20 Best Bodyweight Exercises For Women Over 50

They say as we get older, our bodies start changing in many ways. Our skin starts aging, our muscles, our brain, ok ok this is depressing, anyway you know what I mean. We ain’t 25 anymore. Many women over 50 stopped exercising many years ago, and many are looking to start up again. Great!!! Here are 20 great bodyweight exercises for women over 50.

Now before you start following my advice and reading on, you’re probably wondering how the heck I know so much about exercising over 50 (or in general, for that matter) and why you should listen to me.

Both are valid concerns.

I used to be a personal trainer and an aerobics instructor for my local YMCA a few years ago when I lived in Canada. I actually specialized in fitness for women over 50. So I’m not just making this stuff up. I kinda know what I’m talking about, even just a little bit. 🙂

Exercises for Women over 50

Now while these exercises are great for any woman, no matter what your age is, I feel these are the best exercises for women over 50, especially those who are just new to exercising or are starting to exercise again after a long period of doing nothing.

Our bodies change, slowly but surely, once we hit 50, and it’s crucial to stay active and healthy!! I hear so many women over 50 complain about weight loss and how much harder it is to do at this age (and beyond). For most, yes, it is harder to lose weight but certainly not impossible!

It may just take a little longer to see results. Stay the course!!

These exercises for women over 50 are easy to do, especially if you have any health issues or injuries (as so many of us do after 50). Consult a doctor or health practitioner before starting anything ever!

(this post contains affiliate links so if you make a purchase I make a small commission- affiliate disclosure)

Weight Training for Women Over 50

There are literally a bajillion YouTube videos and blogs, just like this one you’re reading now, filled with exercise tips and weight training exercises for women over 50, but I want to caution you right now: don’t follow all of them and remember to listen to your body.

You know better than anyone else what you are capable of doing and what limits you have. Please find one or two fitness gurus who you trust and like and stick with them.

Many of them want you to buy their products or sign up for monthly memberships, and that’s fine, but just be cautious, is all I’m saying.

What Are Your Fitness Goals?

I’m not here to sell you anything. Nudda. I just want to share some of the best bodyweight exercises for women over 50 that I’ve been doing recently that I know will help you.

Are you looking just to tone up a little bit or keep your body moving? Do you want to build some muscle or lose some weight?

The exercises for women over 50 I’m going to share with you are simple and easy (and can be done with or without weights) but are mostly just to stay moving and tone up. If your goal is to lose weight, you may want to change your eating habits and incorporate a little bit of cardio into your workout each week.

You may like this article from Psychology Today on changing eating habits.

If you’re looking to bulk up and build some muscle, these bodyweight exercises, though I think are awesome, may not be enough. You may need some free weights or bars. It really all depends on your fitness goals.

Also, keep in mind that once you get started working out and feeling on top of the world, your fitness goals may change. You may want to go harder and push yourself to see how far you can go! Yay, you!!

But for now, let’s just stick to getting motivated to work out at home and doing the bodyweight exercises for women over 50 suggested in this article.

Are Bodyweight Workouts Effective?

Hell, ya!! Let’s face it, it’s better than doing no exercise at all.

But yes, they really are effective. You are using your entire body weight (for many of the exercises), and that’s an awful lot AND a super good workout.

Take pushups, for example. Whether you do them military-style or on your knees, you are pushing your entire body weight! That’s amazing!!

If you’re looking to lose weight, increase your intensity! Work up a sweat. Kick it up a notch.

How Often Should a 50-year-old Exercise?

Honestly, that question comes up a lot, and it’s a good one too! How often should a 50-year-old woman exercise?

This is a case of listening to your body. Ideally, 3-5 times a week really should suffice unless you have weight to lose, then I recommend 4 cardio sessions a week of at least 20 minutes and then strength training 3 times a week (yes, you can do both on the same day).

But that’s only if you have to lose weight. If you’re already in pretty decent shape or just need to tone and strengthen, 3-5 times a week of strength training and get out and walk for 30 minutes!

And there are so many exercises for women over 50 to help them ease into it for those who want to start living healthier lives and simply have been sedentary lately.

20 of the Best Bodyweight Exercises for Women Over 50

I’m gonna break this up a bit for you. I’ll start with:

the best upper body exercises for women over 50,
best lower-body exercises for women over 50,
stomach exercises for women over 50, and
full-body exercises for women over 50.

I’m also going to give you a small example of the fitness routine I do here at home myself, all without equipment.

I had a helluva time finding images (that are legal for me to use for the purpose of this blog) of an exercise without free weights. When viewing the images I have chosen, please remember that all these exercises can be done without weights.

Let’s go!

Best Upper Body Exercises For Women Over 50

When doing upper body exercises, make sure you are standing tall, back straight, tummy tucked in, feet shoulder-width apart, and knees slightly bent. Form is important! And don’t forget to breathe. Breathe in on the easy part and out on the hard part.

