The Best Workout for Stronger Muscles After 50

As you age into your 50s and beyond, it’s important to strength train to maintain and build muscle mass and increase strength. Your body begins losing muscle mass when you grow older, and practicing strength training is one of the only ways you can work to hold onto what you have. In honor of that, I’ve curated the best workout for stronger muscles after 50.

The good news? Muscle is anti-aging. It helps keep your metabolism up and allows you to continue having a high quality of life. Muscles allow you to continue doing the activities you enjoy, and when you think about it that way, strength training can take on a whole new—and very important—meaning.

To build strength, you have to choose the correct exercises that challenge your body and force it to grow. The best exercises to build stronger muscles, in general, are compound movements that fire up multiple muscle groups at a time. Ideally, you’ll want the exercises you perform to cover each one of these movement patterns: Upper body push, upper body pull, legs (squat, hinge, and lunge), and core.

If you’re just starting out, I recommend doing full-body workouts with exercises that cover all of the above. Not sure how to put it together? I have you covered with the best workout for stronger muscles after 50. Perform 3-4 sets of each move.

The Workout

Dumbbell Goblet Squat

1. Grab a dumbbell and hold it with both hands underneath the handle.
2. Keeping your torso as upright as you can, push your hips back and squat down to where your hips are parallel to the floor.
3. Drive through your heels and stand back up, flexing your glutes and quads to finish.
4. Perform 8 to 10 reps.

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Lat Pulldowns

1. Grip the lat pulldown bar with your palms facing away from you just outside your shoulders.
2. Lean back slightly and pull the bar down towards your sternum with your elbows, squeezing your lats at the very bottom of the movement.
3. Resist on the way up, maintaining tension in your lats.
4. Get a good stretch at the very top by letting your shoulder blades come up before performing another rep.
5. Do 8 to 10 reps.

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Standing Dumbbell Shoulder Press

1. Start by having the dumbbells up next to your shoulders.
2. Keeping your core tight and glutes squeezed, press the dumbbells up, flexing your shoulders and triceps at the top.
3. Lower the weight under control before performing another rep.
4. Do 8 to 10 reps.

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Dumbbell Reverse Lunge

1. Hold two dumbbells at your sides while standing with your feet together, keeping your chest tall and core tight.
2. Then, take one foot and step back, firmly planting your back foot and bending your knee to lower yourself down until your knee touches the floor gently.
3. Drive through your front heel to raise yourself back up to the starting position, standing with your feet together.
4. Do 10 reps on each leg.

Dumbbell Hammer Curls

1. Grab a pair of dumbbells with both hands facing each other in a neutral grip.
2. Keeping your shoulders pulled back, curl the weight up, flexing your forearms and biceps the entire time.
3. Squeeze hard at the top, then resist on the way down.
4. Perform 10 to 12 reps.

Ab Wheel Rollout

1. Assume a kneeling position with your hands holding the ab wheel.
2. Keeping your core tight and glutes squeezed, extend your body forward toward the ground, leading with your arms and hips.
3. Go down as far as you can while maintaining tension in your abs.
4. When you reach the bottom, exhale all of your air out before returning to the starting position.
5. Perform 8 to 10 reps.

Tim Liu, C.S.C.S., CSCS