Two Exercises for Strength and Balance as You Age

A grey tracksuit, battered trainers and the sort of cap picked up at a petrol station. While commuters rushed by with coffees to go and rucksacks, he simply… rose. There was no bench, no hands for leverage and no theatrical effort. He got up from the grass slowly and evenly, arms folded, as though lifting himself from his sofa at home. Then he lowered himself again and repeated it.

Many of us assume keeping well in later life requires a gym subscription, elaborate workouts or perhaps daunting machinery. But watching him felt like a calm rebuttal to that belief. There were only two straightforward movements: no equipment, no fuss, just balance, control and assurance.

He noticed me watching and gave me a smile. “Practice,” he said. “Just practice.”
What followed was the surprising part.

The real measure of ageing is not your birthday

Ageing arrives through small changes. It is not your first line or the moment you need reading glasses. It is when the staircase suddenly seems longer, or rising from the sofa becomes a quiet discussion with your knees. You put it down to tiredness or a demanding day. Then, one morning, you notice that you are arranging your movements around what seems safe.

Doctors rightly focus on blood pressure and cholesterol. But the most revealing clue to how you may move at 70 or 80 is often found in everyday actions. Can you put on a sock while standing on one leg without clutching the wall? Can you rise from a chair ten times without your hands? Long before a blood test or scan, these modest checks can reveal the truth.

A Japanese study of older adults considered one uncomplicated question: how readily could participants get up from the floor? Those who found it difficult were much more likely to experience health issues and even die earlier. The widely known Brazilian “sitting-rising test” reached a comparable conclusion: people able to sit on the floor and return to standing without hands, knees or other support generally lived longer and retained their independence. There are no sophisticated treadmills involved, only gravity and your own body.

It may sound blunt, but the body offers little room for bargaining. When leg strength declines, life becomes smaller: fewer walks, fewer stairs and fewer trips to see people. When balance goes, every crack in the pavement can feel hazardous. The gradual loss of muscle and stability affects more than appearance; it alters whom you meet, where you travel and what you feel able to attempt.

The encouraging news is that muscles and balance can improve rapidly with training, including at 60, 70 or 80. Studies have found that even people in their 90s can become stronger through simple, repeated movements. This is not about turning into a marathon runner. It is about being able to get up from the floor without fear, carry your own shopping and remain standing on a bus without reaching for the person beside you. Two fundamental exercises can steadily restore the foundations that ageing tries to take away.

Sit-to-stand and single-leg balance: two exercises that change everything

First comes the modest sit-to-stand. You need no weights or exercise mat, only a chair. Sit with both feet flat on the floor and your knees approximately above your ankles. Fold your arms across your chest to avoid using your thighs to push yourself up. Tip your chest a little forwards, then rise in one smooth, controlled motion. Hold briefly at the top before lowering yourself slowly back into the chair.

That counts as one repetition. Try 8 to 12, take a break, then complete a second set. If it becomes easy, choose a lower chair or add a third set. If it is challenging, begin with fewer repetitions and recognise each one as progress. The movement activates your thighs, glutes and core - the muscles that stop you dropping into a chair as if you had sprinted to the fridge.

The second exercise is single-leg balance. Position yourself beside a wall or the back of a solid chair. Raise one foot a few centimetres from the floor and hold the position. Keep your eyes ahead, relax your shoulders and breathe normally. See how long you can remain there without holding on or letting the lifted foot touch down. Then switch sides. You may initially manage only 5 or 10 seconds, and that is absolutely fine.

Build towards 30 seconds on each leg. Once that feels more manageable, brush the wall lightly with your fingertips rather than gripping it. Later, when you are confident, close your eyes for a few seconds. This works the small stabilising muscles around your ankles, knees and hips, while challenging the nervous system responsible for balance. It is unobtrusive training, but it helps when a bus stops sharply or a kerb is lower than expected.

People often overlook these essentials because they appear almost too easy. We are drawn to the promise of dramatic transformations: 10,000 steps every day, strict routines and gleaming fitness equipment at home. Let’s be honest: hardly anyone actually does that every day. A two-minute chair routine can seem almost offensively simple.

