Exercises for Seniors: Where to Start in Your 60s, 70s, 80s

The best exercise plan for older adults mixes four things: strength training at least two days a week, balance practice, aerobic activity like walking, and a little stretching. What changes as we age isn't really the mix. It's the starting point and the emphasis. This guide helps you find your starting point, shows what to focus on in your 60s, 70s and 80s, and points you to the right guide for each part. Think of it as the front door to everything we've written.

Over the years, I've learned that age tells me surprisingly little about where someone should start. I've met people in their 60s who struggled to get out of a chair and people in their 80s who hike every week. So before we talk about decades, let's talk about the four kinds of exercise, and how to find out where you stand today.

What Kinds of Exercise Do Seniors Need?

The national guidelines say older adults should do multicomponent physical activity: balance training along with aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity.¹ Here's what each one does and where to learn more.

1. Strength. Muscle is your reserve for everyday life: getting up from a chair, carrying groceries, catching yourself after a trip. Aim for at least two days a week that work the major muscle groups.^1,6 Start with our strength training guide, or with chair exercises if you'd like support.

2. Balance. Balance is a skill, and like any skill it improves with practice. The National Institute on Aging suggests about three sessions of balance exercises a week.² Exercise programs that include balance and functional training reduce falls in older adults.³ See our balance exercises guide.

3. Aerobic activity. Walking, biking, swimming and dancing keep your heart, lungs and brain healthy. The goal is 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, built up gradually.⁶ Our walking guide is the easiest place to begin.

4. Flexibility and mobility. Stretching keeps your joints moving freely so the strength you build can do its job. See our guides to stretching and, if you're curious, Pilates.

The brain benefits from all four, especially when you add a thinking task. And none of it works as well without enough protein and recovery.

How Do You Find Your Starting Point?

A few simple tests tell you far more than your age does. Each takes a few minutes at home and compares your result with others your age:

• 30-second chair stand test: leg strength, the foundation for getting up and staying independent.
• Timed Up and Go: how quickly and steadily you stand, walk, turn and sit.
• 4-stage balance test: the CDC's quick balance check.
• 2-minute step test: aerobic endurance, without needing room to walk.

Record your results on our printable score sheet and retest every four to eight weeks. Watching the numbers move is one of the best motivators I know.

Exercises for Seniors in Their 60s

In your 60s, the big opportunity is to build a strength reserve before you need it. Everyday tasks only feel easy when they use a small part of your strength. As strength fades, the same chair or staircase starts to take most of what you have. I explain this in how strong do you need to be to stay independent?

Focus on:

• Challenging strength training, two or three days a week. This is the decade to learn to lift with good form and to make it genuinely challenging. For reference, the normal range on the chair stand test for adults aged 60–64 is 12–17 stands for women and 14–19 for men.⁵
• Power, not just strength: moving with some speed, like standing up briskly from a chair or climbing stairs at a good pace.
• Balance practice before you have a problem, when it's easiest to improve.
• Aerobic activity you enjoy, including some brisker efforts if your doctor agrees.

Richard, a TogetherWON client who was 66 when BEACON Senior News featured him, began training in July 2024. A hip stretch that was hard at first became an easy weekend habit, and short bursts of cardio are building his stamina. Read the BEACON feature.

Exercises for Seniors Over 70

In your 70s, balance moves to the center of the plan, alongside strength. Falls become more common as we age, and exercise programs that combine several types of exercise reduce the rate of falls in older adults.³

Focus on:

• Strength two or three days a week, with plenty of sit-to-stands, step-ups and carries, the moves that look like daily life.
• Balance practice most days: a few minutes standing on one foot by the counter, heel-to-toe walking, or the moves in our balance guide.
• Walking that suits your joints, and our knee pain guide if your knees complain.
• Thinking while moving, like dual-task walking, because real life rarely lets us balance without distractions.

My mom, Julie, is my favorite example. She became my first client in 2016, came back strong after a hip replacement, and at 75 calls her replaced hip one of her better joints. Read her story.

Jaan, 77, had started falling, even with hiking poles. After almost two years of balance work with his trainer, like stepping over small cones and onto floor markers, he says it's much better. Here he is in his own words:

Exercises for Seniors Over 80

In your 80s and beyond, your muscles still respond to training, often more than people expect.

One of my favorite studies showed this decades ago. Ten frail nursing home residents, average age 90, did eight weeks of strength training. The nine who finished nearly tripled their leg strength, their thigh muscles grew, and their walking speed in a balance test improved by almost half.⁴

Pat is proof in our own practice. At 82, he trained with light weights and blood flow restriction and got stronger in every category we measured, including a 316.7% gain on the leg press:

His full results are in can you get stronger at 82? And if you need more inspiration, read about the 91-year-old sprinter researchers studied to learn how muscle stays trainable.

Focus on:

• Strength for the essentials: standing up, stepping up, gripping and carrying, starting with chair exercises and progressing to standing work.
• Balance with support, always near a counter or a sturdy chair, and with someone nearby for the harder moves.
• Short, frequent bouts of movement spread through the day, like the ones in exercise snacks.
• Getting up from the floor, practiced safely, because knowing you can get up is a big part of confidence.

If anything feels too hard to start alone, that's exactly when a trainer who specializes in older adults helps most.

What If You Have a Health Condition?

Most health conditions make exercise more important, not less. You may just need a different starting point:

• Knee or hip arthritis: see exercises for knee pain after 60.
• Osteoporosis or low bone density: see bone and joint health after 60 and our osteoporosis exercise program.
• Parkinson's disease: see our Parkinson's exercise program.
• Memory loss or dementia: see exercise for brain health and our dementia and memory program.
• After surgery or physical therapy: start with personal trainer or physical therapist? and see our training after physical therapy.

How Much Exercise Is Enough?

The weekly targets for older adults are 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity, muscle strengthening on at least two days, and balance activities.⁶ Our guide to how much exercise seniors need turns that into a sample week.

But here's the line from the national guidelines I'd like everyone to remember: when older adults can't do the full amount because of health conditions, they should be as physically active as their abilities and conditions allow.¹ Ten minutes counts. A walk to the mailbox counts. Starting counts most of all. I wrote about that in is it too late to start exercising?

Every TogetherWON Guide

Each guide pulls together the best of my letters on one topic, with the research behind it and simple steps to start.