Starting at age 30, your muscle mass starts to deteriorate. But there are steps you can take to help fend off the negative effects.
As a personal trainer, strength training is the No. 1 type of exercise I recommend to live longer. Research has even shown that people in their 70s with mobility issues can boost their longevity with a strength-training program.
Some major aging benefits include:
- Increased bone health: Regular strength training can help reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
- Muscle maintenance: It allows you to maintain muscle that would otherwise begin to waste away as you get older.
- Better joint mobility: It improves your range of motion and protects your joints by strengthening the muscles that surround them.
- Weight management: Building muscle helps boost your metabolism, making your body more efficient in burning calories.
- Better balance: Improving your balance is critical to helping prevent falls that may lead to injury.
1. Squats
What it targets: lower body, core, and knee, hip and ankle joints
Squats help your body perform everyday activities as you age, like getting up from a chair or picking something up off the ground.
2. Static lunges
What it targets: hamstrings, quadriceps, glutes and calves
As a unilateral movement (working one side of the body at a time), lunges improve your stability and help correct muscle imbalances by strengthening each side of your body separately.
How to do a static lunge:
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart and take one giant step forward into a split stance.
- Keep your back heel off the ground as you lower your body, until your knees form 90-degree angles.
- Plant your front foot and the ball of your back foot into the mat, and straighten back into a standing position.
- Do 10 to 12 reps on each side.