Penn State 4-minute workout: 4 moves for strength over 65

Woman smiling after doing Penn State 4-minute workout — (Image credit: Getty Images)

Strength and balance are what doctors call 'key mobility indicators'. The stronger you are and the better balance you have, the more likely you are to stay independent with age - and that's what we all want.

A new study from Penn State College of Medicine has found that doing four minutes of strength training every day can boost strength and balance considerably in adults over 65, in as little as 12 weeks.

"The human body is designed to improve very quickly, and just a few repetitions of an exercise performed regularly can lead to huge improvements," says Christopher Sciamanna, professor of medicine and of public health at the college.

"Exercise is about forward thinking - think about what you want to be able to do and train for it," he says.

The study, published in PLOS One, involved almost 100 participants with an average age of 74. Before the study, the participants did about 18 minutes of exercise each week, which is well below the 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise recommended by the NHS and other bodies.

The Penn State 4-minute workout

In the study, participants completed each of the following exercises for 30 seconds, followed by a 30-second break. You can set a timer or use a fitness tracker to keep an eye on the seconds. They did each exercise once per day.

Each participant had a set of resistance bands and an adjustable stepper to do the exercises. You could also use dumbbells if you have them already.

Assisted push-ups: Place hands slightly wider than shoulder-width against a wall or stable surface (e.g. kitchen countertop) and lower yourself down until you're a couple of inches away. The higher your hands are, the easier it will feel.
Chair stands: Also called sit-to-stand, this exercise is essentially sitting and standing from a chair unassisted. You can also do squats, but make sure to keep your hands on your knees or hips.
Two-arm rows: Hold each end of the resistance band, stepping on the bottom to keep it in place. Row the band towards your hips, as if you're putting them into your back pockets.
Stair stepping: One leg at a time, step up and down from a stable surface. You could also walk up the stairs in your home.

Fokky

Resistance Bands Set, 5 Levels Exercise Band With Door Anchor and Handles

This set of five bands offers an increasingly hard resistance. When you can do the rows easily with one band, swap it for a harder one to keep getting stronger. The handles will make the double row exercise easier by attaching to each end of the band, giving you something to hold.

Amazon Basics

Aerobic Exercise Step Platform

A basic step platform works as a stable base for the stair stepping. It's adjustable in height so you can scale it up or down to your level. However, you can also do this exercise with the stairs in your home, as they will be a similar height to this platform.

After 12 weeks, the researchers found that this exact workout was enough to create "significant improvements in functional performance". Participants could do an average of four more repetitions in the chair stand test, stand on one leg for three more seconds, and move more quickly from sitting to standing by over two seconds.

This shows how useful the balance exercises are in this workout for healthy ageing. The movements reflect many we do in everyday life. This is called functional exercise, and it helps reduce the risk of falls in later life and helps with everyday activities like climbing stairs, carrying bags, and standing up.

This study was the second one done by the team. The first was a study called FAST (Functional Activity Strength Training). Here, 24 adults performed 30 seconds of push-ups and squats daily, with improved performance over six months.

Other studies, including one in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, have found that a few exercises every week can create the same improvements in strength and balance as longer workouts.

This is key. Exercise recommendations from the NHS suggest that all adults should do at least two days of strengthening exercise every week. Yet, data from NHS England suggests that fewer than one in five do, down to issues with routine, access, and pain.

While this workout still doesn't equal the 150-minute minimum exercise requirements, it's a good start. Participants went from doing under 20 minutes of exercise a week to following the workout over 80% of the time during the study.

"If we can make it short, we’re partway there," said Sciamanna. "These indicators predict your future ability to go into a nursing home, your future likelihood of falling and of developing difficulty walking. They give you a sense of whether or not you're going to be able to be active in the future."

Grace Walsh is woman&home's Health Channel Editor, working across the areas of fitness, nutrition, sleep, mental health, relationships, and sex. She is also a qualified fitness instructor.

A digital journalist with over seven years experience as a writer and editor for UK publications, Grace has covered (almost) everything in the world of health and wellbeing with bylines in Cosmopolitan, Red, The i Paper, GoodtoKnow, and more.