6. Prioritize Your Hips and Legs

The first strategy to unlocking your fitness potential is to prioritize your hip and leg muscles. To achieve this, I recommend exclusively working on your lower body and holding off on your upper body for the first eight weeks.

There are two important reasons why I make this recommendation for older adults. First and foremost, healthy, strong hips and legs allow you to stand and walk safely and hence be self-sufficient. While having a weak upper body can be inconvenient, weakness in your lower body negatively impacts your overall quality of life more. Developing a strong lower body with the exercises I’ll show you later in this book will help you navigate your environment safely. You’ll be able to remain steady on your feet even in challenging circumstances, like walking on a slippery surface; and if you do happen to fall, you’re more likely to emerge unscathed if you have strong hips and legs.

Second, the muscles in your hips and legs are the largest and strongest in your entire body. Research shows that higher-intensity strength exercises targeting these muscles increase your body’s production of testosterone and human growth hormones. 21 Levels of these hormones decline as we age; being able to naturally increase their production through exercise offers a wealth of benefits for older adults. 22 These include building lean muscle, increasing bone density, reducing body fat, boosting energy, and strengthening the immune system. 23

Exclusively working your lower body and holding off on your upper body for the first eight weeks will allow you to focus on what’s most important, get comfortable with the workout program, and reap a lot of gains.

That’s strategy number one. Let’s move on to the second strategy, which is to dial up the intensity and dial down the time on exercise.

Key Takeaways

• By focusing on muscle strength in your lower body, you’re much more likely to be self-sufficient, avoid injuries, and live independently.
• Higher-intensity resistance exercises targeting your lower body increase the production of testosterone and human growth hormones. This builds lean muscle, increases bone density, reduces body fat, boosts energy, and strengthens the immune system.
• Focusing on the lower body for the first eight weeks will allow you to focus on what’s most important, get comfortable with the workout program, and reap a lot of gains.

Action Steps

• Notice whether you feel resistant to the idea of not exercising your upper body in the beginning. If so, where do you think this resistance comes from? What would help you to entertain the ideas in this chapter?
• If you’re a family member or a caregiver for an older adult you’d like to help with exercise, share the information you’ve learned in this chapter with them.