extend one arm out to punch the air.
• Return to your starting position and repeat on the other side.
• Continue rotating and air punching side to side.

“This is a great standing core exercise—and it’s also really fun,” Bilby says. “The best workout is the one that you enjoy!”

Welcome to Workout Diaries, a series where we ask expert trainers to talk us through what a week of exercise looks like for them, helping you figure out how to develop and maintain an effective workout routine.

Edwina Jenner is an online personal trainer who specializes in helping midlife women get fit and strong through strength training programs on her app and website.

And, of course, Jenner practices what she preaches. “My priority is always strength,” she tells Fit&Well. “I turn 50 next month, and I want to continue building a strong body I can rely on as I age, and that won’t hold me back.

“Strength training supports my metabolism, helps protect my bones from osteoporosis, improves balance and helps me stay independent as I get older. It also helps me manage stress much more effectively.”

That doesn’t mean Jenner lives in the gym, or even goes there at all. “Most of my training revolves around strength work using dumbbells. I focus on compound movements such as squats, deadlifts, lunges, rows and presses because they recruit multiple muscle groups and give me the most benefit for my time.”

Jenner generally exercises for between 30 and 45 minutes at a time. “You don’t need to spend hours exercising to see results. A well-structured strength session can be highly effective in a relatively short time.

“Alongside that, I include mobility work, core training and isolation exercises for smaller muscle groups. Walking is a regular part of my routine for both physical and mental health.”

She aims to fit four workouts a week—plus daily walks—into a busy schedule, which means being flexible. “I’m realistic,” says Jenner. “Life, work and family responsibilities all come into play, so if I miss a session, I don’t overthink it. Consistency over time matters far more than any single missed workout.”

So Jenner doesn’t have to rely on motivation, she schedules workouts into her calendar so they are part of her to-do list. “Motivation comes and goes,” she says. “However, with regular workouts, I feel much more in control of my life and I manage stress more easily. The advantages of a workout far surpass any excuses I might come up with.

“Of course, I don’t always feel like training, and I listen to my body, but I trust the process and keep things simple. If I’m really low on energy or pressed for time, I just do three moves, repeat them three times, and ensure I’m lifting heavier by the third set. Job done with no overthinking.”

Edwina Jenner’s weekly workout routine

Monday 12pm
Active recovery, dog walk (1 hour)

Tuesday 4pm
Full-body strength (30 minutes)

Wednesday 5pm
Core and mobility (25 minutes)

Thursday 5pm
Upper-body strength (30 minutes)

Friday
Rest day, long dog walk and mobility work (90 minutes)

Saturday 3pm
Lower-body strength (30 minutes)

Sunday 3pm
Arm and accessory work (25 minutes)

Edwina Jenner’s top three workout tips

Keep your workout kit visible

“Be proud that you train and make it part of your life,” she says. “If we have to dig our mat and dumbbells out from under a table, workouts are far less likely to happen. If you can unroll your mat and start moving in seconds, you’re far more likely to stay consistent.”

Schedule your workouts

“Put them in your diary on a Sunday night and treat them like a doctor's appointment or work meeting,” says Jenner. “You are sending a clear signal to yourself that training is part of your identity and that you are making room in your life for it.”

Keep it simple

“Strength training responds best to consistency,” she says. “A handful of well-performed movements done regularly will take you much further than constantly changing workouts. Repeating the same key exercises week after week builds confidence, allows you to gradually increase the weight and helps you develop real strength.”

And Jenner says even if you’ve not tried strength training before, it’s never too late to pick it up. “I’ve seen women in their 40s, 50s and beyond become significantly stronger within a matter of months. The body is remarkably adaptable. With the right approach and a bit of patience, you can build a strong body that will support you for decades to come.”

How many times could you stand up from a chair and sit down again, without using your hands, in 30 seconds? The answer may indicate your ability to maintain independence in later life.

The 30-second sit-to-stand test, as it’s known, first appeared in a 1999 study by California State University researchers Roberta E. Rikli and C. Jessie Jones.

The test formed a central component of the Fullerton Functional Fitness Test battery the pair developed to predict mobility, fall risk and independence in later life.

Nearly three decades later, it’s still frequently used by physical therapists to assess fall risk, including as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) STEADI framework (Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths and Injuries).

“Preventing or delaying the onset of physical frailty is an increasingly important goal because more individuals are living well into their 8th and 9th decades,” the study’s authors noted at the turn of the century.

In 2013, Rikli and Jones published benchmarks for the 30-second sit-to-stand test for older adults to predict the capacity needed to maintain physical independence into later life.

Set by age group and gender, you can use these parameters to assess your own mobility and lower-body strength.

Here’s how to do it, followed by the benchmarks for men and women aged between 60 and 94, and finally guidance on how you can start to improve your score.

How to perform the 30-second sit-to-stand test

• Place a sturdy chair against a wall—ideally one with a seat approximately 17 inches off the ground.
• Sit with your feet flat on the floor and arms across your chest.
• Shift your weight forward as you press through the floor to stand fully upright, with your knees extended.
• Lower under control to seated—again without using your arms for assistance.
• That’s one rep. Complete as many reps as you can in 30 seconds.

Average 30-second sit-to-stand scores by age and gender

While a handy reference point, it’s worth noting that you can improve your mobility and strength at any age, and becoming proficient in this one exercise isn’t a guaranteed ticket for a long, healthy life.

The average scores also don’t take into account your medical history, such as if you've recently undergone surgery or sustained an injury.

And don’t worry if you don’t meet the average range—it’s not an exercise in establishing who is in peak physical shape. “Most importantly,” the authors noted, “the standards can be used in planning interventions that target specific areas of weakness, thus reducing risk for premature loss of mobility and independence.”

How to improve your score

One of the most effective ways to improve your score in the 30-second sit-to-stand test—and therefore reduce your fall risk—is to regularly practice the sit-to-stand exercise.

It’s a low-risk way to develop lower-body strength and mobility, replicating a common movement pattern akin to a bodyweight squat.

A 2019 study published in Experimental Gerontology also found that repeated sit-to-stand exercises performed three times a week for 12 weeks improved muscle strength in physically frail adults, making this action feel more achievable.

Fourteen men and women aged 75 to 88 were involved in the study, performing 48 reps per session.

The study authors noted: “For physically frail elders, a short-term conditioning program consisting of repeated sit-to-stand exercise is effective in increasing knee extensor strength and reducing the muscular effort required for lowering and raising the body.”

Poor coordination and balance aren’t the only causes of falls as we age.

According to personal trainer Glen Owen, one of the main culprits is a lack of strength, causing you to become unstable on your feet and uncertain with your movement.

“If you can't move with confidence, life quickly becomes worrisome,” says Owen, founder of Glen Owen Personal Training. “You’ll feel more nervous on stairs and hesitant walking outside.”

Owen says he regularly meets clients who have tried exercises like standing on one leg, using wobble boards, or doing endless core exercises to reduce the risk of falls—often unsuccessfully.

“Please don’t shoot the messenger here,” he tells Fit&Well. "But most ‘balance exercises’ like standing on one foot mostly make you better at, well, standing on one foot.”

A more future-proof solution, he argues, is developing “strong, responsive feet.

“When your feet are stronger and can move through a full range of motion, they react more quickly when you slip, trip, or step on an uneven surface,” he says.

“That quick reaction is what helps you catch yourself before a fall and improves balance, making you feel more confident walking around the house, stepping off curbs or scaling flights of stairs.”

You don’t need specialized equipment to achieve this. Owen says you can build these solid foundations in just five minutes a day with two simple lower-body exercises.

How to do the workout

This two-move workout will strengthen the muscles around the lower legs and ankles. This includes the gastrocnemius and soleus of the calves that run down the back of the lower leg, and the tibialis anterior, which runs alongside the shin bone.

Owen recommends practicing these two exercises for around five minutes a day or per session, aiming for three sets of each, with 15 seconds of rest between sets.

“Many people notice their feet feel stronger and their balance feels better in under two weeks,” he says. “It’s a simple, practical way to feel more confident on your feet—no wobble boards required.”

