Exercise - October 2026: Stronger for Longer - Why Strength Training Matters as You Get Older
Author: Jamie Pickett, Clinical Exercise Physiologist, Health Facilitator, & Founder of My Movement Medicine.
Free: 9 minute read
Members guide: 15 minute read
Category: Exercise; Healthy Ageing; Cardiac Rehabilitation; Health Guides
Introduction
When people think about exercise for heart health, walking, cycling and other aerobic exercise often come to mind first.
They are important. But as we get older, there is another part of fitness that deserves just as much attention:
Strength.
Muscle is not only about appearance or lifting heavy weights. It helps you get out of a chair, climb stairs, carry shopping, maintain balance, protect your joints, keep exercising and remain independent.
Strength also matters for people living with cardiovascular disease. Stronger muscles can make everyday movement and aerobic exercise feel easier, helping to reduce how demanding those activities feel.
UK physical activity guidance recommends muscle-strengthening activity on at least two days each week, with particular importance placed on maintaining strength, balance and physical function as we get older.
UK Chief Medical Officers: Physical activity for adults and older adults — https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/physical-activity-guidelines-adults-and-older-adults/physical-activity-for-adults-and-older-adults-19-and-over-text-of-the-infographic
This guide looks at why strength becomes increasingly important with age, what sarcopenia means, how strength supports independence and heart health, and how to begin progressing safely without needing to become a bodybuilder.
Muscle is about much more than appearance
We use muscle almost every time we interact with the world around us.
Standing from a chair requires leg and hip strength. Carrying shopping requires grip, arm, shoulder and trunk strength. Climbing stairs requires enough force from the legs to repeatedly lift your body weight. Even walking relies on muscles producing and controlling force with every step.
This is why loss of strength can gradually change everyday life long before someone thinks of themselves as “weak”.
You may notice that you:
Use your arms more to push yourself out of a chair
Avoid carrying heavier bags
Need the handrail more on stairs
Walk more slowly when tired
Choose lifts or escalators more often
Feel less confident getting down to the floor and back up
Stop doing jobs around the home that used to feel straightforward
None of these automatically means you have a medical condition.
But they are useful reminders that physical function depends on strength — and strength can be trained.
What is sarcopenia?
Sarcopenia describes an age-related decline in muscle strength and muscle mass, often accompanied by reduced physical function.
The British Geriatrics Society highlights sarcopenia as an important issue because it can affect mobility, independence and quality of life, and is associated with falls and disability.
British Geriatrics Society: Getting to Grips with Sarcopenia — https://www.bgs.org.uk/new-microlearning-getting-to-grips-with-sarcopenia
Ageing is part of the picture, but age is not the only factor.
Periods of inactivity, illness, hospital admission, poor nutrition and some long-term health conditions can all contribute to loss of muscle and physical function.
The important message is that age-related decline is not simply something we have to accept without doing anything about it.
Resistance exercise is one of the most important tools available for maintaining and improving muscle function as we get older.
Why strength matters for independence
Muscle strength, balance and flexibility all contribute to physical function.
In practical terms, that means strength helps protect your ability to keep doing things for yourself.
Getting up from a chair without assistance
Using stairs
Carrying shopping
Getting on and off public transport
Picking something up from the floor
Doing housework or gardening
Walking confidently outside
Travelling independently
Keeping up with children or grandchildren
The NHS also notes that strengthening activities help maintain the ability to perform everyday tasks and can help slow the loss of muscle and bone associated with ageing.
NHS: How to improve your strength and flexibility — https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/how-to-improve-strength-flexibility/
Strength training is really training for the life you want to keep living.
Strength training and heart health
Strength training does not replace aerobic exercise.
The two work together.
Aerobic exercise helps train the heart and circulatory system. Resistance training improves the ability of your muscles to produce force and perform work.
The British Heart Foundation explains that stronger muscles can make movement easier, reducing how demanding everyday activity and aerobic exercise feel.
British Heart Foundation: Best exercises for heart health — https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/activity/exercises-heart-health
Think about climbing a flight of stairs. If every step requires a large proportion of your available leg strength, the task can feel exhausting. If your legs become stronger, the same staircase represents a smaller relative challenge.
This is one reason strength and aerobic fitness should not be treated as competing forms of exercise. For most people, they are complementary.
Strength can improve confidence too
Physical confidence matters.
