Strength Training for Women Over 50: 11 Best Moves

While white-haired is inevitable, white-haired well is not. There are many factors involved in maintaining good physical and mental health as you age, but one of the most important things to consider as you grow older is weight training. The unelevated strength training exercises are proven to get results for women over 50.

I’ve been a personal trainer for over 30 years. My soul has weather-beaten right withal with my clients. I know from personal wits that strength training not only keeps you feeling and looking younger and stronger but unquestionably physically slows lanugo the white-haired process.

And while exercise comes in many forms, strength training is where the true anti-aging magic happens. Muscle is the secret to metabolism, having energy, sleeping better, maintaining weight and balancing hormones. Strength training is one of the weightier types of exercises for women over 50 – it’s time to start!

Let’s explore in detail the benefits of strength training for women and some of the specific strength training exercises that I recommend that women over 50 do.

Weight Training for Women Over 50 Program Guide

• Benefits Of Weight Training for Women over 50
• 11 Strength Training Exercises Women Over 50 Should Do
• Additional Strength Training Tips Surpassing You Get Started

7 Reasons Why Is It Important to Strength Train Without 50

I sound like a wrenched record but as a 58 year old woman, I know firsthand that women who unceasingly strength train look, finger and move better. Muscle is the secret to white-haired well and keeping self-sustaining and mobile.

1. Weight Training For Women Builds Lean Muscle Mass

As we get older, our persons inevitably go through muscle loss if we’re not focused on a strength training workout regularly. We women lose approximately a half pound to a full pound of muscle a year without the age of 35 if we are not urgently replacing it. Those who strength train see tighter, increasingly toned bodies.

And, it’s a myth that weight training will make you zillion up. Muscle is a increasingly dense, metabolic tissue than soul fat and takes less space. It will, in fact, help you unzip that coveted sculpted visitation everyone wants.

Cardio workouts help shrivel calories and get your heart pumping, which is hair-trigger for your overall heart health and weight management. But strength training is the secret to white-haired gracefully and feeling capable.

Being stronger ways you can stay self-sustaining and strong for life’s daily activities such as delivering groceries, lifting grandchildren, or engaging in fun activities like golf or other sports.

As I said above, virtually the age of 35, we women start to lose our muscle mass if not doing anything to urgently replace it. As many women age, they wilt increasingly sedentary, and hence, their muscles start to deteriorate.

There is no pill to take or potion to drink that builds muscle. You have to do the work.

2. Weight Training For Women Builds Unorthodoxy Density & Reduces Injury Risk

Muscle loss can have remoter consequences on unorthodoxy health. Unexpected falls put myriad older people in the hospital every year.

In fact, according to the CDC, falls are the leading rationalization of injury and death in older Americans.

By training the muscle and connective tissue that surrounds your bones, you are making yourself stronger and helping to prevent a fall from happening in the first place. Bone density is a big deal and strength training is the weightier way to preserve it.

The stronger your muscles are, the less likely you’ll be to get injured during everyday tasks or workouts.

How? Strong muscles protect your wreck and joints when they’re in motion and make your ligaments largest at titillating the shock they endure during dynamic movements.

To stave random strains and sprains, incorporate weekly strength training into your routine.

Injury prevention is important, expressly as you age—and it’s an often-overlooked goody of towers muscle.

3. Weight Training For Women Decreases Soul Fat

Maintaining a healthy weight is important when it comes to preventing many diseases that come with aging. Strength training can help you build muscle and paired with a healthy wipe diet, can help you subtract soul fat.

Strength training moreover creates an calorie after-burn, keeping your soul churning through calories for a longer period of time without your workout than a cardio workout.

4. Weight Training Speeds Up Metabolism

It’s unforgiving but true – as you age, your metabolism can uncork to slow down. One unconfined way to revive it is by weight training.

Your resting metabolic rate (RMR) is how many calories your soul burns at rest; the increasingly muscle you have on your body, the higher that metabolic rate is.

