There’s No Such Thing as an Anti-Ageing Exercise (But These Come Close)
Read time: 6 minutes
I'm going to keep the intro short but oh so very sweet this week. See the image below ⬇️
I don't even live in the UK anymore, yet I'm still buzzing reading this 😂
I try to live my life with a positive, upbeat attitude, which means I try my best to avoid any hate, but man, do I HATE people who don't use headphones in public settings like trains or coffee shops.
I'm not joking when I tell you that my bloody not-so-slowly starts to bubble, and I have to ignore my intrusive thoughts of strangling that person!
Just me? 🙈
I recently had to tell a kid to turn his phone down twice in the lounge at Barcelona airport. First to him, then to his dad the second time. Both times, it worked for two minutes.
I would say it's just me getting old at 35, but I've always been like this ha.
Anyway, this had nothing to do with health (unless you count mental health, I suppose), but I wanted to share the good news with you, and hopefully it's a trend that is going to go global ASAP 🤞
Do you feel similar, or am I the weirdo? 😂
Right, let's get stuck into this week's newsletter because it's a doozy...
Forget about the obnoxious, loud people on buses; it's time to get serious.
I want you to picture someone for a second.
Maybe it’s a grandparent. Maybe a parent. Maybe someone you only half-remember from childhood.
Someone who got to the point where they couldn’t push themselves up from a low chair without a hand. Who stopped going places because the walk was too far or the steps too steep. Who had one fall and never quite got back to who they were before.
That slow shrinking of a life isn’t just “getting old.” Much of it is specific, measurable, and far more preventable than most people realise, and it starts decades before truly anyone notices.
The problem nobody warns you about
From around the age of 30, you begin to lose muscle. It’s called sarcopenia, and it’s dangerously quiet.
A review by Elena Volpi and colleagues, published in Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care, estimates a loss of roughly 3 to 8% of your muscle mass per decade from age 30 onward, and the decline speeds up after 60.
You don’t feel it happening. There’s no pain, or no obvious moment.
One year you just notice the shopping feels heavier, the stairs feel higher, and getting off the floor takes a whole lot more effort than it used to.
Here’s the part that makes it worse...
You don’t just lose muscle size; you lose strength even faster.
A quantitative review by Mitchell and colleagues in Frontiers in Physiology found that strength fades noticeably quicker than muscle mass does as we age. So the ability to actually produce force, to catch yourself, to carry, to stand up, drops away faster than the muscle itself.
And this matters enormously, because strength isn’t just about the gym.
A huge analysis by Antonio García-Hermoso and colleagues, published in Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and pooling data from around two million people, found that muscular strength was a genuine predictor of dying from any cause.
Put simply → Stronger people tend to live longer.
Weak muscles are how your independence slips away. They’re behind the fall that leads to the broken hip, the inability to get out of a chair unaided, the quiet slip from the activities that made life worth living in the first place.
That’s the problem in a nutshell. Now let’s talk about the solution.
The closest thing we have to a reset
I’ll be straight with you.
There is no magic “anti-ageing” exercise. Nothing you can do in a gym stops the clock, and if anyone tries to tell you any different, they're a bullshitter.
This is what those people look like 😂
But strength and movement training is the single most powerful lever we have to slow this decline, hold onto your independence, and keep doing the things you love for as long as possible. And the best news of all is that it’s never, ever too late to start.
In one of my favourite fitness studies, Maria Fiatarone and colleagues published in JAMA took a group of frail, institutionalised people with an average age of 90, some as old as 96, and put them through eight weeks of proper strength training.
The result?
Their strength improved by an average of 174%. Their muscle grew, and their walking speed improved by nearly half.
Ninety years old. Frail. In a nursing home. And eight weeks of lifting transformed how they moved.
If it works for them, it works for you, whether you’re 35, 55 or 75.
On top of that, a landmark Cochrane review by Cathie Sherrington and colleagues, drawing on 81 trials and over 13,000 people, found that exercise reduces the rate of falls in older adults by around 23%. Nearly a quarter fewer falls, from the right training.
This is a solvable problem, and you don’t need to train like an athlete to solve it. You just need to show up consistently and do the work.
You don’t need to do everything
Before I show you how to train, let me clear up the biggest misconception.
You do not need to do every exercise under the sun.
And you certainly don’t need to be lifting a heavy barbell off the floor to stay strong and capable... although it does help 😁
In fact, for some people, a conventional barbell deadlift is the wrong choice entirely. It can be counterproductive, even risky, depending on their body, history, and starting point. The same goes for deep barbell squats, overhead pressing, and plenty of other “must-do” lifts social media insists on.
