Four Effective Home Exercises to Firm Love Handles Faster Than Leg Press After 60

If you’re on a mission to trim your waistline, consider incorporating these exercises into your regimen.

Reaching your senior years should be a time of excitement and anticipation. This stage of life can bring opportunities for retirement, traveling, and enjoying time with grandchildren. However, it can also present a few unexpected challenges, such as the appearance of love handles.

As we age, our hormones fluctuate, muscle mass diminishes, and metabolism slows down. Without lifestyle adjustments, these changes can lead to the development of love handles, or excess fat around the waist.

We consulted with Terry Tateossian, the Founder and Certified Lifestyle Medicine Coach at THOR – The House of Rose. Terry specializes in women’s health and weight management for those over 40 and has completed extensive training in these areas. She shared a plan focused on four effective home exercises designed to tackle love handles more efficiently than traditional leg presses for those over 60.

We spoke with Terry Tateossian, Founder, Certified Lifestyle Medicine Coach, Trainer, and Nutritionist for Women 40+ at THOR – The House of Rose, who has completed a variety of advanced training to support her work in women’s health and middle-aged weight loss, and have just the plan to work on this area of the body. Below are four home exercises you can do to firm love handles faster than leg press after 60.

Side Plank

“Side planks are great because they directly target the oblique chain. And knees down allows for a modification that makes it safe and sustainable for people just starting out who often cannot hold a side plank long enough to build real strength. And it’s great for visibly tightening up the waistline,” Tateossian says.

1. Begin by lying on your side and placing your elbow below your shoulder.
2. Your feet should be stacked.
3. Lift your hips off the floor so that your body forms a straight line from your head to your feet.
4. Hold for the prescribed amount of time.
5. Perform 3 to 4 sets of 30 to 60 seconds on each side, resting for 60 seconds.

Bird Dog

“We call this the anti-rotation exercise. The body wants to twist but the deep obliques and lower back stabilizers have to fire to prevent that from happening. It firms the waist and the diagonal loading pattern reaches the muscles around the love handles,” Tateossian says.

1. Start on all fours.
2. Extend your left arm and right leg.
3. Hold for a moment before returning to the start position.
4. Switch sides and continue to alternate.
5. Complete 3 to 4 sets, 20 reps total, with 60 seconds of rest.

Standing Oblique Reach

“These are deceptively gentle but do real work because the descent is fast and the ascent is slow. The muscles are working against gravity in the concentric phase, which is great for building strength in the obliques,” Tateossian tells us.

1. Begin standing tall with your feet hip-distance apart and arms at your sides.
2. Reach one arm overhead, lengthening through the side of your body.
3. As you reach, bend your torso toward the opposite side, feeling a solid side stretch.
4. Return to the start position with control.
5. Perform 3 to 4 sets of 8 reps per side.

Standing Paloff Press

“This is also an anti-rotational exercise that would put it in the top three for waist firmness at any age and especially after 60,” Tateossian points out. “The deep core muscles that wrap around the waist fire harder against a steady rotational pull.”

1. Stand tall, perpendicular to an anchor point, with your feet hip-width apart and a soft bend in your knees.
2. Hold a resistance band at chest level.
3. Breathe out as you extend your arms ahead of you, resisting rotation.
4. Return your arms to the starting position.
5. Perform 3 to 4 sets of 10 reps per side.