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The 6 Muscle Groups Most Responsible For Maintaining Independence With Age, According To A Performance Coach

Is your body built to last? More people are focused on living longer in good health to maintain their independence and enjoy life well into their later years, with little to no limitations holding them back from normal daily activities. As the saying goes, “use it or lose it,” and keeping your body primed via resistance training is one of the best things you can do to age gracefully. While it’s nice to flex an impressive pair of arms, certain larger muscle groups play a much bigger role in your ability to move through daily life with ease.

“Don’t just train muscles to look strong, train the body to remain capable,” says Erik Pride, MS, CSCS, a performance coach at Pride Fitness. “After 60, I want someone to still be able to squat down, get up from the floor, carry something heavy, climb stairs, catch themselves if they stumble, rotate, push, pull, and move quickly when necessary. That’s why I think strength alone isn’t enough. The ability to produce strength quickly, maintain balance, coordinate movement, and recover from unexpected situations may be just as important.”

If your goal is to live a long, active life independently, the following six muscle groups are arguably the most important in determining how well you’ll function after 60, according to Pride. Below, he also breaks down the best bang-for-your-buck exercise for each.

Muscle Groups That Predict How Well You’re Aging

1. Glutes

“The glutes are one of the first muscle groups I’d look at because they’re involved in standing up, climbing stairs, accelerating, changing direction, and stabilizing the pelvis,” Pride explains. “As people age, maintaining the ability to produce force through the hips can have a major impact on independence. Being able to generate force from the hips is especially important when getting up from a chair, recovering from a stumble, or navigating stairs.”

The best exercise for strengthening the glutes is a loaded hip thrust or elevated glute bridge. It targets the glutes through hip extension and allows you to progressively load the muscles without requiring the same level of balance and joint mobility needed for certain other lower-body exercises.

2. Quadriceps

Quad strength is necessary for stair climbing, getting up from chairs, and controlling the body when sitting down, making it extremely important for functional aging. A simple test to gauge your quad strength is to see if you can repeatedly lower down to a chair and stand back up without using your hands for assistance.

Studies have found that the sit-to-stand test can provide useful information about lower-body strength and functional mobility, so practicing this movement regularly helps reinforce the strength and control needed for everyday activities. For more advanced lifters, loaded squat variations are great for progressively building the quads.

3. Calves

The calves are an underrated predictor of mobility, which is essential for aging well. Maintaining the ability to produce force through the ankle helps with walking, pushing off the ground, climbing stairs, and maintaining balance to prevent falls. As we get older, losing the ability to generate force quickly can affect how confidently and efficiently someone moves.

To build the calves, try out a single-leg calf raise. Performing it unilaterally trains strength, balance, and ankle control from side to side, allowing you to identify whether one side is noticeably weaker than the other.

4. Core and Obliques

“I wouldn’t define the core simply as having visible abs. For longevity, I care much more about the ability to resist unwanted movement while transferring force between the upper and lower body,” Pride says. “The obliques and deeper trunk musculature help control rotation and maintain stability while walking, carrying objects, getting up from the floor, and performing athletic or recreational activities.”

To strengthen the deep muscles of the core, the suitcase carry is one of the best exercises you can do. Hold a kettlebell in one hand and walk for a set distance, keeping your torso upright and resisting the urge to lean toward or away from the weight. Though it looks simple, going heavy enough challenges lateral trunk stability, grip, posture, gait, and coordination simultaneously.

5. Upper Back

The upper-back muscles, like your traps, rhomboids, and rear delts, become increasingly important with age because maintaining the ability to pull, carry, stabilize the shoulder blades, and maintain an upright posture supports independence.

For upper back strength, the chest-supported row is your best bet because it’s relatively easy to scale, provides a significant stimulus to the upper back, and doesn’t require a lot of balance or spinal endurance. Keeping the chest supported allows you to fully focus on pulling through the upper back without having to worry as much about maintaining form.

6. Forearms

“Strength doesn’t mean much if you can’t hold onto the things you’re trying to move,” Pride says. “Grip strength is involved in carrying groceries, opening containers, using tools, getting up from certain positions, and interacting with the environment. It also gives coaches a very simple way to assess whether someone’s overall strength is being maintained.”

A farmer’s carry is the gold standard exercise for building grip strength, which has long been a biomarker for older adults. Hold two kettlebells at your sides and walk for a set distance, maintaining a tall posture and controlled stride. Do these several times a week to train grip, trunk stability, posture, gait, and the ability to produce force while moving.

Experts

Erik Pride, MS, CSCS, performance coach at Pride Fitness

Sources

Reference values for the five-times-sit-to-stand test: a pooled analysis including 45,470 participants from 14 countries. GeroScience, 2025
Grip Strength: An Indispensable Biomarker For Older Adults. Clinical Interventions in Aging, 2019

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