Same, as I age my focus increasing turns to overall health and well being. I do 1-2 weekly sessions at home with a few resistance bands, weights (dumbbells and kettlebells) and body weight.

Most mornings a 5-10 minute modified yoga routine with a few core & mobility moves, and 5 minutes in pm with Trigger Point roller and light stretching.

Just that few hours a week makes me feel far better.

Most budget friendly is resistance band and maybe add a pull up bar. I like these type of bands. https://www.amazon.com/..._api_i_AOq9DbEZN0KHG

If your budget allows maybe adjustable dumbbell set. Of course you can always do bodyweight stuff. The only reason I have a gym membership is for the pool. Since I have the membership anyway I do use the gym there for squats, deadlifts, etc. But if I didn’t need the pool I would just workout at home.

And of course YouTube has a million fitness videos you can follow. Just find some you like.

55 years old. I do 15 or so minutes each day with a lacrosse ball, foam roller and yoga strap I follow that up with 15 minutes of Yoga on the Sufferfest app. You can find yoga routines on you tube. Twice a week I hit the gym. Always working on leg strength with deadlifts one day and squats the other. Other work before and after that. Every 3 rd week or so it goes to all body weight with box jumps, lunges and maybe some high intensity shuffle work.

It seams like a lot but it’s really not it’s also not super expensive either. If I only had one option I might just do the Sufferfest App with Yoga and their strength routines that are really quite good. The Gym I use is the YMCA which also has the world class pool with 2 Master’s swim sessions a day.

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Dave Jewell
Free Run Speed

I have access to an awesome weight room for free through my work and lift there. But I also did Planet Fitness for a year for $10 per month and got great workouts there even though they don't have real free weights.

I've tried to workout at home, but never quite got around to it. Leaving home or the office and heading to the gym works much better for getting myself to do a good workout.

I haven't noticed any loss in strength with age yet, but I'm only 57. I see plenty of strong guys in their 60s also, but not so many in their 70s and 80s so I'm guessing that's when it starts to go downhill.

Good old fashioned weights/bench/dumbbells. Craigslist is usually full of this kind of stuff for cheap.

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Athlinks / Strava

Strength training can be super simple and seamless to integrate into your training. I have to maintain some strength for my job, so I usually try to do 2x30min hard sessions per week, with another 2-3 bouts of 5-15min thrown in. Frankly bodyweight will work just fine, work by time and not by reps so that the session is guaranteed to only take X:XX amount of time. If you buy anything, start with a pullup bar, then get a kettlebell (work up to 53# as your strength improves). One format I'll frequently use is:

60sec pushups, 60sec air squats, 60sec butterfly situps, 60sec pullups, 60sec KB swing or snatch, 60sec rest (Repeat that for the time you have allotted)

Pick whatever exercises work best for you (dips, lunges, different types of pushups and pullups, different core exercises). Working by time instead of reps means you can focus on quality and not a meaningless number.

If you add a third piece of gear, get a set of 2x15-30# dumbbells. Use these for man-makers, and all sorts of different complexes. No need to go heavier.

Don't underestimate the value of short (5-15min) bouts of work too. When I finish a trainer ride or come inside after a run, I'll usually make it a point to spend ~5min doing pushups or pullups or really anything that fits the timeframe. Knocking out consistent sets of say, 5 pullups across the week whenever you walk past the pullup bar adds up with almost zero cost.

ETA: I'm pretty young (in my 20s) to worry about "combatting aging," but I did pick up this style of strength training from my dad, who is in his mid-50s and still an absolute beast both in triathlon and the gym, so I'm going to guess the tips would still apply.

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"Don't you have to go be stupid somewhere else?"..."Not until 4!"

Focus on the gym. As you get older, your body will value the weight-bearing and resistance training. Bone health, connective tissue health, pure strength etc.

I work with a lot of different demographics. If your goal is strength for life, the pool, bands, pilates/yoga (mostly body-weight modes) are very limiting unfortunately. You will get diminishing returns for that goal.

Best of luck!

TRX or similar suspension trainer. Lot of bang for the buck there. Add in some free weights off Craigslist or FB marketplace, you can have a pretty nice setup for $200.

I cosign this because i think this is exactly the right attitude. don't think that you can't incorporate a useful strength regimen because a gym membership is not in the budget (there's a lot you can do with just yourself) or that you dno't have a lot of time. it really doesn't require that much time especially if you tack it on to other sessions.

and there are unique benefits to low-load training (at least if you go to failure, although you might not want to do that every sesh): https://www.instagram.com/p/B5FsYuLnSDF/ Looks like "muscular endurance" is a thing after all, lol.

That said, i keep a low-cost, no-frills gym membership near my work because i like to do barbell lifts. I did bodyweight and low-load (e.g., dumbell lunges) lifts for years but have gotten so much stronger in the last two years after i added legit squat, deadlift and bench to my routine. for example, without even having done dumbbell lunges in a year, i went out and did something like 60 or 70 lbs more, after having struggled for years to even add a few pounds each time.

bottom line is you gotta figure out what works for you, now. if you're currently pretty weak (like i was :)) pushing bigger weights might be the best move at this point in time. If you're already pretty strong (or at least, strong enough) and just want to maintain and build work capacity, lower weights, higher reps might be the jam. etc. etc. etc.

I'd do Pilates as the paid option, since that's tough to figure out on your own. I found it very helpful, PT sent me to Pilates classes paid for by insurance, for rehab after a swim shoulder injury.

gym/weight work can easily be done for free as noted already, bodyweight and a cheap set of weights off Craigslist etc.