The best 20-minute strength training plan every midlifer should follow

Strength training is exercise designed to build your muscular strength. Also known as weight or resistance training, it’s a key part of a fitness regime, when you’re not only working out to stay trim or to tone your abs – you’re in this for the long haul.

So you’ve been convinced of the benefits of strength training. The next question: where do you start?

There are dozens of plans and programmes vying for your attention, from the intimidating (powerlifting, strongman) to the just-a-bit-too-basic (doing press ups and squats). What all good plans have in common, though, is that they provide a balance between the simple, functional movements any healthy body should be able to do. 

It’s important to have a reliable plan or workout to follow as the last thing you want is to spend too much time doing the wrong kind of exercise for your fitness goal – or to do said exercises incorrectly and risk injuring yourself.

According to Lydia Arnoux, a personal trainer and teacher at Barrecore, everyone should be encouraged to do some form of resistance training. “This can be using weights or bands, like in our barre signature and barre sculpt classes, as this builds muscle helping to create shape and a lean look as well as building strength which can also help reduce injury and build bone density.”

Strength training helps you maintain flexibility and mobility while working out – and you don’t have to spend hours in the gym to achieve this improvement in your fitness regime either. You can work the specific muscle group you’re focusing on against external resistance, such as weights, or simply using your own body weight. 

Ahead of National Fitness Day, we’ve rounded up the best strength training exercises to try out; perfect for any and every age group, why not give these a go.

Best midlife exercises to try

Pushing

This means anything from a dumbbell press to a press-up. An ideal plan provides both horizontal pushing and vertical, so you’ll never be stymied while putting things in cupboards – and it will keep your shoulders healthy enough to do both. 

Pulling

This is what many programmes miss, as it’s tricky to do without equipment: but it’s essential as it redresses the balance from all the forward-hunching you do at your desk. Ideally, you’ll do as many ‘pulling’ moves as ‘pushing’ ones, or even more. 

Squatting

Simple but crucial. If you’ve ever seen a toddler pick up a toy you’ve seen perfect squat mechanics in action – the upright torso, shoulder width feet and weight on the heels – but years of slouching on sofas and in office chairs wreck our mobility. Fix it with some squats and you’ll benefit from healthier hips and knees. 

Hip-hinging

Sounds complex, but you see it everywhere: a deadlift is a hip hinge, but so is a kettlebell swing – or the explosive movement that starts a standing broad jump. 

Carrying

This is the element that’s often left out of strength programmes – partly because gyms aren’t conducive to it – but, among other things, carrying things will keep your core strong, without endless sit ups. 

The basics of strength training

Unlike cardio, which is usually done continuously or in high-intensity bursts, strength training demands proper recovery between sets. Normally, you should focus on one or two moves at once: power lifters might do a single set of squats and then rest for up to five minutes before trying again, to let their bodies recover. If you’re lifting less weight you don’t need to do this, but it’s still important to lift with good form and think quality over quantity. Strength athletes sometimes joke that anything over five reps counts as cardio – you can do up to 12, but after that it’s time to up the weight or pick a harder movement. 

Stop before you ‘fail’

Though bodybuilders often wax lyrical about training to ‘failure’ – the point where your muscles literally won’t allow you to lift another thing – it’s not a useful approach because strength training is at least partly about teaching your muscle fibres to coordinate among themselves better (as the saying goes, ‘what fires together, wires together’) and by doing messy or unfinished reps, you’re ‘teaching’ your muscles the wrong movement pattern. A good rule of thumb: however many reps you’ve planned to do, stop the set once they start to slow down to the point that you’re grinding them out. Keep your movements controlled, and you’ll also reduce your risk of injury. 

Functional strength training plan

Strength is built over the long term, but if you’ve got 20 minutes spare a couple of times a week, you can make a start. Begin with the below: do the workout that’s appropriate for your age group 2-3 times a week, making sure you rest for at least a day between sessions. If moves are marked 1A and 1B, do them as a ‘superset’, which means doing both moves back to back before resting. For the weighted movements, pick a weight that’s manageable and increase it once you find hitting the upper end of the rep range easy. If you don’t have dumbbells, try these moves with water bottles or cans. Rest around 60 seconds after each set, or longer if you need to. 

If you find your age-group workout too simple, move to a ‘younger’ option and if you find it too hard, move to an ‘older’ option until you get stronger. And of course, if you have any concerns, consult a doctor before starting on a strenuous workout plan. 

In your…40s