I'm a personal trainer - over 60s can get stronger with one day in the gym every week, provided you do these 3 things

If you ask most personal trainers about the ideal number of strength training sessions to have every week, they'll say between two and three - or even more, depending on your goal. That's regardless of age, too.

It's fair to say this won't be a possibility for everyone, whether that's constraints with time or physical ones like tiredness or joint pain.

That doesn't mean you can't make progress if you're over 60 and looking to get stronger, says Ema Buckle, a personal trainer and women's fitness specialist in her 50s. "The biggest message is that it isn’t too late to start thinking about your health and fitness," she tells woman&home. With three simple focuses, you can get the most out of all the best exercises for women over 60 in just one day in the gym or one dumbbell home workout a week.

1. Prioritise functional movement

"As we age, certain movements get harder to perform, such as sitting to standing, bending over to pick something up, or reaching up to put items away," says Ema. Focusing on functional movements can help you stay mobile throughout life. These should be the priority of you can only lift weights once a week.

"These exercises mimic real life activities, significantly reduce your risk of injury, and preserve your everyday independence," she says.

Functional movements include exercises like:

• Squats: Bending your knees and lowering your body to the floor, as if you're sitting on a chair behind you. It works your quadriceps (thighs), glutes (buttocks), lower back, and core muscles, among others.
• Hinges: Bending at your hips, keeping a flat back, picking something off the floor without bending your knees. This is mostly seen in deadlift exercises.
• Lunge: Builds single-leg balance, stability, and strength by working one leg at a time.
• Push exercises: This could be a chest press, shoulder press, or leg press, with a machine or free weights. It helps with activities like walking and reaching above your head.
• Pull exercises: Think opening a door or taking something down from a high shelf. Exercises like a lat pull down or rows help with this.
• Carry: A farmer's carry is one of the most useful carry exercises, as it closely mirrors carrying shopping bags or suitcases.
• Rotation: Even turning to look behind you can get harder. Rotation exercises, like Russian twists, build core strength and stability to help you do this.

"Find a class that caters to you or a personal trainer who will listen to your needs and give you the basics," says Ema.

2. Focus on full-body workouts

If you can only get into the gym once a week, then you've got to work on each muscle group, instead of doing an upper-body workout one week and a lower-body workout the next. To get stronger, target all the muscles in the body in one session.

As a beginner, I'd adopt a whole-body session, concentrating on the larger muscle groups," says Ema. "These support the majority of our daily movements."

This could be a simple 20-minute kettlebell workout or a 30-minute dumbbell workout. Just because you're working out once a week doesn't mean it has to take hours.

3. Always focus on progressive overload

When you lift weights, you get stronger. Your weights have to get heavier or your workout has to get harder as you get stronger to continue seeing progress. This is progressive overload.

"When you are ready, this type of training is going to help build bone density and combat age-related muscle loss," says Ema. "Start with a low weight and work on your technique."

There are two ways to make sure you're progressively overloading your exercises, says the trainer: increase the amount of reps per set or increase the weight.

"You wouldn't increase week on week, but every four to six weeks, or as the exercise gets easier to perform," she says.

Nutrition is just as important as exercise when it comes to getting stronger. "Muscles require adequate nutrition to fuel and repair," says Ema.

"Aim to consume quality protein (such as eggs, fish, lean meats or plant based alternatives). The recommended amount is 1g per kilogram of bodyweight (for a sedentary adult). However, if you are active, 1.2g will help support muscle growth and recovery," she says.

"I'd recommend a breakfast of two eggs (cooked any way you like) with toast, and then a tuna or lean meat sandwich (or veggie alternative) or lunch, followed by a dinner of salmon or steak and vegetables. You could also include a good quality protein shake after your workout," she says.