5 Daily Exercises for Healthy Aging, According to Trainers and Physical Therapists 

We all want to feel good as we age. Getting enough rest, eating properly, and keeping up with medical care are critical to managing our biological clocks. But one of the biggest components of healthy aging? Functional movement. 

To simplify the process, we spoke with personal trainers and physical therapists, who shared their top exercises people should focus on as they age. They also explain how to properly scale (or advance) these movements, plus easy ways to work them into your day-to-day life.

Why Movement is Essential for Healthy Aging 

Getting older is inevitable, but feeling the full effects of aging is not. “As we age, muscle mass, bone density, joint lubrication, and coordination naturally decline, but the rate of that decline is highly modifiable,” Kat Pasle-Green, certified personal trainer at Bay Club, explains. 

Think of movement like medicine. The more you move and do functional training (i.e, movement patterns during a workout that mimic and strengthen day-to-day motions), the better your quality of life will be. You’ll have less stiffness, increased range of motion, better bone density, and the stability to catch yourself when you fall. Unfortunately, the inverse is also true. 

“If you are sedentary and predominantly inactive after age 50, you will rapidly decline, leading to a loss of independence and a high risk of injury,” warns Casey Lee, PT, DPT, GCS at ATI Physical Therapy. “There isn’t a magic elixir or powder that will stop sarcopenia (age-related, progressive loss of skeletal muscle mass, strength, function), but you can slow it down. It’s not magical. It’s not trendy. It’s simply science—move your body every day.”

5 Daily Exercises for Healthy Aging

Regardless of where you are in your exercise journey, movements can be modified to suit your fitness level.

“Exercises should be adapted to meet the body where it is,” Pasle-Green explains. “This might mean using a chair for support, shortening the range of motion, slowing the pace, or choosing seated versions of standing exercises. Comfort and control are more important than depth or speed, especially at the beginning.” 

If you’re not confident in performing the exercises solo? Pasle-Green suggests working with a certified personal trainer—look for someone with a NASM, ACE, ISSA, or NSCA certification—who can help you perform movements safely and progress your training in an individualized manner. 

Squats

Most of us sit down and get up out of chairs daily without giving it much thought. But as we get older, movements that used to be simple for us often get more difficult. That’s why three of our four experts emphasized the importance of practicing and strengthening this movement pattern. 

Both traditional squats and chair squats help increase lower-body strength (primarily in the quads, glutes, and hips). Lee says this movement "improves transitional mobility, enhances postural control during forward weight shift, and reduces fall risk by improving the ability to rise without upper-extremity support." Translation? With regular squats (or sit-to-stands), you’ll enjoy better mobility, improved core control, and be less likely to fall. 

Dani Coleman, vice president of training at PVOLVE and Jennifer Aniston's personal trainer, adds that your ability to get out of a seated position is “a big predictor of your independence as you age.” And we all want independence. 

• Scale down the movement: Sit-to-stand (also known as chair squats)
• Baseline movement: Squatting with no weight
• Advance the movement: Squatting with light to medium dumbbells (10 pounds or more) in each hand

Farmer’s Carry

The farmer’s carry, aptly named for the way farmers carry heavy loads far distances (think buckets of water or feed bags), is a movement everyone should master. “This exercise helps train your core functionally while also improving your grip strength, which is strongly correlated with your longevity,” Coleman explains. “This movement is practical for enhancing something we all do daily: carrying things.”

To perform a farmer’s carry, Dana Tress, a physical therapist at Smith Physical Therapy, says you’ll want to walk and carry equal weight in both hands while keeping your arms straight down at your sides. Your core should be fully upright with your shoulders pulled back, Tress adds. 

• Scale down the movement: Perform a farmer’s carry with light weights (10 to 15 pounds in each hand) and a shorter distance (about 30 feet)
• Baseline movement: Perform a farmer’s carry with medium weights (30 to 45 pounds in each hand) and a regular distance (about 60 feet)
• Advance the movement: Perform a farmer’s carry with heavy weights (50 to 65 pounds in each hand) and a lengthy distance (about 90 feet)

Push-Ups

If you fall, it’s important that you can easily (and safely) push yourself up with your arms off the floor. And if you haven’t been training your upper body, it might be more difficult than you think, Tress explains.

“Wall push-ups train posture-supporting upper body muscles and can be practiced easily throughout the day,” Pasle-Green explains. “They begin like a vertical plank, facing the wall with arms straight and hands placed at shoulder height and width. Keeping a tall spine, the elbows bend and straighten, shifting the body's positional shape from a rectangle to a triangle.”

• Scale down the movement: Perform an incline push-up against the wall
• Baseline movement: Perform a push-up on the knees 
• Advance the movement: Perform a push-up on the toes

Single Leg Balance

Studies have shown that better balance is associated with a lower risk of recurrent falls in older adults. “Standing on one leg is challenging because it requires good leg and core strength, good posture, and good balance to perform,” Tress says. Fortunately, it's a simple, no-equipment-required movement that pays dividends for your health over time. 

“Daily balance practice improves proprioception and reaction time, reducing fall risk and supporting injury prevention,” Coleman adds. 

• Scale down the movement: Stand on one leg, lightly putting fingertips on a counter or chair for stability (aim for at least 15 seconds before switching legs)
• Baseline movement: Stand on one leg without any support (aim for at least 30 seconds before switching legs)
• Advance the movement: Hold a weighted ball (10 to 15 pounds) while standing on one leg (aim for 40 seconds before switching legs)

Deadlift

Throughout the day, we’re constantly picking things up and moving them elsewhere. This can be as simple as picking up a plastic grocery bag off the floor, Pasle-Green says. If you want to be able to easily reach down and grab something off the floor into old age, mastering the deadlift is an essential puzzle piece. 

To execute a deadlift without weights, do the following: Stand with your feet hip-width apart, with a slight bend in the knees, and hinge (don’t squat) at the hips. This looks like pushing your hips back as you hinge, and driving them forward to come up. 

Pasle-Green stresses a focus on proper form; think of a long spine with a braced core when performing a deadlift. The posterior chain, also known as the backside of your body, controls posture and power, so it’s important to support and strengthen the muscles that make it happen. 

• Scale down the movement: Practice proper deadlift form using bodyweight only  
• Baseline movement: Deadlift using a light to medium weight (this can be a kettlebell or dumbbells, 10 pounds and up)
• Advance the movement: Deadlift using a medium to heavy weight (30 pounds and up)

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Practical Tips for Working These Exercises Into Everyday Routines

Need some help getting started? Our experts shared four must-try tips that’ll make it easy to incorporate these exercises into your daily schedule: 

• Reframe how you think about exercise: “Try to consider exercise as part of daily hygiene; I’ll often refer to it as 'body flossing'," Lee explains. “Then adopt realistic strategies that easily work into your daily routine.”
• Keep it functional (yet relevant) for your life: If you want to be able to climb the stairs or pick up heavy items independently, the movements you’re doing should reflect that, Lee explains. Things like deadlifts and sit-to-stands are directly applicable to day-to-day movements, which is why they’re critical to do.
• Lower the bar (no, really): “Lower the bar, keeping your goals very achievable – try for just 5 minutes per day, keeping it consistent,” Lee says. “Consistency beats intensity. Once you’ve made 5 minutes per day a habit, start layering in a few more 5-minute sessions.”
• Weave movement into daily life: Exercising doesn’t have to be a massive ordeal. Both Lee and Pasle-Green suggest baking in the above movements while you’re watching TV, waiting for your coffee to brew, or for the shower to heat up. “It all adds up,” Pasle-Green says.