Bodyweight Strength Training for Over-55s: Build Muscle Without a Gym
By James Hilton, founder of Jim's Gym
If you can stand up and sit down, you already own a strength machine. It goes everywhere with you, it never needs plugging in, and nobody else is hogging it.
That's bodyweight strength training over 55 in one line: your own weight is the load. Squats, push-ups against the worktop, getting down to the floor and back up. If you fancy building muscle without a gym, your living room has everything you need.
I lift weights myself, and I like them. But some of the best strength work I see every week happens with no kit at all.
What counts as bodyweight training
Anything where the thing you're lifting is you.
Your legs lift you out of a squat. Your arms push you away from the worktop. Your whole body gets you up off the floor, which is a strength exercise nobody ever gives you credit for.
My rule is this. Lift something. Yourself, a weight, your grandkids, your dog (not someone else's dog without asking). Twice a week.
This week we're on the first item in that list.
Go slowly and the easy ones stop being easy
The trick with bodyweight work is speed. Or the lack of it.
Take four seconds to lower into a squat and four seconds to come back up. Ten of those and your legs will have plenty to say about it. No weight has been added. You've only stopped gravity doing half the job for you.
That isn't my invention. It comes straight from the research.
What the research says about building muscle at home
The study closest to what we're talking about is a 2018 randomised trial by Tsuzuku and colleagues in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports [1]. They took 86 adults in Japan, all aged 70 or over and all new to strength training. Half did squats, push-ups against a table and sit-ups, four seconds down and four seconds up, for about 15 minutes a session. The other half carried on as normal.
After 12 weeks the training group's thigh muscle measured 1.0 mm thicker and their leg strength was up by 4.5 kg, against 1.2 kg in the group that did nothing new. Their grip strength and body weight didn't change.
Now the fair warning. Everyone in that trial was over 70, they were keen volunteers, and one session a week was supervised. If you're 58 and already active, you aren't the person they studied. I read it this way: the method worked on people starting from scratch in their seventies, in three months, with a table and a floor.
A bigger picture comes from a 2021 review in Ageing Research Reviews by Chaabene and colleagues [2]. They pooled 17 randomised trials of home exercise programmes covering 1,477 healthy adults aged 65 to 83. Training at home improved muscle strength, power, muscular endurance and balance. The effects were small to moderate, and sessions of 30 minutes or less still did the job. Those programmes were a mix of types, not only bodyweight, and the review measured strength and not muscle size.
For how often, a 2015 analysis in Sports Medicine by Borde, Hortobágyi and Granacher [3] pooled 25 trials and 819 healthy adults aged 60 to 90. Strength training had a large effect on strength and a smaller one on muscle size, and two sessions a week came out best for strength. Those trials used weights and machines, so take the frequency from it and not a promise about bodyweight.
Two sessions a week also matches the UK Chief Medical Officers' guidance, which says to build strength on at least two days a week [4].
Five to start with today
None of these needs equipment. Do each one slowly.
Squat. Sit back as if there's a chair behind you, then stand. Four seconds each way.
Worktop push-up. Hands on the kitchen worktop, body in a straight line, chest towards your hands and away again.
Split squat. One foot forward, one back, and lower your back knee towards the floor. Swap sides.
Calf raise. Stand on the bottom stair with your heels over the edge, rise up on your toes and lower.
Floor and back. Get down to the floor and stand up again, any way you like. Then find a second way.
Eight to ten of each, twice through, is a session. It'll take about 15 minutes, which is what the people in that trial did.
When it gets easy, that's the good bit
Muscle answers to being asked for a little more than last time. With bodyweight you ask by changing the angle, the speed or the number of legs.
Push-ups go from the wall to the worktop, then to the arm of the sofa, then to the floor. Squats get slower, then deeper, then you try them with most of your weight on one leg. Add a rep every week or two.
There's a ceiling, and I won't pretend there isn't. Once slow bodyweight squats feel comfortable, picking up something heavy is the next step, and that's a good day.
