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Exercises for women over 40 don’t have to be challenging, brutal, or hard on the muscles. The opposite is fine as long as you're incorporating the right exercises into your fitness routine.
Women over 40 are susceptible to chronic pain and illnesses, such as osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease, and more. Although exercising may be the last thing you want to do when you start to age, a sedentary lifestyle can worsen your health. So, women over 40 should add strength training to their routine to keep their muscles strong and boost their functional strength.
Whether you have been working out for years or are new to working out, remember that it's never too late to prioritize your health and get back in shape. If you want to stave off the negative effects of muscle loss as you age, try adding the following exercises to your routine:
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Exercises for Women to Improve Functional Strength
These exercises are simple and offer real results for women over 40 and beyond. The best part is that you can do most of these exercises from the comfort of your home. Let's have a look at five such exercises:
1) Bodyweight Squat
A staple exercise in any strength training workout routine, squats are easy and effective.
This exercise works muscles throughout the body, including the hamstrings, hip flexors, glutes, lower back, quads, and core. It's an incredibly simple and result-worthy exercise that women over 40 should do regularly.
To perform a basic bodyweight squat, stand tall with your feet shoulder-width apart and arms positioned on the sides. Keeping your chest up, and engaging your abs, start pushing your hips back, and bend your knees to lower yourself.
Ensure that the knees do not scoop in. Lower yourself till your thighs are parallel to the ground. Now push up through your feet to get back to the starting position. Repeat.
2) Push-up
Push-ups are the most basic and foundational exercise for women over 40 that can help enhance overall functional strength.
They're easy and can be modified to suit the needs of any fitness level. Push-ups target the entire upper body, particularly the shoulders, chest, and triceps.
To perform a push-up, get into a tabletop position on the floor, and position your hands slightly wider than shoulder width. Extend your legs behind you, and ensure that your hands are straight, with your fingers facing forward.
Maintain this position, and lower yourself towards the floor till your chest nearly touches the ground. Pause at the bottom of the movement, and slowly push yourself back up to the starting position. Repeat.
3) Bench Dip
Bench dips are another great strength training exercise that target the triceps. They're an isolation exercise that works great on the tricep muscles by pinning the shoulders back.
When doing bench dips, ensure that your feet should be far enough forward such that the push is not initiated from the feet. If you don’t have a bench, grab a sturdy chair to do the exercise.
To do the exercise, sit down on a chair with your hands next to your thighs, and walk your feet out to extend your legs as far as you can. Lift your bottom off the chair, and hold the edges to slide down.
Hinge at your elbows, and lower your body down as much as possible, or till the arms form a 90-degree angle. Slowly push through your palms to lift yourself, and continue to push down and up for a few reps. Aim for three sets of eight reps initially.
4) Deadlift
Alhough deadlifts seem challenging for women over 40, this exercise offers some excellent full body benefits.
Deadlift is the king of functional exercise and targets the lower and upper body at the same time. When done with a manageable weight and correct form, it can work wonders in enhancing functional strength.
To do this exercise: Standing with your feet at shoulder-width distance, hold the barbell with your hands using an overhand grip. Lift the bar by pushing your hips forward while keeping your spine flat.
Lower the bar slowly to the floor, and repeat. To maintain a strong and stable body while doing a deadlift, it's important to keep the abs engaged throughout the entire move.
5) Lunge
Lunges are undoubtedly one of the most result-worthy lower body exercises for women over 40. This exercise can feel intimidating at first, but when done regularly and correctly, it can offer great leg-strengthening benefits.
To do this exercise, start by standing tall with your feet staggered and left foot a few steps ahead of the right.
Keeping both legs straight and engaging the abs, bend both knees at the same time to 90 degrees till the left thigh gets parallel to the floor. Straighten your knees to return to the starting position, and switch legs to repeat the exercise. To make the exercise more challenging, add weight by grabbing a dumbbell in each hand.
Takeaway
Apart from the aforementioned exercises, there are several more options that women over 40 can opt for to keep their body fit and healthy. They include walking for 20 minutes every day, cycling, swimming, gentle yoga, Pilates, etc.
Before you begin any new workout routine, though, check with your doctor or physical therapist to determine if you have any physical limitations based on your health condition.
