Strengthening activities

Doing strengthening activities for short periods of time regularly, gradually increasing the repetition, can improve your quality of life as well as supporting you stay strong and fit to carry on caring.

Strength and balance activities can help you whatever your age, but doing them twice a week is also a core part of the Chief Medical Officer’s recommendations for weekly activity levels, especially for adults over the age of 65.

Getting started

Some of the activities you do already could count towards your strength and balance target including carrying shopping bags, gardening, or pushing a wheelchair. Find out more about what activities count on the NHS website.

Items you have around the home already, such as tins of beans, can be used as weights. The BBC Tea Time Toning plan is an exercise plan you can follow to increase strength in your arms by weight training with items you have in the cupboard.

The NHS has an online strengthening suggestions with pictures to help you understand the exercises. A PDF document that can be downloaded so you can look at the instructions offline.

Other activities like yoga also include an element of strength and balance. Take a look at the yoga page on the Hub for more information about yoga and how to get started with it.

Equipment needed 

Most strengthening activities don’t need any equipment at all. It’s best to wear loose and comfortable clothing that allows you to move. Some activities need a chair because they're seated or use the chair for balance. A resistance band can be bought cheaply and can be useful for some activities but isn’t necessary.

Top tips

Start slow

Like any activity, building up your activity as you gain in confidence and strength is a good way to build a routine. If you experience sore muscles a few days after taking part in an activity, you may find the NHS pain after exercise advice to be useful.

Build activities into your routine

Many people find it beneficial to either start or end their day with strengthening activities to help them to de-stress and develop a routine. Doing something as simple as a strength activity while the kettle boils or during a TV advert can help. If you’d like to commit to a plan over a couple of weeks The NHS Stretch and Flex Plan is a 5 week easy to follow plan that doesn’t involve any equipment and has a series of how-to videos.

These warm up and cool down suggestions from the NHS can also help reduce the risk of injury.