In short: Yes, you can build muscle after fifty, at home, without a gym or any special kit. At every age, muscle answers to two things: being asked to work a little, and being well fed. Gentle moves hung on your daily routine, with some protein at each meal, are a lovely place to start. Go gently, stop if anything hurts, and check with your doctor first if you have a health condition.
You’ve come back from the market with a full basket. A squash, a few leeks, a box of eggs, a bag of walnuts, perhaps a goat’s cheese you couldn’t resist. You lift it out of the car and, halfway to the door, you change hands. Then you change again. A few years ago you wouldn’t even have noticed the weight.
Or perhaps it’s the low sofa you now get out of with a little push from both hands. The stairs that feel longer at the end of the day. The bag of compost you now drag across the garden.
Small things. Easy to put down to “just getting older” and move on. I’d like you to give them a second look, because this is one part of getting older that really does answer to you. And you don’t need a gym to do something about it.
Why do we lose muscle as we get older?
Your body is wonderfully thrifty. It keeps what you use and quietly lets go of what you don’t. Muscle costs a lot to maintain, so if it isn’t being asked to do much, your body sensibly trims it back.
When we’re young, we run for buses, carry children, dance until late. Later, life often becomes gentler. We drive more, we sit more, someone else carries the heavy bags. Nothing dramatic happens, and that’s exactly why we don’t notice.
I like to think of muscle as a savings account. For years we lived off the interest without a thought. From midlife, the account shrinks a little every year unless we pay something back in. A week in bed with flu or a winter spent indoors, and the balance drops faster.
You don’t feel it happening. Your legs never send you a letter announcing that they’re weaker. Please don’t blame yourself: nobody explained this to most of us.
Why does it feel harder after menopause?
Oestrogen does far more than run the monthly cycle. One of its quieter jobs is to help muscle repair itself and hold on to its strength. While oestrogen was high, it was doing some of the work for us in the background. When it falls, muscle needs a clearer message from us to stay.
Bone changes in the same years. Bone is alive too: all your life, one team of cells takes away old bone while another builds new. Oestrogen kept the demolition team in check. When it drops, the demolition team gets ahead for a while, and the builders need encouragement. Their favourite encouragement? Muscles pulling on bones, and your weight landing on your feet.
So muscle and bone go together. When you look after one, you’re looking after the other. If you’d like to read more about eating through these years, I wrote how to eat when menopause hits, and there are many more answers in my FAQs on nutrition in perimenopause and menopause.
And the men reading this? Your muscle goes down a gentler slope, and the same things help you too.
Why does muscle matter so much after fifty?
When I talk about muscle, I’m thinking about four very practical things.
Your independence. Muscle is carrying your own shopping. It’s the stairs, the garden, picking up a grandchild, getting down on the floor and up again. Strong legs and arms are what let us keep living our own lives, in our own homes, in our own way.
Your balance. When your foot catches the edge of a rug or a root on the path, what saves you is a quick, strong leg that gets underneath you in time. Balance lives in your legs, your ankles and your core as much as in your head.
Your energy and your blood sugar. Here’s an image I use a lot in my coaching: your muscles are like a sponge for sugar. After a meal, the sugar from your food goes into your blood, and your muscles are one of the main places it goes to be stored or used. A sponge that’s squeezed regularly soaks up more, which helps keep your energy steadier. If you often feel flat after lunch, have a look at the afternoon energy dip in autumn, where I explain why a short walk after eating makes such a difference.
Your nights. A body that has used its muscles during the day is often a body that feels pleasantly tired at night. If your sleep has become lighter, you may like why we wake at night in midlife, and what helps.
Is it too late to build muscle at my age?
No. I can say this with real confidence: it’s never too late. Muscle doesn’t check your birth certificate. It asks one question only: “Am I being asked to work?” If the answer is yes, it responds. At fifty, at seventy, at ninety.
What does change with age is how easily it hears the message. An older body needs the message to be a little clearer and more regular, and it needs the right food to build with. You don’t need heavy weights, unless you’d enjoy them.
As a yoga teacher, I’ve always loved how much strength hides in the simplest poses. Holding a standing pose or lowering yourself slowly: that’s strength work. Slow and steady is a very clear message.
What does muscle need to grow?
Three things: to be used, to be fed, and to rest.
To be used. A muscle gets stronger when it’s asked to do a little more than it finds easy. You’ll feel it as a pleasant warmth and a bit of tiredness: the message getting through. The slow part of a movement is often where the muscle works hardest, so lowering yourself into a chair slowly does more than dropping into it.
To be fed. Muscle is built from protein. And as we get older, muscle becomes a little hard of hearing when it comes to protein: a small amount is a whisper that doesn’t quite get through. Many of us eat almost no protein at breakfast and most of it in the evening. Spreading it across the day gives your muscles a clear message at each meal. Eggs or yoghurt with walnuts in the morning, lentils with goat’s cheese at lunch, sardines or beans in the evening. I wrote a whole article about this: how much protein do you need after fifty? (If you have kidney disease, please follow your doctor’s advice on protein rather than mine.)
Feeding your muscles also means eating enough, full stop. When we eat very little, the body looks for what it needs elsewhere, and muscle is one of the places it takes from. This is one of the reasons I wrote why you need more food, not less.
To rest. Muscle doesn’t grow while you’re working it. It grows afterwards, while you rest and while you sleep. More is not better here.
How do I start building muscle at home, without equipment?
