A Working Checklist for Strength and Balance in Later Life

Training aimed at maintaining muscle power and stability from around the sixties onward. Muscle power declines faster than raw strength with age, and power is what gets you out of a chair and catches you when you trip.

Key takeaways

• Activity guideline: 150 minutes moderate a week
• Strengthening: at least 2 days a week
• Most useful single change: Add balance work such as single-leg stands and heel-to-toe walking.
• Commonest mistake: Assuming walking alone maintains muscle mass.
• See a doctor if any of the signs under "When to speak to a doctor" below apply to you.

Do

• Add balance work such as single-leg stands and heel-to-toe walking
• Use machines or resistance bands, which are easier to learn safely
• Practise sit-to-stand from a chair without using your hands
• Break activity into short blocks across the day

Do not

• Assuming walking alone maintains muscle mass
• Skipping lower-body work
• Waiting for a fall before starting balance training

The numbers behind the list

The list is built from the numbers below, which come from the bodies cited at the end.

If you change one thing

Add balance work such as single-leg stands and heel-to-toe walking. That one first, and the others when you get to them.

Where to go next

• Making Sense of Strength and Balance in Later Life
• Strength and Balance in Later Life: Common Myths and What Guidelines Say
• Strength and Balance in Later Life — the reference entry
• Polypharmacy: Sorting the Evidence From the Noise
• The Evidence on Vaccination in Older Adults, Without the Hype

When to speak to a doctor

See a GP after any fall, even without injury, as the cause is often treatable. Seek prompt assessment for new confusion, which in older adults commonly indicates infection, dehydration or medication effects. Call 999 for a fall with head injury, particularly while taking anticoagulants.

Where this comes from

• UK Chief Medical Officers — Physical Activity Guidelines for older adults
• NICE — Falls in older people

How this page was put together

Every figure, recommendation and warning above is taken from the guidance named in Where this comes from. Nothing on this page is inferred, summarised or generalised beyond what those bodies publish: where they give a number, it is their number, and where they are silent, so are we. Pages are rebuilt whenever the underlying record changes. Sign-off by a named clinician, where it has happened, is shown at the top of the page along with the date.

Medical disclaimer

This article is general information, not medical advice. It cannot account for your own history, medication or circumstances. Always speak to a GP, pharmacist or another qualified health professional before making changes that affect your treatment, and never delay seeking medical advice because of something you have read here. In an emergency, call 999.