If someone feels unsure about standing from a low chair, climbing stairs, carrying something heavy or losing their balance, they may naturally start avoiding those situations.
Over time, avoidance can mean less movement. Less movement can then mean further loss of strength and confidence.
Strength training gives you an opportunity to practise challenging movements in a controlled environment.
A sit-to-stand becomes a squat. Carrying shopping becomes a loaded carry. Climbing stairs becomes a step-up. Pushing a heavy door becomes a wall press or chest press.
As these movements become easier in training, everyday tasks can begin to feel less threatening.
The goal is not just stronger muscles. It is greater confidence in what your body can do.
What actually counts as strength training?
You do not need a gym full of machines.
Strength training simply means asking your muscles to work against enough resistance that the task becomes challenging.
Your own body weight
Resistance bands
Dumbbells or kettlebells
Gym machines
Cable machines
Household objects
Gravity and changes in body position
The NHS includes lifting weights, resistance bands, body-weight exercises, stair climbing and heavy gardening among activities that can strengthen muscles.
NHS: Physical activity guidelines for older adults — https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/physical-activity-guidelines-older-adults/
What matters most is not the equipment. It is whether the muscles are being challenged appropriately and progressively.
The movements worth protecting
A useful strength programme should support the movements you need in everyday life.
Standing up: sit-to-stands, squats or leg press
Stepping: step-ups, stairs or supported split-stance work
Pushing: wall press, chest press or overhead press when appropriate
Pulling: resistance-band rows, cable rows or similar pulling exercises
Carrying: light loaded carries or carrying everyday objects
Lower-leg strength: calf raises and controlled ankle work
The exact exercises should depend on your mobility, health, confidence, goals and any medical restrictions.
How hard should strength training feel?
Strength exercises need to be challenging enough to create a reason for the body to adapt.
If you could repeat an exercise almost indefinitely, it is probably not providing much strength stimulus.
The NHS suggests working the muscles to the point where you would need a short rest before continuing, while starting gradually and building over a period of weeks.
The British Heart Foundation suggests beginning with a resistance you can repeat around 10–12 times, with the final repetitions starting to feel challenging.
For someone new to resistance exercise, a useful starting point is often:
Choose a resistance you can control
Aim for roughly 8–12 controlled repetitions where appropriate
Finish the set feeling that the muscles have worked
Maintain normal breathing throughout
Stop before technique begins to break down
You should not hold your breath during resistance exercise. Breath-holding and heavy straining can produce a large rise in blood pressure.
Exhale through the harder part of the movement and keep breathing throughout.
When to get individual advice
Most people can benefit from some form of strengthening activity, but the right starting point varies.
Speak to your healthcare or exercise professional before starting or significantly progressing resistance exercise if you:
Have recently had cardiac surgery or another major procedure
Have unstable or changing cardiac symptoms
Have been advised to avoid particular movements or loads
Have significant balance or falls concerns
Have severe joint pain or a recent musculoskeletal injury
Have recently experienced a major change in your health or exercise tolerance
If you have been given individual advice by your cardiac rehabilitation, medical or surgical team, that advice takes priority.
Stop exercise if you develop chest pain, dizziness, unusual or severe breathlessness, concerning palpitations or another warning symptom.
If GTN has been prescribed, use it exactly as instructed.
For a suspected heart attack or another life-threatening emergency, call 999.
The message to remember
Strength training is not only for athletes and it is not something that becomes less relevant as we get older.
It becomes more relevant.
We cannot stop ageing, but we can give the body a reason to maintain the strength and function that everyday life requires.
The goal is not to become the strongest person in the room. It is to stay strong enough for the life you want to live.
Want a practical home strength plan?
The members’ section below includes two simple home programmes: one using body weight only and one using a resistance band.
Both are designed to be practical, repeatable and easy to progress without needing a full gym setup.
Try the Members Health Guides free for 14 days
If you are not already a member, you can unlock the rest of this guide — including both home strengthening programmes, the four-week progression plan, cardiac considerations, SMART challenge and worksheet — with a 14-day free trial of the My Movement Medicine Members Health Guides.
Membership is then £5 per month if you choose to continue, giving you access to the growing library of premium Exercise, Nutrition and Psychology guides.
Start your 14-day free trial of the Members Health Guides — https://www.mymovementmedicine.co.uk/pricing-plans/list
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