What is the number one best exercise for seniors?

Walking is the best exercise for seniors because it is safe, easy to do, and keeps your heart healthy. You can do it almost anywhere and it does not hurt your joints like running can.

Personal Training

What Is the Number One Exercise Seniors Should Do? (The Answer Is Resistance Training)

Q: What exercise should a 70 year old do every day?

A 70 year old should walk every day for at least 30 minutes to stay strong and healthy. Walking helps your heart, bones, and muscles work better.

Q: What exercises should seniors not do?

Seniors should avoid jumping, running, and heavy lifting because these can hurt their joints and bones. They should also skip exercises that make them dizzy or hurt their back.

Q: What are the only 5 exercises you'll ever need?

Walking, stretching, strength training, balance exercises, and swimming are five great exercises for staying healthy. These help your heart, bones, muscles, and balance all at the same time.

Armstrong Lazenby

02/07/2026

In this article

What is the number one exercise seniors should do? Progressive resistance training. Here's exactly how to do it, why it works, and what to avoid.

Progressive resistance training is the number one exercise seniors should do. Two to three sessions per week, targeting the major muscle groups, with 2-3 sets of 8-12 repetitions at moderate to high intensity.

Movements like sit-to-stand, step-ups, wall push-ups, and resistance band rows. That’s the answer. Everything below explains why, how, and what to add around it.

Why Resistance Training Beats Every Other Option

The core problem aging creates is sarcopenia. That’s the gradual loss of muscle mass and strength that begins around age 35 and accelerates after 60. Once it takes hold, everything else follows: falls, fractures, trouble getting off the toilet, loss of independence.

No other single exercise type addresses sarcopenia as directly as resistance training does. Research comparing exercise types for older adults found that resistance training and multi-component programs showed the most consistent benefits for reducing falls and improving gait.

Aerobic exercise is good for the heart. Stretching helps with flexibility. But neither rebuilds muscle. Only resistance training does that.

The numbers are significant. Resistance training increases strength by 6.6 to 37%, muscle mass by 3.4 to 7.5%, and functional capacity by 4.7 to 58.1% in frail older adults. That functional capacity range is wide because it depends on where someone starts. The more deconditioned a person is, the more they gain.

One of my clients, a 74-year-old woman, came in barely able to get up from a low chair without using her arms. After eight weeks of twice-weekly resistance training, she stood up from that same chair without touching the armrests. She cried. That’s what those percentages look like in real life.

What Exercise Should a 70-Year-Old Do Every Day?

Not intense resistance training every day. Muscles need 48 hours to recover, especially in older adults. But there’s something a 70-year-old should do daily, and it’s simpler than most people expect.

Walk. Sit and stand from chairs without using your hands. Carry groceries. Climb stairs deliberately. These aren’t warm-up activities before the real exercise.

For many older adults, these are the exercise, especially at the start.

A randomised trial called the LiFE study showed that embedding strength and balance tasks into daily routines reduced fall rates in adults 70 and older. The key insight: frequency matters more than formality. Doing ten chair stands while waiting for the kettle to boil adds up across a week in ways that one formal session can’t match.

So the daily prescription is simple. Keep moving, make daily tasks deliberate, and add structured resistance training two to three times per week around that foundation.

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The One Thing Most Articles Get Wrong About Exercise for Seniors

Most content on this topic tells seniors to start slow, keep it light, and prioritise safety above all else. That framing causes harm.

Light resistance training at low intensity does very little for muscle mass or strength. The research is clear that moderate to high intensity is required to stimulate meaningful adaptation. This doesn’t mean reckless. It means progressive. It means the weight or resistance should feel challenging by the last few reps of each set.

I know this because a client of mine spent two years doing gentle chair exercises from a YouTube video. He felt good doing them. His balance barely improved. When he started actual progressive resistance training with a trainer, he made more progress in twelve weeks than in those two years.

The missing ingredient was intensity.