Vatsala put it like this: "I have been doing most of the sessions of James strength classes. Also I have been doing yoga, Pilates and the Dancercise session when I can. James is an amazing instructor, who is always full of energy and very pleasant."
If a movement gives you pain that worries you, swap it for a different one and have a word with your GP or a physio. Sore muscles the day after are a different thing. That's the receipt.
Where Jim's Gym comes in
Fitness and Strength is my class, and I do the whole workout with you. Little or no equipment needed, and most of it works in a living room. There are 15+ live classes a week on Zoom, every one recorded, and 1,000+ on-demand videos for the days when live doesn't fit.
I film it all from a studio near Stroud, Gloucestershire. Jim's Gym itself is online, wherever you are in the UK.
Your next step
Start with the free Fitness MOT. Five exercises at home, no scoring and no pass mark. Retake it every four to six weeks and see what's moved.
Then join Jim's Gym for £12.99 a month, with a 30-day money-back guarantee, no contracts and no joining fees. Or join for the year and get 2 months on me.
It's never too late.
Our affordable monthly membership is great for those just starting out or who may need to take a break for a big adventure! The yearly option gives you two months' FREE membership and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Quick questions, straight answers
Can you build muscle with bodyweight exercises after 55?
Bodyweight exercises can build muscle after 55. In a 2018 randomised trial of 86 adults aged 70 and over, 12 weeks of slow squats, table push-ups and sit-ups increased thigh muscle thickness and leg strength. The people studied were older and new to strength training, so results for active 55 to 69 year olds may differ.
How often should over-55s do strength training?
Twice a week is a sound target for strength training over 55. The UK Chief Medical Officers advise building strength on at least two days a week, and a 2015 analysis of 25 trials in adults aged 60 to 90 found two sessions a week worked best for strength. Each session can be short.
What are the best bodyweight exercises to do at home?
The best bodyweight exercises at home are the ones that use your biggest muscles: squats, push-ups against a worktop, split squats, calf raises on a stair, and getting down to the floor and back up. Do each one slowly, around four seconds each way, for eight to ten repetitions.
How do you make bodyweight exercises harder without weights?
Bodyweight exercises get harder when you change the speed, the angle or the number of limbs. Slow each repetition down, move push-ups from the wall to a worktop and then towards the floor, shift more weight onto one leg in a squat, or add a repetition every week or two.
Is bodyweight training as good as lifting weights?
Bodyweight training is a strong place to start and can build strength and muscle, particularly if you are new to it. Most of the research on strength gains in adults over 60 used weights or machines, so once slow bodyweight exercises feel comfortable, adding something heavier is the natural next step.
References
[1] Tsuzuku S, Kajioka T, Sakakibara H, Shimaoka K. Slow movement resistance training using body weight improves muscle mass in the elderly: A randomized controlled trial. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. 2018;28(4):1339-1344. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.13039
[2] Chaabene H, Prieske O, Herz M, Moran J, Höhne J, Kliegl R, Ramirez-Campillo R, Behm D, Hortobágyi T, Granacher U. Home-based exercise programmes improve physical fitness of healthy older adults: A PRISMA-compliant systematic review and meta-analysis with relevance for COVID-19. Ageing Research Reviews. 2021;67:101265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2021.101265
[3] Borde R, Hortobágyi T, Granacher U. Dose-Response Relationships of Resistance Training in Healthy Old Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine. 2015;45(12):1693-1720. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-015-0385-9
[4] Department of Health and Social Care. Physical activity for adults and older adults: 19 and over. UK Chief Medical Officers' Physical Activity Guidelines. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/physical-activity-guidelines-adults-and-older-adults
James Hilton is the founder of Jim's Gym, an online fitness community for adults over 55, based in Stroud, Gloucestershire. He set it up for people who want to keep doing the things they love, with classes, community and a fair bit of laughing along the way.