1. Standing calf raise

Sets: 3 Time: 30sec Rest: 15sec

• Stand near a wall, counter or sturdy chair so you can hold on for balance.
• Place the balls of your feet (the front part, just behind your toes) on the edge of a step with your heels off the edge. (If this feels daunting, start with your foot on the floor instead.)
• Slowly rise onto your toes, lifting your heels as high as is comfortable.
• Pause for a second at the top, then slowly lower your heels as low as is comfortable. If on a step, your heels may go slightly below the level of your toes.
• Aim for 10-15 repetitions within the 30-second set.

Owen says: “Standing calf raises strengthen the muscles in your calves and feet, improving ankle control and boosting pushing power for walking and stairs. Just keep the movement slow and controlled—it’s not a race.”

2. Seated foot tap

Sets: 3 Time: 30sec Rest: 15sec

• Sit in a sturdy chair, with your back supported if needed.
• Slide your feet slightly forward so your heels are slightly in front of your knees.
• Keeping your heels on the floor, lift the rest of your foot as high as you can, lifting your toes toward your shins.
• Lower the balls of your feet to tap the floor firmly (but not painfully).
• Continue with this up-and-down motion quickly, like you’re tapping along to a fast song, you should feel the muscles along the front of your shins working hard.

Owen says: “This novel exercise strengthens the muscles along the front of your shin, which work to lift your foot upward. These muscles act like your brakes, helping you clear small obstacles and control your foot placement as it lands.”

Australian fitness professional Heath Jones has made it his business to help older adults and complete beginners improve balance, strength and mobility.

Intrinsic to his method is consistency. It’s a core pillar of Active and Ageless, the age-adapted, over-50s health clubs he has launched in New South Wales and Queensland.

“In later life, the goal isn’t [to undertake] intense workouts—it’s moving well, often and without fear,” Jones tells Fit&Well.

Jones promotes the use of “simple and safe” daily workouts, rather than all-or-nothing routines, to build confidence first, followed by strength.

“Short, simple routines done consistently deliver far better results than complex programs,” he says, adding that “if you can move safely today, you can improve tomorrow”.

Here, Jones has provided a five-move routine that can be done at home with minimal equipment, incorporating functional movements that mirror the actions people take every day.

“Balance, strength and mobility are trainable at any age,” he says. “And small daily habits [like these] create long-term independence and longevity.”

How to do the home workout for seniors

Jones’ beginner-friendly routine combines four bodyweight exercises with a brisk walk.

He explains that when the workout is repeated over time, it will help develop lower-body and core stability, reduce the risk of falls, and improve cardiovascular health.

Perform two sets of each exercise for the prescribed number of reps or duration, then walk for 10-30 minutes, depending on the time you have available.

“I also teach the 50% rule,” says Jones. “On low-energy days, do half the reps or half the time. Consistency matters more than perfection.”

1. Sit-to-stand

Sets: 2 Reps: 8-12

• Sit on a sturdy chair with its back against a wall to keep it in place.
• Without using your arms to help, press through your feet to stand.
• Again, without using your hands, bend your hipes then your knees to slowly lower yourself into the seat.
• That’s one full rep. Repeat for 8-12 controlled reps.

Jones says: “Chair squats improve leg strength and independence. Focus on slow and controlled movement.”

2. Marching in place

Sets: 2 Time: 30-60sec

• Stand tall and march on the spot.
• Pump your arms and lift your feet to mid-shin height with each step.
• If feeling unstable, hold the top of a chair to aid balance.

Jones says: “Standing marches boost balance and improve hip mobility, while delivering light cardio too.”

3. Standing heel-to-toe balance hold

Sets: 2 Time: 20-30sec each side

• From standing, place one foot directly in front of the other as if standing on a tightrope.
• Keep the toe of your back foot touching the heel of your front foot.
• Keep your arms by your side or out wide to aid balance.
• Look straight ahead. After 20-30 seconds, switch sides.

Jones says: “This simple balance test trains stability and improves fall prevention.”

4. Wall push-up

Sets: 2 Reps: 8-12

• Place your hands on a wall in line with your shoulders.
• Take a big step back, straightening your arms.
• Bend your elbows to bring your chest toward the wall while keeping your body in a straight line from your shoulders to your ankles.
• Push away from the wall powerfully.
• If this feels too easy, step further away from the wall to change the angle.

Jones says: “Wall push-ups build upper-body and core strength safely.”

5. Brisk walking

Sets: 1 Time: 10-30min

• Set a pace that allows you to hold a conversation throughout.
• If you struggle to speak in full sentences without having to pause to take a breath, slow down your pace.

Jones says: “Brisk walking supports cardiovascular health and helps improve VO2 max for beginners.”

After 15 years as a personal trainer, I can confidently say that working out is possible for almost anyone—no matter your age or fitness level.

If you’re over 65, you may have valid concerns about beginning an exercise regimen. Stepping into a gym full of heavy weights and machines can be overwhelming, and balance or mobility issues may prevent you from performing certain movements.

I program the following 15-minute workout for my beginner-level senior clients, because it’s accessible, doesn’t require a lot of equipment, and can be easily adapted.

Even if you’re not a senior, these exercises can help build strength and move more efficiently.

How to do the 15-minute workout

For this workout, you’ll need a 10-20lb long-loop resistance band, like one of these, a light short-looped resistance band, like one of these, a chair and a section of wall.

Perform each exercise for 10 repetitions (or 10 seconds for the wall plank), then move onto the next exercise, resting briefly between each move. Perform all the exercises to complete one round. Complete two rounds in total.

Once you’ve gained more strength, aim for 12-15 repetitions of each exercise and repeat the circuit three times.

To perform the exercises effectively, make sure you’re familiar with how to engage your core muscles to help you maintain form and stability.

While this workout is appropriate for most, be sure to check with your doctor before you start. Meeting with a certified personal trainer is also advised, especially if you’re a beginner. They can help you perform exercises correctly and provide alternatives if needed.

1. Banded row

Reps: 10-15

• Loop a long resistance band around a strong anchor point, like a stair railing.
• Hold the ends of the band in each hand.
• Step back from the anchor point until the band is taut.
• Stand tall, engage your core and roll your shoulders back and down.
• Pull the ends of the band toward you with control, bringing your elbows to your torso, then behind it.
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together and hold this position for a few seconds.
• Slowly extend your arms with control.

Trainer tips: Avoid arching your lower back, and keep your shoulders relaxed and chest open.

Make it easier: If the resistance feels too strong, choose a lighter band or stand closer to the anchor point.

Make it harder: Choose a heavier band or stand further away from the anchor point.

2. Banded chest press

Reps: 10-15

• Loop a long resistance band around a strong anchor point, like a stair railing.
• Hold the ends of the band in each hand.
• Turn away from the anchor point and step forward until the band is taut.
• Step one foot in front of the other.
• Stand tall and engage your core.
• Bring your hands to either side of your chest.
• Extend your arms forward.
• Slowly reverse the movement.

Trainer tips: Avoid rounding your shoulders forward as you push the band in front of you. Squeeze your shoulder blades together as the band comes back toward you.

Make it easier: If the resistance feels too strong, choose a lighter band or stand closer to the anchor point.

Make it harder: Choose a heavier band or stand further away from the anchor point.

3. Chair squat

Reps: 10-15

• Stand with a chair behind you, with your feet hip-width apart.
• Engage your core.
• Raise your arms in front of you.
• Hinge at your hips to push your buttocks behind you.
• Bend your knees and lower your hips to tap your buttocks on the seat
• Push through your heels to stand upright.

Trainer tips: Move your hips before your knees and don’t let your bodyweight shift over your toes. Keep your entire foot on the floor throughout. Come to a full seated position on the chair if needed.

Make it easier: Reduce your range of motion by not lowering as far. Hold onto a solid surface for support, like a wall or another chair placed in front of you, if needed.

Make it harder: Hold light weights (5-15lb) while performing the movement.

4. Banded glute kickback

Reps: 10-15 each side

• Stand with a short-loop resistance band around your ankles.
• Stand tall, engage your core and bend your knees slightly.
• Squeeze your glutes and lift one leg behind you.
• Slowly reverse the movement.
• Complete all the repetitions on one side, then switch sides.