The fear of injury with older adults is real and worth respecting. But the risk of doing too little is greater than the risk of doing too much under proper supervision. Falls, fractures, and loss of independence aren’t safe outcomes either.

What Is Power Training and Why Does It Matter After 70?

Power is different from strength. Strength is how much force you can produce. Power is how fast you can produce it. Both decline with age, but power declines faster, and it’s power that determines whether you catch yourself when you trip.

A 2023 meta-analysis found that power training significantly improved functional capacity and fall risk in older adults. Power training means performing the lifting phase of a resistance exercise with intentional speed. A squat where you rise quickly. A step-up where you drive up fast. The load stays manageable, but the intent is explosive.

This is an angle almost no mainstream senior fitness article covers. Everyone focuses on slow, controlled movement for safety. That’s correct for the lowering phase. But the lifting phase should be fast and deliberate. That combination of slow lowering and fast lifting builds both strength and power simultaneously.

What Exercises Should Seniors Not Do?

The exercises to avoid aren’t a fixed list. They depend on the individual. That said, there are patterns worth knowing.

High-impact activities without a base of strength are the main risk. Running, jumping, or high-intensity aerobics before building sufficient leg strength increases fall and fracture risk, especially for anyone with low bone density.

Heavy spinal loading without proper form is another. Barbell back squats and heavy deadlifts aren’t categorically off-limits for seniors, but they require good technique and progressive loading. Jumping straight to them without a foundation is where injuries happen.

Exercises that cause pain should stop. Pain during exercise isn’t normal soreness. It’s a signal. Muscle fatigue and mild post-exercise soreness are expected. Sharp, joint-based, or persistent pain means something needs to change.

Nothing specific to older adults is inherently dangerous when load and intensity are matched to ability. The problem is usually a mismatch between the exercise and where the person currently is, not the exercise itself.

What Are the Only 5 Exercises You’ll Ever Need?

If someone asked me to strip it back to five movements that cover almost everything a senior needs, these are the ones I’d choose:

Sit-to-stand (squat pattern). This single movement trains the legs, glutes, and core. It directly translates to getting up from chairs, toilets, and the floor. Start with a high chair and progress to lower surfaces over time.
Step-up (single leg strength and balance). Use a step, stair, or box. Drive through the heel. This trains balance and leg strength together, and it mirrors what stair climbing requires.
Resistance band row (upper back and posture). Loop a band around a post or door handle at chest height. Pull the handles toward your ribs. This counteracts the forward rounding posture that develops with age and builds the upper back muscles that stabilise the spine.
Wall push-up or incline push-up (pushing strength). Hands on a wall or bench, body in a plank position. Builds chest, shoulders, and triceps. Translates to pushing yourself up from the floor if you fall.
Single-leg balance hold. Stand on one foot for 10 to 30 seconds. Switch sides. Simple, requires no equipment, and directly trains the balance system that prevents falls. Add it to any spare moment during the day.

Two to three sets of each, done two to three times per week, covers the major muscle groups and the balance system. That’s enough to produce real results for most seniors starting out.

What About Frailty? Can Very Elderly People Still Benefit?

Yes. This is one of the most important points to understand about resistance training for seniors.

A study of nursing home residents with a mean age of 87.1 showed that a tailored multicomponent exercise program improved both functional capacity and strength. These weren’t active, healthy older adults. These were people in residential care, many with multiple conditions. They still improved.

The modifications matter. For someone with severe frailty, starting with seated exercises, very light resistance bands, or even just body weight is appropriate. The principle of progressive overload still applies. You start where the person is and make it harder over time, even if that progression is slow.

I remember working with an 82-year-old man whose family was convinced he was too old to build any muscle. Within six weeks of twice-weekly sessions, he was carrying his own groceries again for the first time in two years. The research backs up why it worked.

How to Actually Start: Making It Stick

The research supports resistance training. The harder question is how to make it happen consistently over months and years.

Three things matter most for adherence in older adults. First, the exercises need to feel relevant. Doing a sit-to-stand because it makes you better at getting off the toilet is more motivating than doing it because a trainer said so. Connect every movement to a real daily task.