When I work with someone, the first thing I want to know is what their day looks like. Because the best strength routine is the one that slips into the life you already have.
If I tell you “do your exercises every day”, most of us manage three days and then forget. Usually, memory is the weak point. So I like to hang each move on a hook: something you already do without thinking, like boiling the kettle, waiting for the coffee, brushing your teeth or coming back from the shops. I explained why this works in why change is hard, and how to make healthy habits stick.
Before you begin. Everything below is optional and gentle. Keep a hand on something steady whenever you like. A working muscle feels warm and a bit tired, and that’s fine. Pain is different. If anything hurts, or you feel dizzy, unwell or out of breath, stop and sit down. And if you have a heart condition, a problem with your joints or bones, a recent operation or any health condition you’re unsure about, please check with your doctor before you start.
One more thing, from my yoga mat to your kitchen: breathe. Breathe out as you make the effort (as you stand up, as you push away from the wall) and breathe in as you come back. Never hold your breath. If breathing is something you’d like to explore, my step-by-step guide to breathing is a good place to begin.
What helps?
1. Chair stands, while the kettle boils
Take a sturdy chair without wheels. Sit towards the front of the seat, feet flat on the floor and a little apart. Lean forward, nose over toes, breathe out and stand up. Then sit down again slowly, as if the chair were made of glass. Use your hands on your thighs or the armrests if you need to; that’s absolutely fine. Start with a few, five perhaps, and add one when it starts to feel easy. These are the muscles that get you out of the car and off the sofa.
2. Wall push-ups, while the coffee runs through
Stand about an arm’s length from a wall, with your hands flat on it at shoulder height. Bend your elbows and let your body come towards the wall in one straight line, then push yourself back. Arms, shoulders and chest: the muscles that open a heavy door and push you up when you’ve been kneeling in the garden. When it feels easy, step back a little.
3. Carry your shopping
You may already be doing this one without knowing it was strength training. The bags from the car, the basket from the market, the watering can, the logs for the fire. Share the weight between both hands, keep it close to your body and stand tall. And once in a while, when someone kindly offers to take the heavy bag, you might smile and say “thank you, I’ll take it”. If a load feels too heavy, make two trips.
4. Take the stairs, and the hill
Stairs are a gift. Every step lifts your whole body weight with one leg, and coming down slowly asks your thighs to work as brakes. Use the handrail and take your time. If your knees complain on the way down, go slower and listen to them.
5. Feed the work
Moving tells your muscles to grow. Food gives them something to grow with. So after a morning in the garden or a walk up the hill, have something with protein in it: an egg, a bowl of yoghurt, a slice of goat’s cheese on a buckwheat galette, a bowl of lentil soup. You’ll find some ideas on my recipes page, and lentils, beans and seeds bring fibre for your gut at the same time (more on that in how much fibre do you need for good gut health?).
What doesn’t help?
Waiting until you feel fit enough to start. These gentle moves are how you get there.
Doing a lot on Monday and nothing by Friday. A minute a day that you actually do is worth far more than an hour a week that you plan to do.
Pushing through pain. Warm, tired muscles are fine. Pain in a joint is a message to stop and ask for advice.
Eating as little as possible. Your muscles need food to build with. Skimping leaves them nothing to work with.
Comparing yourself with your neighbour. Your body, your history and your joints are your own. What suits your friend may not suit you, which is why I wrote why your friend’s diet might not work for you. The same goes for movement.
Try this for one week
Choose two strength moments a day: one in the morning and one in the evening, each hung on its hook. Perhaps chair stands while the kettle boils for your morning tea, and wall push-ups while you wait for the pasta water in the evening. Write them on a piece of paper and stick it by the kettle.
Add one more thing: a little protein at breakfast, every day this week. An egg, some yoghurt, a handful of walnuts or a slice of cheese.
Each evening, tick your two moments and write one word about how your body feels. At the end of the week, look back. Was it easier on the last day than on the first? Whatever you notice, your muscles will have heard you.
Frequently asked questions
Can you really build muscle after fifty, or after menopause?
Yes. Muscle responds to being used and fed at every age. It needs a slightly clearer message as we get older: regular gentle work, enough protein at each meal, and good rest.
Do I need weights or a gym?
No. Your own body, a sturdy chair, a wall, the stairs and your shopping bags are enough to begin with.
Is walking enough to keep my muscles strong?
Walking is wonderful for your heart, your mood, your energy and your legs, so please keep it. It asks very little of your arms and upper body, so add a few strength moves alongside it.
When should I talk to my doctor?
Before you start, if you have a heart condition, osteoporosis, a joint problem, a recent operation or any health condition you’re unsure about. And at any time if something hurts, if you’ve had a fall, feel unsteady, or notice you’re getting weaker quickly. Your doctor or a physiotherapist can tell you which moves suit you best.
Would you like some help?
Muscle, strength and how to feed them are part of Six Tuesdays in Montignac, the group programme in nutrition and health I’m running this autumn. If you’d like to hear when the next group opens, write to me at hello@catherinepolet.coach and I’ll let you know.
Not nearby, or would you rather talk it through one to one? I also coach online. Book a free 20-minute call and tell me what you’d love your body to still be doing with ease in the years ahead. We’ll look at where to start, for you.
About Catherine
I’m Catherine Polet, a holistic nutrition health coach, yoga and autogenic training teacher for more than 30 years, author and speaker. I help people find a way of eating and living that suits their own body, online in English, French, Spanish and German, and in person in Southwest France.