Essentially, the increasingly muscle you have, the faster your metabolism works. Let that sink in: more muscle ways a faster metabolism. When you have increasingly muscle mass in your body, you shrivel increasingly calories every day plane when just sitting on the couch.

5. Weight Training Improves Mental Health

Strength training is not just well-nigh increasingly muscle mass. As you get older, you may go through a lot of life changes. Feeling strong gives you confidence, makes you finger largest well-nigh your body, and helps you sleep better.

Adopting a strength training program has been shown to boost your mental health which is so important as we enter this next phase known as mid-life.

Harvard Medical School reports that exercise helps lessen the incidence and the stratum of clinical depression.

6. Weight Training For Women Improves Balance, Coordination, and Mobility

Regular strengthening workouts modernize your balance and coordination, which helps you do just well-nigh everything, from yoga and flit to daily tasks.

As you age, you tend to lose the overall muscle strength that allows you to balance. By lifting weights, you are not only towers up muscle strength and protecting unorthodoxy health, but you are moreover forcing your soul to fire up your cadre muscles and stabilizers, thus improving overall wastefulness and coordination.

The concept of functional fitness is that you can function and do everyday activities with ease. Strength training helps you maintain your worthiness to push, pull, twist and move through space.

Bending, lifting, balancing—all of these movements are unquestionably very important as you age. If you can strength train, it will help you stay increasingly coordinated and capable throughout the years.

For wastefulness exercises, trammels out our guide: Balance Exercises for Seniors: You Can Modernize Balance

7. Weight Training For Women Reduces The Risk of Many Diseases

According to Tufts University, strength training exercises will reduce the risks and symptoms of several health problems too, including arthritis, diabetes, osteoporosis, obesity, back pain, and depression.

11 Weightier Strength Training Exercises for Women Over 50

Here are 11 strength training exercises for women over 50 that will work for every muscle group and requite you a good total soul workout. Several exercises use your soul weight, and a few require a set of dumbbells.

Choose a weight that allows you to well-constructed 12 repetitions of each exercise. If the exercise feels too easy, go a little heavier.

Workout Instructions

• Perform each exercise shown unelevated anywhere between 12 and 15 repetitions.
• Repeat the unshortened spin of the 11 strength training moves a total of 2 times through the circuit. Between each circuit, take a 1-minute unravel to grab your vapor and start when from the top.

1. Vital Squats for Strength Training

Here’s how to perform a basic squat:

1. Stand tall with your feet hip-width loftiness apart. Hips, knees, and toes all pointing forward.
2. Wrench your knees and sit your stump when as if you are going to sit in a chair. Primarily keeping your weight equally in both heels, permitting you to alimony your knees overdue your toes.
3. Hit the marrow of your squat, pause, and then rise when up to stand and repeat the full exercise.

Muscles Targeted: Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, and Cadre

2. Modified Push Up for Strength Training

Here’s how to perform a modified push-up:

1. Begin in a kneeling position with your hands unelevated your shoulders and knees when overdue your hips.
2. Keep your gaze in front of your fingertips so your neck stays long, squeeze your glutes and inner thighs together, keeping the lower soul active.
3. Slowly lower yourself to the ground, keeping your elbows when at well-nigh a 45-degree angle.
4. Press yourself when up to the starting position
5. Repeat for the desired value of repetitions

Advancement to this Exercise: Once you have mastered the modified push-up try a full push-up from your toes.

Begin in a upper plank position, hands stacked underneath the shoulders, legs long overdue you. Lower your chest to the floor, with your elbows pointing slightly back, until you are just whilom the ground.

As you exhale, tighten your vitals and push yourself when up to a plank position.

Muscles Targeted: Upper Body, Chest, Back, Shoulders, Biceps and Triceps, and plane your Core.

3. Reverse Grip Double Arm Row for Strength Training

Here’s how to perform a reverse grip double arm row:

1. Start this exercise with your legs together and sit when into a small squat; engaging the glutes and rectal wall. Stovepipe will be stretched out in front of the soul holding the weights with the palms facing the ceiling.
2. Drawing your elbows when by squeezing your upper when muscles together, pull the elbows gently past the hips so you finger the lats and triceps engage and return to the starting position with control.