Trainer tips: Avoid arching your lower back as you lift your leg. Keep the pace slow and controlled throughout. Use a wall or a chair for support and balance if needed.

Make it easier: If the resistance feels too strong, perform the exercise with no resistance band.

Make it harder: To make the exercise more challenging, use a heavier band.

5. Wall plank

Hold: 10-15sec

• Stand an arm’s length away from a wall.
• Lean forward and place your forearms on the wall, with your elbows at shoulder height.
• Engage your core and keep your body in a straight line from head to heels.
• Hold for 10-15 seconds.

Trainer tips: Avoid sinking or jutting your hips out or arching your lower back. Keep your shoulders rolled back and down.

Make it easier: If holding for 10 seconds with good form is challenging, try performing with your hands on the wall and your arms lengthened. Alternatively, stand closer to the wall.

Make it harder: Hold for a longer duration or place your hands on a lower surface, like a table or chair.

6. Wall march

Reps: 10-15 each side

• Stand an arm’s length away from a wall.
• Place your hands on the wall, keeping your arms straight.
• Engage your core.
• Slowly lift one knee to hip height, bending it to 90°.
• Hold for a few seconds.
• Return to your starting position and repeat on the other side.
• Continue, alternating sides with each rep.

Trainer tips: Keep your shoulders rolled back and down.

Make it easier: If balance is an issue, don’t raise your knee so high, keeping your foot closer to the floor.

Make it harder: To make the exercise more challenging, use a short-loop resistance band around your feet, looped around your midfoot.

Shop resistance bands

Welcome to Workout Diaries, a series where we ask expert trainers to talk us through what a week of exercise looks like for them, helping you figure out how to develop and maintain an effective workout routine.

Dr Cristina Sciavolino-Day is an internal medicine physician who also shares workout and mobility videos online. She’s an advocate for daily movement, be that a short walk, balance training or strength exercises at home and the gym, with the goal of staying strong enough to live life to the full for as long as possible.

“My priority now is longevity and not so much how I look, as I was in my 20s,” she tells Fit&Well. “I want to preserve muscle, protect my bones, support my metabolic health, and maintain balance and mobility as I age.

“I don’t train to be smaller—I train to be stronger and capable. For women over 40, especially, strength becomes protective medicine.”

Walking forms a large part of Sciavolino-Day’s weekly activity. “I walk about three miles, three or four days a week, and I prefer being outdoors because fresh air and natural light make a difference for me mentally and physically.

“If the weather or time doesn’t cooperate, I’ll walk indoors on my walking pad while working.”

She also strength trains up to five times a week, splitting the sessions between the gym and home. “I go to the gym once or twice a week so that I can use the heavier weights and machines. I value my gym days because progressive overload—gradually increasing resistance—is essential for preserving muscle mass as we age.”

When she works out at home, Sciavolino-Day focuses on “simple, functional movements that support balance, coordination and muscle strength.”

Here’s a look at a typical week.

Cristina Sciavolino-Day’s weekly workout routine

Monday 8am
60min, three-mile walk

Tuesday 8am
30min walking on treadmill while working, plus 20min strength training at home

Wednesday 7.30am
60min strength training at the gym

Thursday 7am
30min bodyweight workout at home

Friday 8am
60min three-mile walk, plus 20min mobility work at home

Saturday 5pm
15min balance work at home

Sunday 10am
20min home strength training at home

Cristina Sciavolino-Day’s workout tips

Start your day with movement

“My biggest tip is to get it done as soon as possible upon starting your day,” says Sciavolino-Day. “The longer that you push it off, the higher the chance that it does not get done.

“Set your alarm clock across the room so it forces you to get up to shut it off. Once you’re up, get the exercise done.”

Start small

“I always encourage people to start small and build gradually,” says Day. “Even 15 minutes of walking and then strength training is a powerful place to begin.

“[Strength training] could look like doing a few reps of bodyweight exercises, then adding weights as you get stronger.

“I remind people to build a routine around what is sustainable, not what is trending. If your routine feels extreme, it won’t last. If it is sustainable, it will be easier to be more consistent with it.”

Try habit stacking

Sciavolino-Day says she uses habit stacking—where you tag an activity onto another one—for example, cleaning your teeth and standing on one leg to improve balance.

“I slip in exercises at opportune times,” says Sciavolino-Day, “such as while the microwave is counting down or I am brushing my teeth.

“Motivation was an issue for me starting my weight loss journey, but by making it a part of my daily routine, it became so much easier and doable. It became so automatic, like brushing my teeth.

“After going through midlife weight gain and losing nearly 70 pounds, I learned that consistency comes from structure and routine, not from waiting to ‘feel like it’.”

I’ve been a certified personal trainer for 15 years, and in that time I’ve worked with a lot of seniors.

One of the first exercises I teach my clients who are 65 and older is the chair squat. This movement builds strength in the legs, hips and core, improves coordination and balance, and can be modified or progressed for any ability level.

If you’ve got a chair handy, you can try chair squats too. They’re beneficial for beginners of all ages.

How to do a chair squat

Check in with your medical team before starting any new activity.

You won’t need any equipment besides a chair for this exercise. If you have certain injuries or mobility concerns, you may also need a section of bare wall or a second chair for support.

If you’ve never tried chair squats before, aim for 1 set of 5 reps. As you get stronger, add reps until you can perform 1 set of 12 reps, then add sets, progressing gradually until you can confidently perform 3 sets of 10-12 reps.

Sets: 1-3 Reps: 5-12

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart with a chair behind you.
• Raise your arms to shoulder height in front of you.
• Push your hips back and bend your knees to slowly lower your butt to the seat of the chair.
• Tap your butt on the seat, then push through your feet to return to standing.
• Continue for the desired number of reps.

Trainer tips:

• Don’t bend your knees before moving your hips.
• Set your hips back as if you were trying to close a car door behind you.
• If you’re a beginner, consider coming to a full seated position before you stand back up again.
• Use a wall for balance or a chair in front of you for additional support, if needed.

Once you’ve mastered the chair squat, you can make the exercise harder by holding a dumbbell, using a chair with a lower seat, or performing the movement without the chair.

Why chair squats are beneficial for seniors

Like standard bodyweight squats, chair squats strengthen important lower-body muscles like your quadriceps, hamstrings, hip abductors and adductors, and glutes. The chair reduces your range of motion and acts as a safety net that can prevent form errors or injury.

This exercise works the body in a functional way, making tasks like getting up from the toilet, getting out of your car, and standing up from the couch easier.

Chair squats can also help improve your balance and bone density, and are an accessible form of resistance training for most ability levels.

Working on improving your ability to balance is important because it reduces the risk of fall-related injuries—with about 1 million fall-related hospitalizations occurring in older adults in the US every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Standing on one leg—while doing simple everyday tasks such as cleaning your teeth—is a good starting point, but to progress this, you can try this move suggested by internal medicine physician Dr Cristina Sciavolino-Day.

As well as improving balance, it’s a great drill to add to your regular fitness routine to work on hip mobility and core stability.

“Balance isn’t just about fitness, it’s about maintaining independence,” Sciavolino-Day tells Fit&Well. “Good balance helps us stay upright, react quickly and prevent falls during everyday moments like turning, reaching, stepping off a curb or catching ourselves if we trip.

“Studies show that as we get older, balance becomes one of the biggest predictors of injury risk, confidence and quality of life. When it declines, people start to move less out of fear and that’s when strength, mobility and confidence decline even faster.”

But Sciavolino-Day is keen to combat this fear. “My goal is to remind everyone how easy it is to work on balance in small pockets of time in their day.”

How to do the balance drill

Sciavolino-Day recommends doing this drill for 2-5 minutes daily if you can. “Short, consistent practice works better than one long session once a week,” she explains.

“I try to get my clients to attach balance exercises like balancing on one foot to simple actions that we do daily, for example brushing your teeth or waiting for the microwave to finish.”

