Why Most Men Over 60 Should Do Resistance Training

I want to tell you about a word that I wish someone had explained to me twenty years ago. The word is sarcopenia. It comes from the Greek for "poverty of flesh." And after the age of 60, if you do nothing about it, your body begins to make you poor in exactly that way — stripping away muscle mass at a rate that will, within a decade, make everyday life measurably harder.

Climbing stairs. Carrying groceries. Getting up off the floor. Standing up from a chair without grabbing the armrest. These are not abstract future concerns. They are the practical consequences of ignoring what the science has been saying for years: resistance training is not optional for men over 60. It is medicine.

Exercise is the only true anti-ageing pill we have. And strength training is the most powerful dose.

I came to this understanding late — later than I should have. But reading Chris Crowley and Henry Lodge's Younger Next Year, and then Peter Attia's Outlive, back to back, made it impossible to ignore any longer. These two books, written a generation apart, arrive at the same conclusion through different routes: the men who stay strong into their 70s, 80s, and beyond are the men who lift weights. Full stop.

The Biology You Need to Understand

After the age of 30, most men begin losing muscle mass at roughly 1% per year. After 60, that rate accelerates. By 80, many men have lost 30–40% of the muscle they had in their prime. The medical term for this is sarcopenia, and it is one of the leading predictors of hospitalisation, falls, loss of independence, and early death in older adults.

Peter Attia, in Outlive, makes a point that I found genuinely alarming: the functional decline associated with muscle loss starts showing up in your 60s, but it was set in motion in your 40s and 50s. The choices you make now determine who you will be at 75. Not genetics. Not luck. Choices.

Here is what resistance training does that no other form of exercise replicates:

• It builds and preserves lean muscle mass, which is your metabolic engine and your physical independence.
• It increases bone density, protecting against the fractures that send men to nursing homes.
• It improves insulin sensitivity, making it one of the most effective tools for preventing type 2 diabetes.
• It raises your resting metabolic rate, meaning you burn more calories even when doing nothing.
• It reduces fall risk — the single most dangerous event in the life of an older man.

Crowley and Lodge put it plainly in Younger Next Year: your body sends out chemical signals every day that tell it either to grow or to decay. Exercise — and specifically the mechanical stress of lifting — sends the growth signal. Sitting on the couch sends the decay signal. You are making this choice, whether you're conscious of it or not.

Why Most Men Never Start

I know why men don't start. I lived those reasons for years. Let me name them honestly.

1. We think the gym is for young men

Walk into most commercial gyms and the marketing material bears this out. Every advert features a 28-year-old with a body that looks like it was designed by committee. The message, even if unintentional, is: this place is not for you. That message is wrong, and dangerous.

2. We're afraid of injury

This is legitimate — but the fear is misdirected. The injury risk of well-programmed resistance training for older men is remarkably low. The injury risk of not training — of having weak muscles and fragile bones when you fall, which you will — is far higher. You are not choosing between training and safety. You are choosing between controlled risk now and uncontrolled risk later.

3. We don't know where to start

The internet is full of programmes designed for competitive bodybuilders. You don't need any of it. You need four exercises, two or three times a week, with weights heavy enough to make your muscles work. That's it. The complexity is optional. The fundamentals are not.

4. We think it's too late

This is the one that makes me most impatient. Study after study shows that men in their 60s, 70s, and even 80s respond to resistance training with meaningful gains in muscle mass and strength. The body retains its ability to adapt. It's not as fast as it was at 30. But it works. And starting at 63 — where I am — is vastly better than starting at 73. Or not starting at all.

What a Sensible Programme Looks Like

I am not a personal trainer, and I'm not going to prescribe your programme. But I can tell you the principles that Attia and Crowley both emphasise, which align with my own experience:

• Train two to four times per week. More than four sessions is unlikely to add benefit and increases injury risk. Two sessions is enough to maintain and build.
• Focus on compound movements. Squats, deadlifts, rows, presses, and carries. These movements train multiple muscle groups at once and mimic the patterns of real life.
• Train to within two or three reps of failure. The stimulus for muscle growth comes from the last hard reps of a set. Going through the motions with weights that feel comfortable is pleasant but largely useless.
• Prioritise the lower body. Falls in older men typically result from weakness in the glutes, quads, and hamstrings. Train these with the same seriousness you'd bring to anything else that determines your quality of life.
• Get a coach for the first few months. Technique matters. A few sessions with an experienced trainer will teach you how to move safely and effectively, and it's one of the better investments you can make in your health.

Attia talks about building what he calls an "exercise portfolio" — a combination of strength training, cardiovascular work, and stability work — that together constitute the foundation of a long health span. None of the components can substitute for the others. But if I had to pick one for a man in his 60s who is currently doing nothing, I would pick the weights. Every time.

What I'm Doing — And What You Can Start With

I train three times a week. My sessions are 45 to 60 minutes. I focus on squats, Romanian deadlifts, dumbbell rows, chest press, and farmer carries. I track my weights and try to make small, consistent progress over months — not dramatic jumps in a single session.

I started later than I should have. But I can already feel the difference — in my energy levels, my posture, my capacity to do work. And perhaps more importantly, I feel like I am doing something about my future, rather than just waiting to see what happens.

That is the shift that matters most. Not the programme. The decision to start.

If you're sitting reading this and you haven't touched a weight in years — or ever — here is where to begin: Do twenty body-weight squats. Right now. Slowly, with full range of motion. That is your first resistance training session. The rest builds from there.

Your future self — the 75-year-old version of you who wants to get up off the floor to play with his grandchildren — is counting on the decision you make this week. Don't make him wait any longer.

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