Options: Start with a lighter set of weights and focus on slow-controlled movements. Take a 3-second pause at the top of the range of motion and slowly return to the starting position.

Once you’ve mastered lighter weights with a slow and controlled pace, grab a set of heavier weights and try completing a few increasingly repetitions.

Muscle Groups Targeted: Upper Body, Triceps, Back, and Shoulders

4. Full Soul Roll-Up for Strength Training

Here’s how to perform a full-body roll-up:

1. Start lying on a mat (or the ground) with your stovepipe extended overhead, legs long, and feet flexed towards your face.
2. Inhale as you lift your stovepipe up and uncork curling your chin to your chest. Exhale as you roll the unshortened torso up and over, keeping your legs straight, abs engaged, reaching lanugo towards the toes.
3. Inhale as you uncork to roll when lanugo your spine, one vertebra at a time, and exhale as the upper portion of the when lowers to the ground, reaching your stovepipe when overhead.
4. Repeat moving slowly and using the viscera to lift and lower, not using momentum.

Muscle Groups Targeted: Core, Shoulders, and When

5. Dumbbell Deadlifts for Strength Training

Here’s how to perform a Dumbbell Deadlift:

1. Start standing with your feet hip-width loftiness untied and weights facing towards the front of your thighs.
2. Tighten your viscera and alimony a unappetizing when as you bring a soft wrench through the knees, lowering the dumbbells towards the floor.
3. Send your stump wrong-side-up with a slight hip hinge, squeeze the glutes, and use your hamstrings to lift and return to your upright position.

Muscle Groups Targeted With This Exercise: Hamstrings and Glutes

6. Forward Lunge with Bicep Flourish for Strength Training

Here’s how to do a Forward Lunge with A Bicep Curl:

1. Start standing tall with your feet hip-width loftiness apart. Take a large step forward with the right leg and lower your when knee lanugo to the floor. Both legs should be wilting at a 90-degree wile at the marrow of the lunge.
2. Bring weights in towards your shoulders to well-constructed the bicep curl at the marrow of the lunge, then push off the front foot and return to the starting position.
3. Repeat on the other side.

Muscle Groups Targeted: Quads, Glutes, Hamstrings, and Biceps

7. Forearm Plank for Strength Training

Here’s how to hold a forearm plank:

1. Begin by lying on the floor with your forearms unappetizing on the ground. Your elbows should be aligned directly unelevated your shoulders. Hands should be separated by the width of your elbows.
2. Engage your core, printing lanugo through your elbows, and raise your soul up off the floor, keeping your soul in a straight line from your throne lanugo to your feet. Pull your navel into your spine and squeeze your glutes to alimony your hips in line with your shoulders.

Hold for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Modifications to this Exercise: Drop lanugo to your knees and hold from your forearms and your knees. This will indulge you to focus on squeezing your vitals into your spine without dropping your hips or dumping pressure into your low back.

Muscle Groups Targeted with This Exercise: Core/ Abdominals, Shoulder, Chest, Upper Back, Arm, and Leg Muscles.

8. Single Leg Hamstring Underpass for Strength Training

Here’s how to perform a single leg hamstring bridge:

1. Lie on your when with wilting knees both hip-width loftiness apart. Your feet will be unappetizing on the mat stacked underneath your knees. Once in a underpass position, proffer your right leg long towards the ceiling.
2. Squeezing your glutes and lower soul and then lifting your hips off of the mat into a bridge. Lower and lift the hips for a desired number of reps and then repeat the exercise on the left leg.

Muscle Groups Targeted: Hamstrings, Glutes, and Quads

9. Tricep Kick When for Strength Training

Here’s how to perform a tricep kickback:

1. Start with your feet together (or hip-width loftiness apart), sit when into a slight squat with stovepipe wilting at 90-degree angles, and weights at the sides of the chest.
2. Press the dumbbells when past the hips, keeping the line from your shoulder to your elbow joint stable and only finding movement from the elbow joint to the dumbbell. Return when to the starting position with weights at 90 degrees.

