If you’re a senior, perhaps one of the best exercise recommendations for you to take to heart is to make sure you’re incorporating resistance exercises to strengthen your muscles.

This will help you maintain healthy bone mass and prevent age-related muscle loss.

Strength training will also increase your muscle elasticity and strengthen your connective tissues, tendons, and ligaments, which, from a biomechanical perspective, help hold your body in the upright position.

In short, strength training will allow you to perform everyday activities like climbing stairs and getting out of a chair with greater ease, and with less risk of falling, and this freedom of movement can have a considerable impact on your quality of life.

Strength training also produces a number of beneficial changes at the molecular, enzymatic, hormonal, and chemical levels in your body, helping to slow down and even reverse many of the diseases caused by a sedentary lifestyle, including type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis, and heart disease.

Find Exercises That Match Your Current Fitness Level…

I recently published a basic guide of simple balance and coordination exercises for the elderly and infirm. It has a video of my mother performing the exercises. If you’re too weak or incapacitated to perform the strength exercises reviewed in this article, I suggest you go back and start with those.

In time, you may be able to work your way up to the beginner’s level strength training exercises demonstrated in this article.

On the other hand, if you find the following exercises are too basic for your current level of fitness, check out my previous strength training for older adults article.

It demonstrates strength training exercises for seniors using basic gym equipment, and goes into higher intensity strength training as well. That said, the following exercises are suitable for many seniors who are just starting out with strength training.

Knee Extensions, with or Without Weights

 Knee extension exercises will help strengthen your knees, which will improve your balance and reduce your risk of falling. Strengthening your knees will also allow you to walk and climb stairs with greater ease and comfort.

 1.  Sit on a chair with your back straight and knees bent
 2.  Slowly extend your right leg out in front of you and hold for a few seconds before lowering it back to starting position
 3.  Repeat with your left leg
 4.  Do 10 repetitions on each leg

For a more advanced version, strap an ankle weight around each ankle. Aim for a weight that is heavy enough to where you cannot do more than 15 repetitions per leg. As you get stronger, you can add more weight to keep it challenging.