Why balance training is important

“Becoming weaker in balance is not always about losing strength,” explains Sciavolino-Day. “Neurological and even vision issues can be the cause of [balance] issues as well.”

She says balance depends on several systems working together:

• Muscle strength (especially the legs, hips, and ankles)
• Joint mobility
• Vision
• Inner ear (vestibular system)
• Nerve signaling and reaction time

“In my Instagram video, the focus is on strengthening the muscles and joint mobility. As we age, muscle mass decreases, reaction time slows, joints stiffen and nerve signaling isn’t quite as sharp,” explains Sciavolino-Day.

“Add in things like medications, vision changes or past injuries, and balance can quietly decline, unless we intentionally work on it. The key thing that I always tell people is this: balance is a skill and skills can be trained at any age.”

Starter tips if you're struggling with the move

For those who are struggling to do her balance exercise, she suggests starting with some assistance: “I want people to know that what you see me doing in the video is not where you start. It’s where you build toward."

If your balance feels shaky, hold onto a counter or chair with your whole hand at first, then progress to a two-finger hold as your balance improves, finally letting go from the chair entirely when you’re confident with the movement.

"Sometimes people get discouraged if they try to do a balancing exercise off the bat without holding on. It's important to start slowly and work up,” says Sciavolino-Day.

I recently took a longevity fitness test, an element of which included a grip strength assessment with a hand dynamometer. Research links grip strength to longevity, as it is considered a good indicator of overall physical strength and risk of frailty, as well as neuromuscular function (or the connection between brain and muscle).

How is grip strength linked to longevity?

“Handgrip strength is measured with a handheld dynamometer as the peak force produced by a maximal isometric contraction of the forearm muscles. From research, it is proven to give a quick, reliable snapshot of global muscle strength and is considered a biomarker for physiological reserve, rather than just hand function,” explains Athanasios Tzoumaris, strength and conditioning coach at London-based gym and health clinic Hooke Fitness, where I took my test.

“Lower grip values are strongly associated with higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality independent of age, existing medical conditions and body size,” he continues.

“Physiologically, weak grip reflects loss of muscle mass and neuromuscular function. It may also indicate chronic inflammation, greater frailty, as well as poor nutrition—factors that accelerate biological ageing.

“Clinically, it is used to case-find probable sarcopenia [age-related muscle loss] and to add prognostic information to routine assessments as it is inexpensive, reproducible and predictive of functional decline.”

As with muscle strength in general, grip strength naturally declines with age, “reflecting changes in muscle mass, neural drive and overall physiological resilience,” says Tzoumaris.

“In general, healthy adults reach peak grip strength in their late 20s to early 40s. From about age 50 onward, strength tends to fall by roughly 10% per decade, but maintaining resistance training and physical activity can significantly slow down this decline, keeping grip strength, and the health and longevity benefits it reflects, well above age-based norms.”

What are the best ways to monitor grip strength?

Experts agree that grip strength can be reliably monitored using handheld dynamometry testing. “For the sake of consistency of assessment, in-depth insights and interpretation of the results, as well as training recommendations, you would ideally refer to exercise specialists using a professional-grade dynamometer,” says Tzoumaris.

He told me that his high-tech contraption measures not only peak force (or maximal strength), “but also how quickly you get to that peak force, in milliseconds. The software then calculates asymmetries between limbs and other quite scientific metrics that involve a fair amount of physics, which you wouldn’t be able to replicate with an at-home device.”

For at-home testing, “there are fairly inexpensive dynamometers you can buy that produce acceptable testing results which may allow you to monitor progress, however they don’t offer the same insights into how an individual has achieved that score,” he explains.

At-home devices are likely not as sensitive, he adds, potentially leading to less accurate and certainly less detailed results. “But if you follow the same process each time you use it, you should be able to spot changes and trends over time in your scores.”

There are ways to track grip strength without a dynamometer, too. This could involve seeing how long you can hold a dumbbell or kettlebell in one hand and timing it.

“Set a target time and see if you can achieve it. If you are not able to, stick to the same weight until you do achieve it. Once you are able to hold that weight for the target time, pick a slightly heavier weight and follow the same process,” he says.

“Testing this way would not give a direct representation of maximal grip strength, as it measures grip strength endurance—still a strength quality but different to maximal strength. However, it can still provide some insight into someone’s grip strength progress.”

Grip Strength Norms

So, roughly how strong should you expect your grip strength to be in each decade of your life? If you want to gauge your own grip strength, to see if you’re on track for your age, here, Tzoumaris has shared some examples of normative value ranges—below average, average and above average, by age and sex, that the gym uses to calculate the results of its handgrip test.

How can you improve your grip strength?

Training grip strength can be done in and out of the gym, according to Tzoumaris. “You can improve your grip strength by consistently training the muscles of your hands, forearms, and wrists. The goal is to build both maximal strength (your peak force) and endurance (how long you can sustain it for).”

“In the gym, some simple but effective exercises include dead hangs from a pull-up bar, farmer’s carries with dumbbells or kettlebells, plate pinches for thumb strength (where you hold a weight plate in one hand with your thumb on one side and fingers on the other for as long as possible), and wrist curls to target the forearm flexors,” he explains.

“Outside the gym, even everyday actions like squeezing a hand gripper, tennis ball or carrying heavy shopping bags can help. Over time, this type of training improves your neuromuscular efficiency, enhancing both performance and everyday function.”

For most of us, the way to increase your chances of living for longer in good health is pretty straightforward.

Strength training, cardio work and flexibility routines can all improve your longevity, but according to trainer Eloise Skinner, there’s something else that’s fundamental to aging well: body awareness.

“A big part of longevity—living well for a long time—is the ability to be connected to your body and to be present within your body, because that can help you spot when something is wrong,” says Skinner, who is also a Pilates and yoga instructor.

“If you’re getting sick or you’re getting an injury, it’s the people who can stay checked in with their body that can respond to that, adjust things and take care of themselves.”

That’s why she prioritizes doing exercises that encourage mind-muscle connection, like the three moves below.

According to Skinner, working through these moves with intention and aligning your breath to the movement is best for boosting mind-body awareness.

This might mean just being conscious of your breathing during the move, or connecting your exhale and inhale to specific parts of the exercise.

1. Roll-down

• Stand with your feet hip-distance apart, knees slightly bent and arms relaxed by your sides.
• Slowly nod your chin toward your chest, then roll your spine down one vertebra at a time.
• Let your shoulders, arms and head hang down as you continue rolling toward the floor.
• Stop when you’ve rolled down as far as you can, take a breath, then slowly roll back up.

2. Plank

• Start on your hands and knees, with your hands directly under your shoulders and fingers spread apart.
• Step your feet back so that your body forms a straight line from your head to your heels.
• Engage your core by pulling your belly button gently toward your spine.
• Hold for 20 seconds or longer if possible, while maintaining a steady breath.

3. Cat-cow

• Start on your hands and knees, with your hands directly under your shoulders and your knees directly under your hips.
• Inhale as you drop your belly, and lift your tailbone, chest and head.
• Exhale as you round your spine, tuck your tailbone and bring your chin toward your chest.

If you ask a personal trainer about the best move for longevity, they almost always recommend squats.

While these are great for strengthening muscles around your thighs and buttocks, they overlook another muscle group that’s incredibly important for aging well—your calves.

According to internal medicine physician Dr Cristina Sciavolino-Day, the real powerhouse of the lower limb is the soleus.

“The soleus calf muscle is very important when it comes to balance and it’s essential in helping you stay upright,” she says.

“It stabilizes the ankle, keeps you balanced while walking and controls your body when you lean forward.”

Beyond stability, Sciavolino-Day notes that a strong soleus is vital for circulation.

Known as the second heart, this muscle helps to pump blood back up toward your torso every time it contracts.

The soleus can weaken if we’re sitting down all day, but it’s possible to strengthen it with the quick exercise below.

How to do the calf-raise squat

Sets: 2-3 Reps: 10-15

• Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and toes pointing out.
• Put your hands on your hips for balance.
• Push your hips back and bend your knees to lower into a partial squat and pause in this position.
• Lift your heels and hold for as long as you can.
• Lower the feet back down, squeeze the glutes and drive through the heels to stand.