Advanced Option: Stability Wittiness Tricep Kick Back

Adding the stability wittiness to a tricep kickback is a strength exercise that will not only strengthen the triceps but will moreover rencontre your cadre stability.

An exercise that can be washed-up by all levels from beginners to wide will make you work your unshortened soul in order to alimony you on the stability ball.

Here’s how to do a stability wittiness tricep kickback:

1. Holding dumbbells, place your chest firmly on the wittiness with stovepipe draped withal your side soul and legs extended on the floor overdue you. Alimony your throne in line with your spine, squeezing your glutes to hold yourself in a stable plank position on the ball.
2. Pull your elbow up to a 90-degree wile for the starting position of the tricep kickback.
3. Press the dumbbell back, squeezing the triceps.
4. Release weights when lanugo to starting position, maintaining wastefulness on the stability wittiness the unshortened time.

Muscle Groups Targeted: Triceps and Core.

10. Shoulder Overhead Printing for Strength Training

Here’s how to perform a shoulder overhead press:

1. Start with your feet hip-width loftiness apart. Bring your elbows out to the side creating a goal post position with your arms. Elbows will be straight out from shoulder height and viscera held in tight.
2. Press dumbbells straight overhead until your stovepipe are straight. Slowly return to starting position (goal post arms) with control.

Muscle Groups Targeted: Shoulders

11. Bird Dog for Strength Training

How to perform bird dog:

1. Kneel on a mat (or any soft surface) on all fours
2. Reach one arm long, drawing in the abdominals, and proffer the opposite leg long overdue you.
3. Hold, engage your lower soul for 5-10 seconds, and return to all fours.
4. Repeat on the other side.

Muscles Groups Targeted: Viscera and Low When

Try These Strength Exercises Two Different Ways

1. 10-Minute AMRAP Workout

(As Many Rounds as Possible Workout) – Set a timer for 10 Minutes. Well-constructed a total of 10 repetitions of each exercise above. Repeat as many times as possible within 10 minutes.

Take breaks as needed – the goal is to get through as many rounds as you can of all strength exercises in the 10 minutes.

2. Spin Workout

In this spin workout, we are going to stow a few of the exercises together and you will repeat each spin 2 times.

• Complete Exercises 1 – 4 together: You will well-constructed 10 repetitions of each exercise (squats, mid-back rows, modified push-ups, and the full-body roll-up) and repeat the spin then for a total of 2 rounds.
• Complete Exercises 5 – 7 together: After completing 2 rounds of exercises 1 – 4, you will move on to exercises 5 through 7. Completing 10 repetitions of each (deadlift, lunges with bicep curls, and 1 minute of a forearm plank) and repeat the spin for a total of 2 rounds. If you need to modify the forearm plank you can retread the time lanugo to 30 seconds or waif lanugo to your knees and protract to engage your core.
• Complete Exercises 8 – 11 together: After completing the first 2 circuits, you will move on to the third spin which consists of exercises 8 through 11 (single leg hamstring bridge, tricep kickback, shoulder overhead press, and bird dog). Well-constructed 10 repetitions of the 4 exercises and repeat the spin one increasingly time!

Additional Strength Training Tips for Women Over 50

The CDC has set the guideline that everyone should perform strength training activities at least two days a week. This goes for anyone in their 30s and all the way up into your 50s, 60s, and plane 70s!

Strength training is perfectly unscratched for women over 50, but there are a few tips you should know surpassing getting started:

• Consult your doctor surpassing dramatically waffly your exercise regimen or if you have any pre-existing conditions or injuries.
• Consider subtracting an electrolyte supplement to your pre-exercise routine to alimony your energy levels up. I noticed a dip in energy when I hit my 50’s, and now I take a supplement surpassing every work out!

The good news is that we can write-up the odds by standing to weight train, helping to build and maintain muscles throughout life!

So what are you waiting for, grab a pair of weights and get started with your weight training journey today!

More questions? Be sure to trammels out our beginner’s guide to strength training for women.

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