But that simplicity is precisely what makes it effective. You can fit it in between making a cup of tea and cleaning your teeth. There is no need to change, travel anywhere or prepare. All you require is yourself, a chair and gravity.

On a wet Tuesday in Manchester, I saw a retired nurse guide her neighbour through the movements in their communal hallway. He had slipped slightly on black ice the previous winter. Three months into their “hallway gym”, he could rise from a low chair ten times without stopping and stay balanced on one leg long enough to put on his socks. He laughed after nearly losing his balance. Six weeks earlier, that same wobble would have frightened him.

We all recognise the moment when we act as though everything is fine around other people, then discreetly seize the bannister when nobody is watching. These two exercises gently confront that private anxiety. They also offer a clear way to track improvement: five sit-to-stands last week, seven this week; 12 seconds of balance yesterday, 16 today. The figures are small, but their significance is not.

Perfection is not the point; repetition is. Bodies care less about flawless technique than they do about genuine effort performed regularly. Even three unsteady sit-to-stands on a difficult day are better than an immaculate workout that never takes place. The only genuine error is believing you are too old to begin or too unfit to give it a go.

“I started with three,” says Mary, 78, from Leeds. “Three sit-to-stands. My legs shook, and I was annoyed at myself. Two months later I was doing fifteen and arguing with my grandson about who could balance longer. I haven’t been to a gym in my life.”

Certain mistakes appear repeatedly. One is rushing. Speed does not equal strength. The benefit comes from slow, deliberate repetitions that make your muscles work rather than allowing you to bounce. Another common problem is breath-holding. People clench their teeth, stand up and forget to breathe, become light-headed, then stop altogether. Let your breath follow the movement: breathe out as you stand and in as you sit.

When practising balance, pride can be especially unhelpful. The instant you think, “I should be better than this,” your body tightens, which can make balancing harder. It is kinder - and more useful - to see it as a game that you are permitted to lose.

• Begin gently – Start with a higher chair and light support. Progress still counts, however modest it appears.
• Two minutes daily – Complete one set of sit-to-stands and one set of single-leg balance. That is the minimum commitment.
• Increase gradually – Once it feels easy, add repetitions or seconds rather than introducing more exercises.
• Pay attention to your joints – Gentle effort is acceptable; sharp pain means changing the chair height, speed or range of movement.
• Make it social – Try it with a partner or neighbour, or on a video call, for encouragement and a laugh.

Growing older without making your life smaller

There is a quiet dignity in moving around your own home without fear. It is getting up from the floor after retrieving something beneath the bed, climbing bus steps without seeking a stranger’s arm, or standing in the kitchen to make tea without having to lean against the worktop halfway through.

Sit-to-stand and single-leg balance may look like tiny movements. Combined, however, they influence nearly every physical quality that matters with age: strength, coordination, confidence and reaction speed. Researchers now refer to “physical reserve”, the unseen capacity that helps the body manage stress, illness and falls. Each additional second of balance and every controlled rise from a chair gradually builds that reserve.

There is no medal for standing from a chair without your hands, and no Instagram reel for maintaining a wobbly balance in your hallway. Yet these private wins often determine whether you can remain in your own home, visit friends, sit on the floor with grandchildren or dance at a wedding at 82 simply because your favourite song begins.

You do not have to transform your life, purchase equipment or become a fitness enthusiast. You can begin tonight, in whatever you are wearing now. Do one controlled rise from your chair, then make one brief attempt to balance on each leg near the kitchen worktop. Nothing more is required.

Feeling a little foolish at the beginning is normal. If your legs tremble after four sit-to-stands, that is a starting point rather than a judgement. Strength does not mind whether you started at 25 or 75. Balance does not care whether you learnt it in a yoga studio or beside your washing machine. Your body only needs you to turn up.

That older man in the park, rising from the grass so effortlessly, was not performing magic. He was simply practising the basics in a world that has forgotten how powerful the basics are. The question stays with you long after walking away from a scene like that.

What could your life look like in years to come if you gave yourself those two minutes today?