Second, progress needs to be visible. Write down reps and resistance each session. When a client sees they went from a green resistance band to a blue one over six weeks, that tangible evidence keeps them coming back.

Third, social support helps. Group classes, training with a partner, or working with a personal trainer all improve long-term consistency. This isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s one of the strongest predictors of whether someone sticks with a program.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is walking enough exercise for seniors?

Walking is valuable and should be part of daily life. But it doesn’t build muscle mass or reverse sarcopenia. It doesn’t adequately address fall risk on its own. Walking alone isn’t enough. Resistance training needs to sit alongside it.

How quickly will a senior see results from resistance training?

Strength gains typically begin within two to four weeks, even before muscle mass visibly increases. This early improvement comes from neural adaptation, the nervous system becoming more efficient at recruiting muscle. Visible changes in muscle and functional capacity follow over six to twelve weeks of consistent training.

Do seniors need protein to make resistance training work?

Protein intake significantly affects how well resistance training builds muscle in older adults. Adequate protein, typically 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day, supports muscle protein synthesis after training. Without enough protein, the training stimulus is there but the building blocks aren’t.

Food sources like eggs, Greek yoghurt, lean meat, fish, and legumes are the most practical way to hit that target.

What if you stop training? Do you lose the gains?

Yes, but not immediately. Research shows that strength gains are preserved for several weeks after stopping, with more rapid decline following. The good news is that returning to training after a break rebuilds strength faster than the initial learning period. Consistency over years matters more than any single training block.

Should seniors work with a personal trainer?

For anyone starting resistance training after 65, working with a qualified trainer at least initially reduces injury risk, ensures correct technique, and significantly improves results. A trainer can also progress load appropriately over time, which is where most self-directed programs stall.

If you’re in Port Melbourne or the surrounding area, a local personal trainer with experience in senior fitness can assess your current baseline and build a program around your specific needs.

Your Action Points

Start this week: Do three sets of sit-to-stand from a sturdy chair, ten repetitions per set. That single movement is the foundation of lower body independence. If it’s easy, lower the chair height or hold a weight.

Add the five movements above across two sessions this week. Rest at least one day between sessions. Write down what you did.

Make the lifting phase fast. Lower slowly, push or pull back up with intent and speed. That shift alone adds power training benefits to every set you do.

Get a professional assessment if you haven’t exercised in years, have a history of falls, or have been told to “take it easy.” A qualified trainer can safely establish where you start and ensure you progress rather than plateau.

Muscle responds to challenge at any age. The research is consistent on that. The only variable is whether you give it that challenge or not.

Sources

Armstrong Lazenby

Armstrong Lazenby is a BSc (Human Nutrition) registered nutritionist and holds a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science and a Master of Sports Medicine. A former professional athlete who competed representing Australia for 4 years, Armstrong has held scholarships with the Victorian Institute of Sport, Australian Institute of Sport, and the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia.

Qualifications:
• BSc (Human Nutrition) — Registered Nutritionist
• Bachelor of Science (Exercise Science major)
• Master of Sports Medicine
• Certificate III & IV in Fitness

What Is the Number One Exercise Seniors Should Do? (The Answer Is Resistance Training)

Why Resistance Training Beats Every Other Option

What Exercise Should a 70-Year-Old Do Every Day?

9 Steps To Shed 5–10kg in 6 Weeks

The One Thing Most Articles Get Wrong About Exercise for Seniors

What Is Power Training and Why Does It Matter After 70?

What Exercises Should Seniors Not Do?

What Are the Only 5 Exercises You’ll Ever Need?

What About Frailty? Can Very Elderly People Still Benefit?

How to Actually Start: Making It Stick

Frequently Asked Questions

Is walking enough exercise for seniors?

How quickly will a senior see results from resistance training?

Do seniors need protein to make resistance training work?

What if you stop training? Do you lose the gains?

Should seniors work with a personal trainer?

Your Action Points

Sources

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