If you find this move too challenging, start by performing bent-knee calf raises in a chair instead.

Performing this kind of calf raise, with a bend in the knee, will help you isolate the soleus muscle.

However, she also recommends doing these other exercises to improve balance and target a wider range of lower-body muscles:

• Ankle circles
• Standing on one leg for 10-20 seconds each side
• Heel-to-toe walking
• Standing marches
• Sit-to-stand

Since having my daughter almost two years ago, one of the more surprising things to come out of becoming a mum has to do with my exercise routine—it’s the most consistent it’s ever been.

Exercise for me has become something I need more than ever to feel myself again. It supports my mental health, allows me to have some time to myself and, of course, rebuilds my strength and fitness after pregnancy.

For me, strength and fitness is now about having the power to lift my toddler and run around after her for years to come. So when I heard about a longevity fitness test, my interest was piqued. How has all my hard work been paying off over the past year?

What did I have to do?

The longevity test at Hooke Fitness, a gym and preventative health clinic based in London’s Mayfair, examines five components.

It begins with an InBody body composition analysis to identify muscle mass and visceral fat levels. The test moves on to tests of strength, muscular endurance and balance, with results compared against population norms and training recommendations made based upon your results. It finishes with a VO2 max test, widely considered to be the gold standard for measuring cardiovascular fitness and aerobic capacity, with the result used to design personalised heart rate training zones.

Here’s what I learned from my test.

1. My muscle mass could be improved

The InBody scan showed that my muscle mass reading sits in the 46th percentile for my age and sex, and “is associated with maintaining functional independence, but suboptimal metabolic health outcomes,” my report reads.

To improve this, I should focus on full-body resistance training with moderate to heavy loads. This is a helpful reminder. While I love lifting weights, I’ve been neglecting my usual pure weights sessions in the gym in favour of HIIT classes lately.

2. My grip strength was surprisingly good

Stronger individuals tend to live longer, points out Aaron Deere, health and performance director at Hooke. “The strength tests we use—grip strength and press-up capacity—are both validated, practical markers of overall strength and have been shown to predict life expectancy and all-cause mortality independently of other health factors,” he explains.

Grip strength, specifically, is a widely recognised proxy for total-body strength, reflecting both muscular function and neuromuscular health, he adds.

We used a professional-grade hand dynamometer to measure my grip strength for my test. Averages vary by age and sex. My results were 40.2kg on my left hand and 39.2kg on my right hand, which notched in the 96th and 94th percentile, respectively, according to Hooke.

“This is associated with optimal functional strength, mobility and physical resilience,” my report reads. “Grip strength in the 90th percentile and above is associated with strong protection against cognitive decline and a substantially reduced mortality risk.”

To maintain good strength and grip capacity, I’m again prescribed heavy strength training, with a particular focus on high grip demand (things like deadlifts, cleans, pull-ups with added load), along with exercises focusing specifically on grip endurance and grip power such as heavy loaded carries.

3. My strength endurance needs some work

Next up, it was push-ups performed with the added demand of tempo. Unlike grip strength, which measures a maximal output with a singular repetition, this measures strength endurance, my tester Thanos Tzoumaris explains. “So how many times can you manipulate your bodyweight in a particular tempo—doing a full press-up every second—which helps us standardise the test.”

This is harder than it sounds. I managed nine in total on my knees, which puts me on the 15th percentile. “Your current press-up strength is associated with early signs of diminished upper-body strength and muscular endurance, which is linked to increased incidence of cardiovascular issues and metabolic syndrome,” my report reads.

I, like many women, have always found push-ups challenging, and have never really given them the attention I should. To improve my muscular endurance, my report recommends including push-ups with progressive volume increases, compound upper-body exercises (such as a bench press and overhead press) and core-strengthening work.

4. Balancing on one leg with eyes closed is much harder than it looks

As you age, balance becomes even more important. “It’s a dictator of healthspan and lifespan,” says Deere. “If you can recover from that slip on the stairs without falling, that’s the difference between an injury and avoiding one.” Your balance reflects the integration of neuromuscular function, proprioception (your body’s internal sense of position), strength and coordination, he explains. “All systems that decline with age, increasing the risk of falls, fractures and mobility loss.”

As a keen yogi, who practises at least once a week without fail, I usually feel comfortable standing on one leg and enjoy testing my balance in tree or dancer pose. But with eyes closed? It’s a completely different ball game, and something I never really do.

Embarrassingly, I manage 14 seconds on my left leg and only seven on my right. According to my report, these balance scores are associated with sufficient balance for daily activities, but make me vulnerable to age-related decline.

We typically rely on our vision to balance, so taking away this sense tests a new dynamic, Deere explains. The fact that I can balance easily on one leg with eyes open is a good sign, “but ultimately, balance is a skill and it’s about practising under different dynamics.”

To improve my score, I should integrate static and dynamic balance drills into my fitness routine. That could be balancing on one leg with eyes closed, or while trying to catch a ball or on an unstable surface like a Bosu ball, for example. Compound lower-body strength exercises and ankle stability work will help, too.

5. I should have more confidence in my aerobic fitness

VO2 max measures the maximum amount of oxygen you use during intense exercise, giving an insight into cardiovascular fitness and performance capability, with research suggesting lower VO2 max scores are linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, developing chronic illness and even all-cause mortality. Deere describes it as “the machinery of your cardiovascular system.”

This one was a little intimidating. The test involves running on a treadmill, gradually increasing the speed, until you feel you can run no more, while wearing a face mask that measures my inhalations and exhalations. It felt like an exercise in mental toughness.

I’m no pro runner, but on reflection, cardio does feature consistently in my weekly routine. I now cycle everywhere, swim usually twice a week and partake in HIIT classes two to three times a week. It turns out those sprint intervals on the treadmill are paying off. Even so, I was surprised to discover my VO2 max of 45.9ml/kg/min was in the excellent range.

The test also gave me a detailed breakdown of my heart rate range within the cardiovascular fitness zones, depicting the exact range I’m in during fat-burning mode versus carb-burning, for example.

To build upon this, I’m encouraged to maintain a balance of aerobic and strength training, but also consider setting myself an endurance fitness goal such as a race or triathlon—something I never felt I’d have the fitness to do.

The takeaway

I’m reassured by my current strength and fitness levels, but there are certainly areas to improve. More than anything, my results suggest I’m perhaps less confident in my own physical capabilities than I should be.

Longevity fitness testing has felt empowering, and served as a reminder that while of course genes play a key role when it comes to lifespan, regular exercise can make a meaningful difference to your healthspan.

You’ll already know that developing good relationships with friends, family, romantic partners, and even colleagues and neighbours contributes to day-to-day happiness and satisfaction, but did you know it could also help you live longer?

It’s something which Dr Matt Kaeberlein swears by.

Kaeberlein has spent 25 years researching longevity and the lifestyle factors that affect our healthspan—which refers to how long you are able to live in good health—and he is the founder of healthtech company Optispan, which focuses on helping people extend their lifespans.

“The data is clear,” says Kaeberlein. “They just keep coming out with stronger and stronger evidence that people who have strong social relationships, and strong social ties, are likely to live longer and avoid age-related diseases compared with people who are socially isolated.”

The research is so strong that psychosocial isolation might be added to the Hallmarks Of Aging report—which began in 2013 and is regularly updated to reflect the research on the things that impact the way we age.

“For the first time, a non-cellular or molecular process was proposed as a hallmark of aging—and it is psychosocial isolation—because this is becoming such a pronounced signal in the scientific data,” says Kaeberlein.

Kaeberlein also pinpointed an especially at-risk group. “Particularly in middle-aged men, social isolation is a huge, huge problem,” he says.

But the good news is that developing new relationships can make a difference.

“One important thing that the science of longevity has established is that, with few exceptions, it’s never too late, meaning everybody can have an impact on their healthspan trajectory going forward,” says Kaeberlein.

How to improve your personal relationships

There’s no one way to work on your social interactions to help you live longer. In fact, it’s important that you’re developing meaningful, genuine relationships, so following a rulebook to do so can feel forced.

