Besides increasing, and mitigating the loss of, muscle strength and mass, strength training has several health benefits. Other benefits include maintaining or improving bone mineral density, physical and cognitive function, and wellbeing, especially as we get older.

Despite knowing this, a lack of time can still be a barrier to strength training.

If you’re looking to save some time or to start with something small, here are some recommendations on which exercises you should do:

• Prioritise exercises that are bilateral (work both limbs) and multijoint (work multiple joints)
• Do exercises that work through full range of motion
• Do exercises that involve both concentric (muscles shorten under load) and eccentric (muscles lengthen under load) contractions
• Perform a minimum of one leg pressing exercise (e.g., squat, split squat), one upper-body pulling exercise (e.g., pull-up, seated row) and one upper-body pushing exercise (e.g., bench press, shoulder press, push-up).¹

Note that these are general recommendations so people with specific preferences and goals might benefit from different exercises.

If you want to get started or need some help, please feel free to reach out to us.

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References:

1. Iversen et al. (2021) (PMID: 34125411)
2. Image from thoroughlyreviewed.com