It's Never Too Late to Build a Stronger Upper Body: Simple Moves for Midlife and Beyond

Muscle loss can quietly start as early as your 30s, but a few simple dumbbell exercises can help slow this down. Trainers share their favorite exercises for stronger shoulders, backs, and arms.

Unlike your legs, your upper body doesn’t get as much workout from everyday activities like walking. But tasks like carrying groceries, lifting a grandchild, or reaching for something at the top shelf will require some arm and shoulder strength, which is why it’s important to exercise those muscles even as we age.

Apart from these occasional tasks, you will need stronger arms to help with common movements like pushing, pulling, and reaching. If you fall, that arm strength will also come in handy in getting yourself back up.

As we age, we gradually lose muscle, starting as early as 30. Research cited by Women’s Health suggests muscle mass drops roughly 3% to 8% per decade, with the decline speeding up after 60.

To slow this down, there are strength training exercises you can do, with research linking two hours of strength training a week to a lower risk of heart disease and heart attack.

No matter your age, it’s never too early or too late to start. A study cited by AARP saw adults 85 and older who had never lifted weights before showing an increase of muscle size and strength after doing resistance training three times a week for 12 weeks.

Certified perimenopause strength coach Chrissa Benson can attest to this. She reveals she has more muscle now, in her 40s, than she did in her 20s.

If you’re looking to increase or strengthen your upper body muscles, here are some exercises you can do at home.

Strengthening Your Shoulders

Your shoulders are important for arm rotation and training them “helps you move your arms much easier in any direction, giving them more mobility, power and speed,” says Mike Mancias, athletic trainer for the Los Angeles Lakers.

One exercise you can do to support shoulder strength is the shoulder press. This involves pushing a dumbbell above your head one arm at a time. Benson also recommends what she calls “around the world,” where you do a sweeping motion carrying light dumbbells and creating an arc from your sides to overhead. Benson says the exercise is “underrated for targeting the back and shoulders.”

Strengthening Your Back

Exercises that require you to pull are good for the upper back, while balancing out all the pushing your arms do. Benson relies on the bent-over row. To do this, bend forward and pull dumbbells toward your hips. Another option is the seated bent-over raise, which involves leaning forward in a chair and lifting light weights to your sides.

Strengthening Your Biceps and Triceps

If you’re raring to start, AARP recommends using very light weights in the beginning, or you can even skip the weights first just to master the movements. Control your movements and move slowly, rather than using momentum.

More importantly, consult with your doctor first if you are new to strength training or have any health conditions that need to be considered before embarking on a workout routine.