This is something Kaeberlein has struggled with. “If you asked me what one thing has been hardest for me to work on in my lifestyle, it’s the relationship piece,” he says.

“I’ve spent a lot of time and energy [working on] that. And I’m grateful that I have because my relationships are stronger and deeper than they were three years ago.”

Here are some of Kaeberlein's suggestions on how to develop your relationships.

Prioritise quality time

“Making an active effort to spend quality time with people is obvious, but it’s hard,” says Kaeberlein. He explains that this becomes a particular issue when people enter retirement, and lose friends and family.

According to Kaeberlein, you’ll benefit hugely from going out of your way to maintain your current relationships and develop new ones.

“You have to make a concerted effort to build new relationships and nurture those relationships,” he says.

Make time for micro-interactions

It might not feel that significant to have a small conversation with your barista or a grocery store worker, but according to Kaeberlein it’s definitely helpful.

“There is evidence suggesting that these micro-interactions can have positive benefits. You get these brief dopamine hits and you get stress reduction from interacting with people,” he says.

“In the world today, you can, if you live in a major city, pretty much exist without ever talking to a human being if you really want to—don’t do that!

“Make an active effort to have interactions with people, even if they are those small interactions, because there is evidence that those can have health benefits.”

Don’t rely on your spouse

A meaningful romantic partnership can be an important part of life for a lot of people, but Kaeberlein says it’s important to develop relationships outside of that too.

“With men, what [tends to] happen is they focus on one relationship in their life, and that’s usually their spouse, and they don’t have any friends or close relationships outside of that,” says Kaeberlein.

Think about how you can expand your network of relationships, whether that’s friendships, colleagues or other family members.

Find a furry friend

We’re not saying getting a puppy will ensure you live to 100, but according to Kaeberlein, a pet can be good for your health.

“I wouldn’t want to suggest that companion animals are a substitute for human relationships,” he says. “But there’s interesting data that shows relationships with companion animals can also have positive health benefits on both the animal and the human.

“Physically interacting with a dog or a cat reduces stress, and reduces blood pressure—so I think it is useful to say relationships go beyond just human relationships,” he adds.

Take that as your excuse to pet a cute dog next time you spot one!

Most women already think about their hormonal health, with biological processes like the menstrual cycle, pregnancy and the menopause having a big effect on their lives.

But according to biologist Dr Matt Kaeberlein, founder and CEO of Optispan, a healthtech company dedicated to improving longevity, hormonal health is just as important for men—particularly middle-aged men. “A shockingly large number of men are dysregulated in terms of hormones when they get in their 50s,” he says.

While precise figures aren’t available, Kaeberlein says that, “on average, men experience roughly a 30-50% decline in free testosterone between ages 30 and 70.

“This degree of change is large enough to affect sexual function, metabolism, mood, cognitive performance and body composition in many men—although these changes often go unrecognized because they occur gradually and are commonly accepted as a ‘normal’ part of aging.”

Kaeberlein says that men who are thinking about their long-term health should be taking their hormones into account.

Why should middle-aged men care about their hormones?

“In the United States, especially for men, [hormone health] is not typically looked at unless the man asks for it,” says Kaeberlein.

Despite this, hormone health can play a key role in your quality of life and long-term health because of a gradual decline in testosterone.

“For both men and women, testosterone in particular is going to be important for muscle mass,” says Kaeberlein. “Muscle mass is lost with age and loss of muscle mass drives, in particular, frailty and metabolic disease.”

“A lot of people don’t realize that muscle is our primary way of buffering blood glucose, and so it’s a sink for blood glucose, and if you don’t have enough muscle, you’re at higher risk for metabolic disease and diabetes,” he continues. This is important for both men and women, but men generally lose muscle faster than women as they age.

The loss of testosterone can also have a significant impact on quality of life for middle-aged men. “Many men who are deficient in testosterone will experience a decline in energy, decline in libido, mood dysregulation and there are even mental health effects in some men,” says Kaeberlen.

How to test for testosterone deficiency

A simple blood test will provide you with information on your testosterone levels and whether you’re deficient, and this is a test Kaeberlein thinks every middle-aged person should do. “Everyone, in my view, who is in their 40s and 50s, should know what their hormonal status is,” he says.

How to naturally boost your testosterone

On the advice of medical professionals, some people supplement with testosterone using injections or patches, but Kaeberlein recommends looking at your lifestyle before considering this.

“You definitely can have an impact on testosterone through your lifestyle and my recommendation for most men would be, if you are deficient in testosterone, try [changing your] lifestyle first.”

There are two key lifestyle factors that can boost your testosterone.

1. Diet

There are no specific foods that contain testosterone, but following a healthy, balanced diet can support your body's testosterone levels. “If you’re eating a crappy diet that’s high in simple sugars, high in processed foods, that can depress testosterone,” says Kaeberlein.

2. Weight training

“Resistance training can boost testosterone in both men and women,” says Kaeberlein. That’s because resistance training, like lifting weights, creates muscle stress, which signals the body to produce more testosterone.

Kaeberlein stresses that following a healthy diet and lifting weights have plenty of health benefits, on top of boosting testosterone, so there’s absolutely no harm in trying them. “Regardless of whether you’re testosterone-deficient, you should be eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly anyway. But if boosting your testosterone is a motivating factor to get you to do it, that’s great!”

If you’re looking for a place to start with resistance training, we have an at-home strength training routine for beginners, and a beginner gym machine workout plan to choose from.

You might think that lifting weights is all about changing how your body looks, but it's actually one of the best ways to support healthy aging and longevity.

Strength training not only improves your metabolic health, but it will help you maintain everyday movements that can become harder as we age.

Jennifer Martin is a personal trainer who has been helping her parents, in their 50s and 60s, start strength training and has seen the benefits firsthand.

Their workouts focus on functional exercises, which reflect the way we move in everyday life and improve common movement patterns like getting up off a chair, bending down to pick something up or reaching for something overhead.

Martin also focuses on mobility, which refers to how much movement your joints have and something that naturally declines with age.

Below, Martin shares one of the workouts she’s been using with her parents, along with why each move matters.

Snow angel

Reps: 12

How to do it:

• Sit on a bench or chair with a supportive back.
• Hold a weight in both hands, arms by your sides, palms facing forward and your feet pressed into the floor.
• Slowly raise your arms out to the sides and upward until they’re overhead.
• Return to the starting position with control.

“Snow angels will help strengthen your shoulders, chest, upper back and core,” says Martin, “and it’s great for shoulder mobility. They will help you confidently perform everyday movements such as reaching overhead, lifting overhead and putting on or taking off a jacket."

Skullcrasher

Reps: 12

How to do it:

• Lie on your back on a bench or the floor, knees bent, feet flat on the floor holding dumbbells above your chest with your palms facing.
• Bend your elbows to lower the weights toward your forehead, keeping your upper arms still and your elbows pointing upward.
• Straighten your arms to return to the starting position, focusing on using the backs of your upper arms (the triceps) to power the movement.

“This exercise will strengthen your triceps which will help strengthen your arms,” says Martin. “It will help you feel stronger for everyday movements such as pushing a door open, lifting objects overhead or getting up from the floor.’

Squat

Reps: 8-12

How to do it:

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, with your toes slightly turned out.
• Push your hips back and bend your knees to lower, as if sitting back into a chair.
• Keep your back flat, chest lifted and your knees pointing outward, over the toes.
• Press through your heels to return to standing.

In the video, Martin's father is performing the squats with a balance ball behind his back against a wall, which helps maintain good form.

“Squats will improve your mobility and strengthen your lower body, which will help you get off the couch, get out of the car, and get up and down the stairs with greater ease,” says Martin. “In this exercise, you are strengthening your hamstrings, quads, glutes and core.”

Lunge

Reps: 8-12

How to do it:

• From standing, take one big step forward.
• Bend both knees to 90°, keeping your front knee directly over your ankle.
• Push through your front heel to return to standing.

