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Enhance and sustain your strength post-60 with these four effortless daily exercises.
As you pass the age of 60, one undeniable truth emerges—fortifying your strength becomes crucial. The culprit? Sarcopenia, the age-related decline in muscle and strength. Various factors contribute to sarcopenia, such as hormonal shifts, lack of physical activity, and dietary habits. It is vital to adopt strategies that bolster your muscles to continue handling everyday activities and maintain your independence.
We consulted with Domenic Angelino, CPT from the International Personal Trainer Academy, which provides NCCA-accredited certifications in Personal Training (CPT) and Nutrition (CNS). Angelino recommends four daily exercises that can help achieve this goal. Incorporating these exercises into your routine can actually make you more robust than many who are in their 40s, even after reaching 60.
“Failing to engage your muscles means they will weaken over time,” Angelino explains. “To combat muscle loss, consistently lifting weights at the gym is effective. Alternatively, maintaining a naturally active lifestyle can also help. By staying active, your body strives to retain muscle mass and strength since you’re frequently using it. Thus, integrating movement into your daily routine offers benefits, although the greatest results come from traditional exercises involving heavy resistance.”
“If you don’t use your muscles, they will get weaker over time,” Angelino tells us. “One way to reduce the loss of muscle over time is to regularly lift weights at the gym. Another way to go about it is to naturally maintain an active lifestyle. If you’re always moving around, your body will act to preserve your muscle mass, and therefore strength, because you’re using it more. So, making movement a part of your day can have some benefits—although, you’ll see the biggest benefit from more traditional exercise using heavy resistance.”
So without further ado, Angelino breaks down the best exercises to weave into your daily routine to build strength and overall fitness.
Dumbbell Goblet Squats
“This is a solid all-around strength exercise for your lower body. It also requires you to engage your upper body muscles to hold the dumbbell right in front of your chest, so it gets a lot done in a short period of time,” Angelino explains. “You can start with body weight to work up to using a dumbbell if you need to.”
- Stand tall, feet slightly wider than shoulder-width.
- Grasp a dumbbell with both hands, and hold the weight in front of your chest with your elbows pointing down and tucked in.
- Hinge at the hips and bend your knees to squat, keeping the weight in place.
- Squat as far as you can with a straight back.
- Push through your heels to return to the starting position.
- Perform 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps.
Dumbbell Bench Press
“This trains about half of your most important upper-body muscles,” Angelino points out.
- Lie flat on your back on a workout bench.
- Hold a dumbbell in each hand just outside your chest.
- Keep your feet flat on the ground and maintain an engaged core.
- Press the dumbbells over your chest until your arms are extended but not locked out.
- Use control to lower the weights.
- Perform 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps.
Dumbbell Bent-Over Rows
“This trains the other half of your most important upper body muscles,” Angelino says.
- Stand tall, feet hip-width apart and a dumbbell in each hand in front of you.
- Hinge at the hips until your torso is parallel to the ground.
- Maintain a flat back and soft knees.
- Allow the weights to lower with your arms completely extended.
- Row the dumbbells up toward your torso.
- Lower to the start position with control.
- Perform 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps.
Plank
“This exercise helps improve your core stability by strengthening the part of your abdominal muscles most responsible for doing so,” Angelino says. “It might seem intimidating at first, but you can perform this exercise on your forearms and knees at first to get used to it. And, you can work up to regular planks over time. It’s also important to do these over a soft surface to keep your joints, like your knees, safe.”
- Assume a forearm plank with your forearms on the floor—elbows under your shoulders—and body straight from head to heels.
- Engage your legs, glutes, and core.
- Perform 3 sets of 30 to 45-second holds.
