Staying active becomes more important than ever as we age to maintain strength, mobility, and overall vitality, particularly as our muscle mass and bone density start to decline. While we can’t stop time, Personal Trainer, Jason Pak, has shared his top three exercises to try and slow it down and help you tackle the challenges of everyday life.
According to David Lloyd: “A functional workout strengthens your body in a way that allows you to perform daily activities with ease and without fear of injury— something that becomes increasingly important as we get older”. It also enhances our strength and stability, balance and coordination, and boosts our posture. It’ll help you build a stronger, more resilient body so you can keep doing the things you love to do.
These three exercises focus on building power, strength, mobility and balance, which commonly decline as we age. You don’t have to do these as a set workout. Instead, you can focus on incorporating two to three sets of them into your other workouts throughout the week, or whenever you have a few spare moments throughout the day. For exercise 1, Pak says he only performs this for 2-3 sets of 2 reps twice a week. For exercises 2 and 3, we’d recommend incorporating 2-3 sets of 6-12 reps. A dumbbell or kettlebell will be required for the first two. Here are the exercises he recommends:
- Turkish get-up
- Single leg exercise (choose one of the following: reverse lunges, lateral lunges, step-ups, Bulgarian split squats, split squats, single leg RDLs)
- Jumping exercises: (choose one of the following: box jumps, squat jumps, pogo hops)
If you’re after more workouts that’ll help build longevity, we’ve got plenty! Check out this dumbbell workout plan; perfect for beginners to bolster strength and overall fitness. Alternatively, if you’re simply looking for a short workout that you can blast through in 30 minutes or less, whilst hitting multiple muscle groups, this full-body workout is just what you need.