In the video, Martin’s mother performs split squats (a static lunge) with her front foot elevated to increase the range of motion—a good progression to try once you’re comfortable with the regular lunge.

“Lunging mimics everyday movements such as going up the stairs or getting up off the floor,” says Martin. “This exercise will help strengthen your lower body as well as your core, which will help improve your overall balance and stability.”

Upright row

Reps: 8-12

How to do it:

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding dumbbells in front of your thighs, palms facing you.
• Lift the dumbbells to your armpits, bending your elbows and moving them out to the sides.
• Slowly lower to the starting position.

“This pulling exercise mimics daily movements such as lifting, carrying and pulling,” says Martin. “It will strengthen your shoulders and upper back and will help improve your posture.”

Heel tap

Reps: 4-6 each side

How to do it:

• Lie on your back with your legs together, knees directly above your hips and bent at 90°.
• Engage your core to keep your lower back on the floor.
• Keeping the 90° bend in your knee throughout, slowly lower your right foot to tap the floor, or as low as you can go without your lower back lifting off the floor.
• Return to the starting position and repeat on the other side.
• Continue, alternating sides with each rep.

“This exercise engages and strengthens your pelvic floor, which supports your spine, lower back and bladder,” says Martin. “It also will help improve your posture.”

Feel like it’s harder to put on muscle as you get older? You’re not imagining things.

“Maintaining muscle mass after 40 is more challenging due to hormonal changes, as well as a reduction in muscle fiber quality and muscle protein synthesis,” explains yoga and fitness instructor Reena Vokoun, founder of Passion Fit.

Couple this natural decline with a packed schedule of work and family duties and it suddenly becomes more difficult to keep on top of your muscle maintenance.

Strength training can help you stay strong, but if you want to feel your best, it’s important to do some mobility exercises and cardiovascular workouts, too.

Having an efficient workout that ticks all of these boxes is one way to keep your body moving well—and Vokoun’s three-move workout does just that.

The compound movements will target various muscles simultaneously, while also moving your joints through a wide range of motion.

“These exercises work your quadriceps, hamstrings, core, glutes, triceps, biceps, shoulders and lower back,” Vokoun says.

Perform it at a faster pace and it will test your cardio fitness, too.

The trainer recommends beginners start with bodyweight versions of each exercise until they have their form perfected, then add resistance bands or weights.

1. Squat and overhead press

Sets: 2-3 Reps: 10-12

• Stand with your feet facing forward, spaced shoulder-width apart.
• Engage your core and hold your weights at shoulder height.
• Bend your knees and push your hips back to squat.
• Stand and straighten your arms, pushing the weights overhead.
• Lower the weights to your shoulders and repeat.

Tip: If you have sensitive joints, don’t allow your knees to come out beyond your toes when squatting.

2. Reverse lunge with biceps hammer curl

Sets: 2-3 Reps: 10-12 per leg

• Stand with your feet together and core engaged.
• Hold a dumbbell in each hand at your sides, palms facing in.
• Step backward to lunge, bend your elbows and raise both weights to shoulder height.
• Push through your front foot to return to standing and bring the weights back to your sides.
• Repeat on the other side.

Tip: Both your back and front knees should form 90° angles when performing the reverse lunge. If you have sensitive joints, make sure your front knee stays behind your front toe.

3. Deadlift into upright row

Sets: 2-3 Reps: 10-12

• Stand with your knees slightly bent and your feet facing forward, a little closer together than shoulder-width.
• Hold a dumbbell in each hand, resting on your thighs with palms facing in.
• Engage your core and push your hips back to bend over, bringing the weights to mid-shin.
• Bring your hips forward to stand and lift the weights to your collarbone, bringing your elbows out to the side.
• Return to the starting position and repeat.

Tip: This is a hip-hinge movement, which means there should be minimal movement happening at your knee joint.

It’s no great secret that eating a good diet and exercising can help you live a longer, healthier life.

However, according to longevity expert Dr Matt Kaeberlein, there’s something else we should all be addressing—stress.

Kaeberlein, who founded healthtech company Optispan, has spent most of his academic career researching how we can live healthier for longer.

He says that most people don't realise how stress can impact longevity.

“There’s very good evidence that chronic stress accelerates how fast you age,” Kaeberlein says.

“People who suffer from chronic stress develop pretty much every age-related disease, or they have a higher risk for pretty much every age-related disease going forward.”

Are all types of stress bad for you?

Kaeberlein isn’t talking about the stress you experience occasionally, like when you're running late or cooking a complicated meal in a busy kitchen.

“Stress is a simple concept, but it can be complicated in that, sometimes stress is good,” he says.

The right kind of stress can help you get tasks done and motivate you.

Chronic stress, however, doesn’t provide any kind of benefits. This is the type of stress you experience consistently, for a long time.

According to Kaeberlein, it’s not uncommon.

“Most people have chronic stress, and it’s really the chronic stress that is detrimental to your health,” he says.

How to figure out if you have chronic stress

Knowing whether or not you have chronic stress is simply a matter of identifying whether or not you’re regularly stressed.

“You don’t need complicated devices. I think most people, if they are in touch with themselves, can tell if they are stressed or not,” Kaeberlein says.

If you’re struggling to identify your emotions, some devices can help you keep tabs on your stress levels.

“We have a growing number of tools [and metrics] that we can use to estimate whether somebody is experiencing an unhealthy level of chronic stress. Heart rate variability is a good example,” Kaeberlein says.

Fitness trackers from Apple, Oura and Garmin offer heart rate variability tests. These aren’t 100% accurate, but they can show you trends in your heart rate variability and give you a general indication of stress levels.

If you're looking for a more sophisticated test, Kaeberlein recommends a device called Morpheus.

“If you can measure it well, [heart rate variability] is actually a really powerful biomarker for understanding whether somebody is experiencing chronic stress at a level that is unhealthy for them,” says Kaeberlein.

Two ways that Dr Matt Kaeberlein reduced his stress levels

If you are experiencing stress, it's a good idea to speak to a healthcare professional. But there are also things you can do in your daily life to reduce stress.

“Anything that we can do to learn how to manage that stress will have a positive impact on our health going forward,” says Kaeberlein.

Kaeberlein says there are two key things he's done to reduce his stress levels.

Exercise

Regular exercise has lots of benefits, but many people don't realise it's also a great stress-buster.

“Lifting weights is a great stress management tool,” says Kaeberlein, revealing that this is the main form of exercise he does. “I exercise regularly. That's something that I obviously believe is very important for health.”

Limit social media

“In our daily lives, in the world that we live in today, we are overwhelmed with information and stimuli,” says Kaeberlein.

“There's a variety of aspects to how social media can cause stress. One is how much negative information is on social media.

“The constant underlying negative feelings or negative information that you’re experiencing drives chronic release of hormones like cortisol.”

As such, Kaeberlein says that he tries to limit the amount he uses social media.

“I tend to stay off of social media, and I tend not to consume a lot of news right now,” he says.

Nutrient and mineral deficiencies can have a big impact on your day-to-day health, often making you feel more tired, weakening your immune system and generally preventing your body from working at full capacity.

And according to Dr Matt Kaeberlein, a scientist, longevity expert and founder of healthtech company Optispan, nutrient and mineral deficiencies can also impact your long-term health. “Nutrient deficiencies may sound like a minor issue, but they can have profound effects on both healthspan and lifespan,” he tells Fit&Well.

“Think of it this way: your body is a complex machine that depends on a steady supply of essential vitamins, minerals and amino acids to keep its systems running. When those inputs are missing, the machinery starts to wear down faster.”

According to Kaberlein, most deficiencies are “partial and chronic”. This means that although they may not have a significant impact on daily life, they may be gradually affecting your health. “[This] quietly increases vulnerability to cardiovascular disease, dementia, infections and cancers. Over decades, these small cracks in the foundation can significantly shorten both lifespan and the years of life lived in good health,” he says.

Kaberlein flagged five nutrient deficiencies that are both common and have particularly negative consequences.

1. Iron

“Chronic iron deficiency causes anemia, reducing oxygen delivery. This not only causes fatigue but also forces the heart to work harder, increasing risk of heart failure and earlier death,” says Kaeberlein.