These are all really super arm exercises for women over 50 because they will help you rebuild your strength, take care of flabby arms, and give you nice, shapely arms again.

Bicep curls

Yes, believe it or not, you can do these without equipment. I don’t have anything here, and I do curls all the time. How do you ask? With the power of your mind.

Many of the members in my aerobics class had hand or wrist issues and couldn’t hold or lift weights. I would tell them to use the power of their mind. Here’s how to do that:

imagine you are trying to pull your hands through a big tub of molasses or peanut butter or some other really thick gooey substance.
the level of resistance will depend on what you are imagining.

woman doing bicep curls-exercises for women over 50 — Remember to smile like her 🙂

Tricep extensions

Same theory as above. Use your imagination.

woman doing tricip exercises for women over 50 — You can do this without weights too

I really liked this pic of a tricep extension because she is using really good form. Remember that you can do this without weights as well. I do it all the time!

I do both because I love them both! FYI- tricep exercises target and tone that flabby, loose underarm skin that many of us call “batwings.”

And who the heck wants batwing arms when we’re trying to look super cute and sexy in our tank tops and cute summer dresses!!?

Tricep kickbacks

You can also do tricep kickbacks which don’t put any strain on the shoulders like the above exercise may do (for those who have shoulder issues).

Shoulder presses

You can actually do these standing or sitting. Yippee. I always suggest standing so you can work your core and lower body at the same time (balance and strengthen your lower back) these are pretty easy to do sitting down as well.

shoulder press exercises for women over 50

Shoulder flys

These can be a wee hard to do if you have shoulder issues, so please listen to your body. I had a hard time doing front shoulder flys for the longest time due to an injury, so I had to discontinue them. Don’t push yourself to the point where you may cause even more damage. It’s just not worth it.

dumbbell front shoulder flies fly woman workout exercise at gym

Back rows

These are great for building upper body strength, something we lose as we age.

I couldn’t find a decent image for this exercise or any other back exercise so please take a minute to check out this great article over at womenshealthmag.com for 17 great back workouts with videos on how to do them.

17 Back Exercises For Women

Chest presses and flys

You can do these lying flat on your back on the floor or even standing up! I do them both ways! Chest presses and flys work not only the chest but also your shoulders too!!

If you happen to have a stability ball kicking around use that too!!

Dumbbell Chest Fly on Stability Fitness Ball Exercise, phase 2 of 2

Presses are done almost the same, except you don’t extend your arms out like you are flying. They stay close to your sides, and you push straight up!

Best Lower Body Exercises For Women Over 50

There are so many amazing lower body exercises you can do at home using only your body weight, but if you’re like me (or many of us), you have knee (that’s me) or hip issues that greatly limit your ability to do these kinds of exercises.

I feel ya. Many women still think that if they have lower body injuries, none of the exercises for women over 50 apply to them. That’s not true!

There are so many variations to these bodyweight exercises, so while you may not get the full effect from the bodyweight, you still get the exercise and the workout in, and in my books, that’s still a win!!

Lunges

Probably my least favourite simply because of my old cranky knees, but I definitely do them, just not as many. Lunges are also really good at helping you with balance too.

I feel that lunges and squats are the best bodyweight leg exercises you can ever do. Hard, yes. Effective, also, yes.

Please take a good look at her form in the image below. The form is so important in all your exercises.

woman doing lunges-fitness for women over 50

Squats

Squats are so exhausting but so good for your butt and thighs!! Again, make sure your form is good! They are also one of the best bodyweight exercises for strength!! Strong legs, strong butt, strong back!

Lunges and Squats alternatives

Now for those of you who have a super hard time doing these bodyweight exercises, let me share a couple of easy alternatives for you.

I used these all the time in my aerobics classes, and the women loved them.

The different variations will still target all the main muscle groups minus the taxing on our knees, ankles, hips or whatever other lower body part hurts you!

Standing nice and tall and about 18″ away from the wall, facing the wall, place your hands at shoulder height on the wall.

Starting with your right leg, slowly lift your leg to the side in a very controlled manner (meaning don’t swing it like you’re swinging a golf club), knee slightly bent, as high as you can comfortably, hold it there for a count of 5 then slowly lower it. Control this motion carefully. That’s where the muscle burn is!

Yess!!

For more glute, hamstring and lower back work, still standing in that same position, raise your leg up behind you but careful that you don’t raise it so high you hurt yourself. As always, listen to your body!

Glute bridge

I love these just because they are super easy and fun. They work your butt, your hamstrings, and your abs too!

best bodyweight exercises for women over 50

Step-ups

You can do these easily if you have stairs, but if you don’t, that’s ok. Find a nice solid and sturdy box (not too high or tall) or stepping stool. The goal is to have to step up at the very least 12″, the higher, the better.