This is where smart exercise selection comes in, and it’s the heart of how I coach. The body is built to move in a handful of fundamental ways. Train those ways, pick the version of each that suits you right now, do it well, and gradually make it a little harder over time. That’s it. That’s the whole game.
Think of each movement as a ladder. You start on the rung that fits your ability, and you climb only as far as you need to. Not everyone needs to reach the top. A version you can do well and pain-free beats an “advanced” version you can’t.
Let’s go through the movements that matter most...
1) Hip hinge — the most important one
This is bending at the hips to pick things up, and it’s the pattern behind lifting a child, a shopping bag, dog poop, or a suitcase without wrecking your back. It trains your glutes, core, entire trunk, and hamstrings- the engine room of your whole body.
Options include: Romanian deadlifts, hip thrusts, trap-bar deadlifts, kettlebell deadlifts, and back extensions.
How much: 2 to 4 sets of 3 to 10 reps on the bigger lifts. Leave a rep or two in the tank and pick a weight you could do 11 or 12 times but stop at 10.
Tip: push your hips back as far as your mobility allows, like you’re closing a door behind you with your arse. Keep your spine long and neutral. Note the ladder above: we never start a fragile back with a floor deadlift. We lift from blocks or a rack first and earn the floor later.
2) Squat — sitting down and standing up
Count how many times you sit down and stand up from a chair every day. The squat is that movement, loaded and strengthened. Strong legs are one of the clearest protections against falls as we age.
Easier → harder: box squat to a comfortable height → goblet squat → heel-elevated goblet squat → barbell box squat → barbell back squat.
How much: 2 to 4 sets of 5 to 12+ reps.
Tip: everyone is different here. Find a depth that lets you keep clean form and a neutral spine, and own that. You do not need to bounce your butt off the floor to get strong legs.
3) Single-leg work — because life happens one leg at a time
Every step you take is a single-leg movement. Training one leg at a time builds the balance and stability that keep you upright, and it’s gentler on the knees than heavy two-legged lifting.
Tip: the reverse lunge (stepping backwards) is far kinder to cranky knees than the forward version. Start there.
4) Push — getting yourself up off the floor
The push-up is simply pressing yourself up off the ground, and it's a surprisingly good marker of independence as you age. It trains your chest, shoulders and triceps.
The options: push-ups, incline push-ups, dumbbell presses, landmine presses.
Easier → harder: hands-elevated push-up (against a wall or bench) → full push-up → half-kneeling dumbbell press → incline dumbbell press → flat press.
How much: 2 to 4 sets of 6 to 15 reps.
Tip: If full push-ups aren’t there yet, raise your hands onto a bench or the kitchen counter. Lower the height as you get stronger. That’s the ladder in action.
5) Pull — the antidote to modern life
We spend our days hunched forward over phones, laptops and steering wheels. Pulling movements counterbalance that, and they’re the most important work you can do for your posture and shoulder health.
I program roughly three pulling movements for every one pushing movement, for exactly this reason. This is also where I’d fold in two of the most underrated exercises going:
Face pulls and external rotations.
Shoulder problems are the most common complaint I see, and they’re usually down to weakness and too much desk time. A small, regular dose of this work keeps your shoulders healthy for life.
The options: rows of every kind, face pulls, lat pulldowns, band pull-aparts, external rotations.
Easier → harder: supported machine or TRX row → chest-supported row → single-arm dumbbell row → bent-over row. For vertical pulling: lat pulldown → band-assisted chin-up → chin-up.
How much: 2 to 4 sets of 8 to 15 reps for rows; 12 to 20 reps for face pulls, pull-aparts and external rotations.
Tip: imagine crushing two oranges between your armpits as you pull, and never let your shoulder shrug up towards your ear.
6) Core and rotation — the part most people get wrong
Here’s where most people go wrong with “core.” They think it means endless sit-ups. The real job of your core is to keep your spine stable and safe, and to let you rotate with control.
The foundation is anti-movement work: teaching your midsection to resist being bent or twisted. The banded dead bug is one of my favourites, and my clients agree. Loaded carries belong here too, and they’re possibly the most underrated exercise of all for real-world strength.
Then there’s rotation. Your trunk is built to twist, and training that protects you and builds genuine functional power for everything from swinging a golf club to turning to lift a child out of a car seat.