Iron-rich foods include red meat, poultry, fish, beans, lentils and dark leafy greens.

2. Vitamin D

“Low vitamin D or calcium accelerates bone loss, raising fracture risk and mortality,” says Kaeberlein. “Inadequate vitamin D accelerates bone loss, leading to osteoporosis and fractures. Hip fractures in older adults carry a 20-30% one-year mortality rate, so preventing this deficiency can literally save years of life.”

Your skin is able to make vitamin D when exposed to sunlight, but you can also get it from some foods including oily fish and egg yolks.

3. Folate

“Folate is essential for DNA synthesis and methylation,” says Kaeberlein. “Low folate levels increase DNA damage and impair repair, raising risks for cancers and cardiovascular disease.”

“Populations with chronic folate deficiency consistently show higher mortality,” he adds.

Folate is in foods like dark leafy green vegetables, beans, lentils and citrus fruits.

4. Selenium

“Selenium is a trace mineral that supports antioxidant defenses and thyroid function. Low selenium intake has been associated with higher rates of certain cancers and poorer survival outcomes,” says Kaeberlein.

Brazil nuts contain high amounts of selenium, as do some types of seafood and lean meats, such as beef and pork.

5. Omega-3

“Deficiencies in marine omega-3s (EPA and DHA) are linked to increased risk of arrhythmias, heart attacks and sudden cardiac death,” says Kaeberlain. “Even modest supplementation lowers cardiovascular mortality in multiple studies.”

You’ll mostly find omega-3 in oily fish, but you can also find it in flaxseeds and chia seeds.

Should everyone be taking supplements?

It’s best to get the vitamins, nutrients and minerals you need from a varied diet, but given the risks of nutritional deficiencies, you’d be forgiven for thinking you should turn to supplements to play it safe.

Of course, it’s not that simple. “Too much of some of these nutrients can be detrimental,” says Kaeberlein. “There’s a lower bound and an upper bound, and you want to be in that range. You don't want to be above the range, or that can have negative health consequences as well.”

Kaeberlein is an advocate of blood tests to establish whether you have any nutrient, vitamin or mineral deficiencies. Generally, you can acquire a blood test from your general health practitioner.

“You should know what your levels are, and if you are deficient or suboptimal, supplement into the optimal range,” he says.

Lower-body workouts should be part of your exercise regimen and not just because they can give your legs and bum a more toned appearance.

Your glutes, quads and hamstrings are among the largest and most powerful muscles in your body. When you’re faced with having to lift something heavy—as we all will from time to time—you want strong legs, they’ll be able to shoulder more of the load than your arms.

Plus, the more lean muscle you have, the better your metabolic health, according to a 2025 study in the Journal of European Clinical Nutrition. The fundamentals are that muscle costs calories to run and the bigger those already substantial muscles are, the more calories they burn, even at rest.

If you’re at a gym—or you have a wide selection of free weights at home—try this workout from Ed Gemdjian, a trainer and manager at The Gym Venice. It’s a great place to start training your legs.

1. Walking lunge

Sets: 3 Reps: 8 each side

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding weights by your sides.
• Take a big step forward with your right foot and bend both knees to 90° to lower—don’t lean forward or let your right knee move forward past your toes.
• Push through your right foot to rise and bring your left foot so it’s next to your right, hip-width apart.
• Repeat, leading with your left foot.
• Continue, alternating sides with each rep.

Why Gemdjian recommends it: This exercise will train your unilateral strength while improving your balance and coordination.

2. Suitcase deadlift

Sets: 3 Reps: 8-10

• Stand with your feet just narrower than hip-width apart with kettlebells on the floor on the outside of each foot.
• Hinge at the hips and bend your knees to lower, taking hold of each kettlebell handle.
• Brace your core and, keeping a neutral spine throughout, push down through your heels to stand upright with the weights, keeping your arms straight. Avoid leaning or twisting to either side.
• Push your hips back then bend your knees to lower back to the start with control.

Why Gemdjian recommends it: This exercise works your posterior chain (the muscles running down the back of your body). It will also improve your core stability and grip strength.

3. Kettlebell swing

Sets: 3 Reps: 5-7

• Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart with a kettlebell on the floor in front of you.
• Hinge at the hips and bend your knees to lower, and reach forward to take hold of the kettlebell handle.
• Engage your core, then pull the kettlebell back, letting it swing between your legs.
• Push your hips forward and extend your knees to stand up and generate the momentum to swing the kettlebell up to chest height—the movement should be powered by your glutes, not your arms.
• Control the descent of the kettlebell by hinging at the hips and bending your knees, allowing the kettlebell to swing between your legs.
• Go straight into the next rep.

Why Gemdjian recommends it: The explosive hip drive will strengthen and condition your posterior chain.

4. Lateral lunge with dumbbell reach

Sets: 3 Reps: 8 each side

• Stand, holding a dumbbell in your right hand.
• Step your left foot out to the side and bend your left knee to lower, keeping your right leg straight and reaching the weight towards the right ankle.
• Push through your left foot to return to the start.
• Do all the reps on one side, then switch sides.

Why Gemdjian recommends it: This movement will develop your frontal plane strength (your ability to move side-to-side), and work the adductor muscles in your inner thigh and your core.

Moving consistently and moving well are vital ingredients for longevity at any age, according to Joe Williams, trainer and studio manager at F45 and FS8 Oxford Circus.

“Whether beginner or experienced, your training should cover all movement patterns,” says Williams.

“That means challenging it through all three planes of motion—frontal, sagittal and transverse.”

Regularly moving your body in all of these ways will not only build strength—especially important as we naturally lose muscle with age—but will also help retain or gain mobility, helping you stay independent and mobile.

Most of us spend nearly all our time moving in the sagittal plane, moving forward and back, doing things like walking and running.

We often neglect the two other planes of motion: frontal (side-to-side movements) and transverse (rotational movements).

Over time this can lead to weaknesses and imbalances that can affect your overall strength and mobility.

Williams has a remedy. He recommends regularly practicing these six exercises that target each movement pattern.

Six moves for longevity

1. Bodyweight squat

“You can't beat the squat for developing lower-body strength and mobility,” says Williams.

“Once you can master a bodyweight version you can then load it with a goblet squat—holding a weight close to your chest—then build up to a barbell front or back squat.”

Read through our guide on how to squat to learn about common pitfalls.

2. Single-leg deadlift

If you’ve mastered a basic deadlift, Williams suggests progressing to a single-leg version that challenges your balance and builds unilateral strength.

“You don't need to go heavy but this is a key skill to aspire to,” he says.

Try practicing a deadlift with dumbbells first if you’re new to deadlifts and the hinge movement pattern.

3. Lateral lunge

Stepping sideways and bending the leading leg while keeping the other leg straight will train your body through the often-overlooked frontal plane of motion.

“Lateral lunges can be very challenging but by slowly progressing the movement, you will increase flexibility and strength around your hips, knees and ankles,” says Williams.

4. Suspension trainer inverted row

Williams recommends swerving the pull-up bar and instead focusing on developing pulling mechanics with inverted rows.

Using a suspension trainer allows you to use both hands or progress to single arm variations, as well as introducing rotation at the top.

Exercising without a suspension trainer? Try a bent-over row with a pair of dumbbells instead, to strengthen your back, biceps and grip.

5. Push-up

“It’s an obvious one, but it’s the best exercise,” says Williams, even though, he says, 80% of people can’t do a full rep on their toes.

If that's you, Williams recommends progressing through modified push-ups, starting with an incline push-up with your hands on a wall or bench, then progressing to knees on the floor, before tackling the standard version.

“Don't get impatient and skip these steps or it’ll count against you in the long run,” says Williams.

See our guide on how to do a push-up if you need step-by-step instructions on easier variations.

6. Kneeling wood chop

Williams’ favorite exercise to develop strength and mobility through the transverse plane of motion is the wood chop.

“Ideally you’d use a cable machine that delivers consistent tension throughout the exercise,” he says.

If that's not available, he suggests using a dumbbell or light weight plate to practice the move.