You really can use a chair too for this, but if you have bad knees or hips, I’d suggest using something a little shorter for this.

woman doing step ups-bodyweight exercises

If you do these with enough intensity, you’ll get a good cardio workout in too.

Scissor legs

Now while this is a really good ab workout, it also really targets the inner and outer thigh if you focus on those muscle groups.

The wider you open (scissor) your legs, the more of a workout you’ll get for your thighs!!

Let’s move on now to core exercises.

Best Way to Lose Belly Fat for Women Over 50

Let’s talk a bit about this first. The fact is that as we age, our bellies get a little poochie. Or is that just mine? So how do we get rid of belly fat over 50? Well, there are a few ways, actually.

Number one, watch what you eat. I know I know, food is yummy. But it all finds its way on our butts, thighs, hips, and bellies. So ease up on sugar and carbs. Also, watch your posture. Are you slouching over a lot? Bad bad bad!!

And then, of course, exercising. Back and core exercises are really good for targeting this area. Let’s get to the core exercises for women over 50.

Belly Exercises and Full-body Exercises for Women Over 50

So core exercises are any bodyweight exercise that works your abs, back, hips, and your entire core area. This area is very important to exercise and strengthen to help you with posture, balance, and overall strength.

Many of these core exercises also work other muscle groups at the same time. It’s a win-win, really.

As always, don’t push yourself too hard. Listen to your body always. And remember, if you are starting out, you don’t want to push yourself so hard that you won’t be able to move the next day.

Starting out with one of my favourites…

Planks

The one thing I love about planks is that there truly are a million variations of planks to help you work every single muscle group in your body. Health.com has this great article to show you more ways to plank!!

For the sake of this article, I’ll show you the basic simple plank.

This is the very basic yet crazy effective plank. Start in this position and hold your pose for as long as you can without killing yourself or losing your form. It may be only 15 seconds and that’s totally ok!! That’s where I started.

Work your way up to 30 seconds and then 45.

Planks work your core but also your arms and legs too. They truly are amazing. Honestly, I think this is the best and most effective of the exercises for women over 50 as it targets so many muscles and anyone can do it.

Push-ups

Whether you do these on your knees or military style, there’s no question that push-ups truly are one of the best bodyweight exercises for women over 50 you can do! This is also super good exercise for flabby arms.

Pushups target the triceps, which are the muscles that cause batwings or flabby arms and that we need to tighten and tone.

I usually do mine on my knees, depending on how strong I’m feeling. I can sometimes do 2 or 3 military-style, but they are killers!!!

Young woman looking up while doing push-ups in living room

woman doing push ups-bodyweight exercises — Young woman looking up while doing push-ups in living room

The bicycle

A classic that truly works. Great for the abs, and legs, and a bit of a cardio kick too!! This would be a great exercise not only to work out your abs but to help with some weight loss too (as you increase your heart rate and burn calories).

This is also a super easy exercise for women over 50, especially those who have injuries because you could still do this effectively by simply laying on the floor without elevating your head and tilting your neck and still get a good ab workout!

best bodyweight exercises for women over 50-woman doing crunches

Ab crunches

If there aren’t a million ways to do an ab crunch, I swear! I’m going to show you the basic one, which is always great for your abs no matter what, but if form was ever important, it’s with the ab crunch.

So many people do this incorrectly. If you don’t do it right, there’s no point in doing it at all.

See how nice her head is in line with her body, and she’s NOT rolling her neck and tucking her chin into her chest? See!!?? This is the proper form.

So many of us, while holding our hands behind our heads, tend to push our heads forward, hence rolling our necks and tucking our chins. Bad bad bad.

Jumping jacks/ jogging on the spot/walking on the spot

I saved these for last because even though they’re not really bodyweight exercises for women over 50, they still kinda are. You’re using your whole body to do them, but they are more geared to getting your heart rate up and burning calories as opposed to targeting a specific muscle group for toning and strengthening.

Does that kinda make sense?

I’m not a jogger, so I usually walk on the spot for about 5 minutes before I start my at-home workout. Walking on the spot is a great way to warm up those muscles and get that body ready for a good workout too.

Search for More Exercises for Women Over 50

Like…my God… you can find a million and one bodyweight exercises for women over 50 no matter where you look. And for the most part, you really can’t go wrong. Yes, there are gurus who want to sell you stuff, but you’ll still find some decent workout routines too.

I’m happy you found my site and this article. I hope this helps you a little to get started on a fitness routine at home using only bodyweight exercises.

The hardest part of any of it is to get started.

Make the decision, pick today, come up with a workout routine, grab your water bottle and watch some YouTube exercise programs to get you started if you have to ( I did!!), and get moving!!!

Happy exercising!!

ox iva xo