Revitalize Your Stair-Climbing Strength After 60 with These 5 Expert-Recommended Standing Exercises

Enhancing lower-body strength is crucial for sustaining a robust physique as you grow older.

Often underestimated, stair climbing strength plays a vital role in protecting your joints and enhancing mobility. Focusing on strengthening your calves, quads, and glutes is key as you age, as it not only helps build bone density and muscle strength but also improves balance, reducing the risk of falls. We consulted with Eric North, known as The Happiness Warrior—a wellness expert, speaker, and coach dedicated to redefining aging with vitality, strength, and emotional well-being—to learn about five standing exercises designed to restore stair-climbing strength for those over 60.

“The decline in stair-climbing strength post-60 is largely attributed to sarcopenia, which is the age-related decrease in muscle mass,” North explains. “The primary muscles affected include the quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, and calves. This decline results from a decrease in muscle fibers, diminished nerve support, heightened sedentary lifestyles, and reduced power output.”

This is where targeted exercises become beneficial. Standing exercises that aim to enhance stair-climbing strength primarily focus on engaging the glutes, quads, hamstrings, calves, and core muscles.

That’s where these exercises come in handy. Standing workouts to boost stair-climbing strength mainly engage the glutes, quads, hamstrings, calves, and core.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

“Strengthening these areas improves stair climbing by boosting power for ascending, enhancing knee stability, and improving balance to reduce fall risk,” North adds.

Here are North’s top-recommended standing exercises to add to your routine.

Stair Step-Ups

“Step-ups/step-downs specifically target the quads and glutes to build strength for ascending and descending,” North points out.

1. Begin by standing tall, facing a low step. Hold an optional lightweight dumbbell in each hand.
2. Place your left foot firmly onto the surface, keeping your core engaged and chest tall.
3. Press through your left heel to lift your body until your left leg is straight and you’re standing on the surface.
4. Use control to lower back to the start position.
5. Repeat on the other side.
6. Perform 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps per leg.

Calf Raises

“Single-leg calf raises strengthen the gastrocnemius for better toe-off power,” North says.

1. Begin by standing tall with your feet hip-width apart, facing a counter with your hands lightly resting on the surface.
2. Engage your core.
3. Rise onto your toes slowly.
4. Hold for 2 to 3 seconds at the top.
5. Lower back down with control.
6. Perform 3 sets of 15 to 20 reps.

Chair Squats

1. Begin by standing tall in front of a sturdy chair with your feet hip-width apart on the ground.
2. Activate your core and keep your chest lifted.
3. Bend at the knees and hips and lower slowly into a squat—as if you’re about to sit down. Make sure your weight stays in your heels.
4. Lightly touch the surface of the chair with your glutes.
5. Press through your heels to rise back up.
6. Perform 3 sets of 10 to 15 reps.

Stair Lunges

1. Begin standing tall, facing a step and holding onto the railing.
2. Plant one foot on the step.
3. Keeping your back straight, lower into a lunge, making sure the front knee stays over that ankle.
4. Press back up.
5. Perform 2 sets of 8 to 10 reps on each leg.

Hip Hikes

1. Begin by standing tall with one foot placed on a step and the other hanging off of the edge.
2. Keep both legs straight as you slowly lower the hip of the hanging leg.
3. Then, raise it high, activating your hip muscles as you do so.
4. Perform 2 sets of 10 to 15 reps on each side.