The cable wood chop is one of the most common rotational core exercises in gyms, and it’s a great one. Some others that train the same quality:
Pallof press — the gentlest entry point, teaching you to resist rotation before you produce it
Cable or band wood chops — high-to-low and low-to-high
Landmine rotations — a barbell anchored in a corner, rotated across the body.
Rotational medicine ball slams and throws — for building explosive, athletic power.
Russian twists — effective, but load them sensibly and keep the movement controlled
How much: 2 to 3 sets. For anti-movement work, hold for 20 to 40 seconds or 8 to 12 controlled reps. For rotational power work like slams, keep the reps lower and the intent explosive, around 6 to 10 per side.
Tip: If your lower back is sensitive, start with the anti-rotation work (the Pallof press) and go easy on heavy, end-range twisting until things settle. Build control first, power later.
How to put it together
You don’t need to live in the gym. Three quality strength sessions a week, around 45 minutes each, will put you ahead of almost everyone you meet.
A few simple rules:
Aim to train each movement above at least twice a week.
Keep most sets in the 5-15 rep range, always leaving one or two reps in the tank. We are not training to collapse or sh*t ourselves!
Quality beats quantity every single time. A handful of hard, clean sets does far more than endless junk volume, and it keeps you injury-free.
When a weight starts to feel easy, and your form is clean, add a small amount next time, or climb to the next rung on the ladder.
And NEVER train through pain. Discomfort from effort is fine. Sharp or nagging joint pain is a signal to adjust the exercise, not to push through it. You strengthen your way out of problems by training around them, not through them.
The real reward
Let me bring this back to where we started...
The decline is real, and it’s coming for all of us. Do nothing, and you slowly lose strength, mobility, and eventually independence, along with a chunk of what makes life enjoyable.
But you are not a passenger here. The research could not be more detailed. Strength and movement training slows that decline, cuts your risk of falling, and keeps you capable, and it works at any age, even in your nineties.
This was never about looking good on a beach. It’s about being able to lift your grandkids, hike the trail you love, get up off the floor without a second thought, and stay the independent, capable version of yourself for as long as you possibly can.
You don’t need every exercise. You don’t need a barbell on your back. You just need to train the way your body is built to move, at a level that’s right for you, for the rest of your life.
Start now, and your future self will thank you for it 💪🏻
Oh and I started this email before my gym session, and I've just gotten back and finished it. The video below is of my top set of deadlifts. 190kg for 9 reps with no lifting belt, but fueled by plenty of Haribo and creatine 😜 Can you spot my shin? 🙈
Right, have a great week, and I'll catch you next time.
Mark ✌️
P.S. I’ve just opened testing for my new app, MeridianWork — a personal AI coach with 100+ programmes and 1,000+ exercises that pick the right training for you, no matter your starting point.
It’s FREE to use until January, and yours to keep free after. All I ask in return is honest feedback.
P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are a few ways I can help you:
My NEW sleep ebook is live — and yours is free. If you’re tired of feeling tired, this guide breaks down how to fix your sleep and boost energy, focus, and recovery. Grab your copy by clicking here now.
The Paradigm Project: Want to get strong, lean, and energised — without burning out?If you’re ambitious and want results without wasting time, DM me the word "READY' and we'll have a chat.
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References
Volpi, E., Nazemi, R., & Fujita, S. (2004). “Muscle tissue changes with aging.” Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care, 7(4), 405–410.
Mitchell, W.K., Williams, J., Atherton, P., Larvin, M., Lund, J., & Narici, M. (2012). “Sarcopenia, dynapenia, and the impact of advancing age on human skeletal muscle size and strength; a quantitative review.” Frontiers in Physiology, 3, 260.
García-Hermoso, A., Cavero-Redondo, I., Ramírez-Vélez, R., et al. (2018). “Muscular Strength as a Predictor of All-Cause Mortality in an Apparently Healthy Population: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Data From Approximately 2 Million Men and Women.” Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 99(10), 2100–2113.
Fiatarone, M.A., Marks, E.C., Ryan, N.D., Meredith, C.N., Lipsitz, L.A., & Evans, W.J. (1990). “High-Intensity Strength Training in Nonagenarians: Effects on Skeletal Muscle.” JAMA, 263(22), 3029–3034.
Sherrington, C., Fairhall, N.J., Wallbank, G.K., et al. (2019). “Exercise for preventing falls in older people living in the community.” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 1, CD012424.
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Disclaimer: This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Any guidance related to training, nutrition, supplementation, or lifestyle is general in nature and not a substitute for personalised medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your health routine.
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