This Low-Intensity Workout Is Loved By 91% Of People Over 60

Share this blog:

I recently found a workout that I think fits this community very well. It’s low intensity, can be done at home, and research suggests you’ll love it if you’re over the age of 60 (although I’m sure people in their 50s will as well!).

Why am I so sure about this? Well, researchers gathered people in the age category of 60 – 73 to try this exact workout for 12 weeks (three times per week for 30 minutes). After this training period, 91% of participants said they wanted to continue and, on top of that, they had gotten noticeably stronger (source).

What Does The Workout Look Like?

Two exercises target the upper body, two the lower body, two exercises focus on the abdominal muscles while the seventh exercise includes the whole ventral muscle chain.

All of the exercises are performed with a TRX. A TRX is a fantastic functional fitness tool that allows people over the age of 50 to perform body weight exercises at home effectively. It’s affordable, easy to install, and can be bought quickly on Amazon or any other fitness store as well. It’s one of the reasons I featured it in this article: 5 Affordable Pieces Of Equipment That Make Your Home Workout A Little More Challenging.

As said, the participants followed this program for 12 weeks, performing 30-minute workouts three times per week. The study doesn’t mention the number of repetitions or sets that should be done, however, conventional fitness wisdom suggests 3 sets per exercise of 8 – 15 reps each. This is what I recommend you do.

Rowing

Rowing exercises are fantastic for targeting your upper and middle back muscles as well as incorporating your biceps. They’re typically very hard to perform at home (except when you have dumbbells, stretch bands, or a TRX) but vital to your overall strength since the back muscles are such an important muscle group.

Starting position: To do rows with the TRX, you should first put the TRX bands in the shortest position. Then, you hold the bands and you lean back while you’re feet are in a stepping position (one in front of the other, as seen in the picture below).

Performing the exercise: Lengthen your arms, lean back with your torso, and once your arms are fully extended, pull your body back to the straps. Keep your elbows close to your body, in the end position your scapulas should be brought together.

• Slightly harder variation: instead of putting one foot in front of the other, put them next to each other at hip width. Besides that, perform the exercise the same way as the easier version.
• Hardest variation: Lift one leg up of the mat when doing the rows, meaning you can only balance on one leg. Everything else stays the same.

Also, keep in mind that the more you lean back, the harder this exercise becomes. This is another way to find your exact difficulty level.

Reverse Butterfly

The reverse butterfly is another great back exercise that targets the muscles of the upper and middle back. Because you’re making a slightly different movement, this targets the back muscles in a slightly different way, providing a different but important stimulus.

Starting position: To do the reverse butterfly with the TRX, you should first put the TRX bands in the shortest position. Then, you hold the bands and you lean back while you’re feet are in a stepping position (one in front of the other, as seen in the picture below).

Performing the exercise: Lengthen your arms, lean back with your torso, and once your arms are fully extended, move your arms out to the side which will naturally pull your body forward. While doing this, elbows should be kept in a slightly bent position at shoulder height.

• Slightly harder variation: instead of putting one foot in front of the other, put them next to each other at hip width. Besides that, perform the exercise the same way as the easier version.
• Hardest version: put both feet right next to each other in a close stance. Everything else stays the same.

Once again, leaning back more makes this exercise much harder to perform.

Squat

We all know squats, and I’ve written other articles about them as well. For example, this one: 5 Simple Squat Variations That Work For Any Age. Nevertheless, doing squats is vital for your leg strength, and with a TRX you balance yourself and have a bit more trust in the exercise.

Starting position: To do squats with the TRX, you should first put the TRX bands in the shortest position. Take a step back and place your legs at shoulder width.

Performing the exercise: Move your hip back slightly when you go down and then bend your knees. The buttocks move backward and down. Be aware of keeping your center of gravity over your heels and the knees behind the toes.

• Slightly harder version: instead of placing your legs at shoulder width, place them at hip width.
• Even harder version: Instead of using both legs, lift one leg up for a single-leg squat.
• Harderst version: this is a single-leg squat, but performed on a balancing pad.

Backward Lunge

Backward lunges work a whole bunch of your leg muscles as well. They’re fantastic and, because they’re more dynamic than squats, target the muscles in different ways.

Starting position: To do squats with the TRX, you should first put the TRX bands in the shortest position. Take a step back and place your legs at shoulder width.

Performing the exercise: step backward, bend the knees, and lower the buttocks. Be aware of keeping the center of gravity central and the front knee behind the toes.

• Slightly harder version: instead of stepping back, step outwards. For example, if you step back with your right leg, you don’t go straight back but you step out to the right.
• Hardest version: instead of stepping back or outwards, you step inwards. For example, if you step back with your right leg, you cross behind your left leg.

Push-Ups

The good old push-up can’t be left out. The push-up targets the chest and the tricep muscles. Doing them with a TRX means you can easily find the right level of difficulty for you (by changing the angle at which you’re leaning forward) which is something that’s harder to do without these straps.

Starting position: to do push-ups with the TRX, you should first put the TRX bands in the shortest position. Then, walk your legs back until you’re slightly leaning to the front. Take a stepping position as shown in the picture below.

Performing the exercise: Bend the elbows and lean the body forward then press it back until the elbows are almost elongated.

• Slightly harder version: instead of a stepping position, put your feet right next to each other in a closed-leg stance.
• Hardest version: Instead of a stepping or closed-leg stance, you’re going to slightly lift one leg up behind you making it harder to balance.

Hip Abduction

Hip abductions target the outside muscle of the hip. They’re hard to do at home without a machine, but the TRX offers quite some possibility here.

Starting position: to do push-ups with the TRX, you should first put the TRX bands in the longest position. Place both your feet in the TRX (one foot per strap) and place your complete upper body including your buttocks on the mat.

Performing the exercise: move the feet simultaneously outward and then slowly inward again.

• Slightly harder version: instead of having your buttocks on the mat, lift them up.
• Even harder version: Stretch your arms up to the sky, and make sure your buttocks are lifted from the mat.
• Hardest version: One foot in both foot cradles while you’re holding the other leg up from the ground, arms lie on the mat, buttocks lifted.

Lateral Lunge

Lateral lunges, just like backward lunges, are an important exercise to target a bunch of different leg muscles. In this case, specifically the ones located on the side of the leg as well as the quads.

Starting position: to do push-ups with the TRX, you should first put the TRX bands in the shortest position. Hold both straps, walk back, and place both feet next to each other as seen in the picture below.

Performing the exercise: Grab the straps with the hands and step to one side. Bend the moved leg knee and try to keep it behind the toes. The opposite leg remains stretched. Go back and repeat it on the other side. Hold each lunge for 1 second.

• Slightly harder version: hold each lunge for 2 seconds.
• Hardest version: hold each lunge for 4 seconds.

Body Extension

Body extensions, target many muscles in the upper and lower body (lower muscles of the neck, the abdominals, muscles in the back and the front thigh muscle) and therefore offer a lot of stimulus for a pretty simple movement. Once again, these are hard to do without equipment.

Starting position: to do push-ups with the TRX, you should first put the TRX bands in the shortest position. Hold both straps, and extend them forward at shoulder height as seen in the image.

Performing the exercise: By extending the arms upward the body leans forward. Be aware of avoiding a hollow back position. Move the arms downward and bring the body back to the starting position.

• Slightly harder version: Extend arms upward, move them to the side, bring the elbows close to the body, and bring the body back to the starting position.
• Hardest version: similar to the first version, but doing it in a kneeled position.