If You Can Complete These 5 Bodyweight Exercises After 50, Your Fitness Age Is 10 Years Younger

Expert-Recommended
Can you push, pull, squat, and balance like this after 50? Take the five-move test.

Moving your own body well is one of the
<p>That’s a big reason I like

Twenty clean push-ups ask for serious relative strength. Your chest and triceps provide most of the pressing force, while your shoulders support the movement. Meanwhile, your core keeps the rest of your body from losing position as the reps add up.

That combination is why I keep coming back to push-ups with athletes and general fitness clients. You have to move your own weight while maintaining enough control for every rep to look roughly the same.

Muscles Trained: Chest, triceps, shoulders, core.

How to Do It:

1. Place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
2. Extend your legs behind you and line up your body from head to heels.
3. Brace your core before lowering.
4. Bend your elbows and bring your chest toward the floor.
5. Lower until your elbows reach at least 90 degrees.
6. Press through your hands until your arms straighten.
7. Continue until you complete 20 reps or your form changes.

Test Standard: Complete 20 push-ups while reaching at least 90 degrees at the elbows and keeping your body in a straight line.

Build Toward It: Start with your hands on a bench or countertop. Lower the surface as your strength improves.

Form Tip: Keep your chest and hips moving together throughout the rep.

Pull-Ups

Pull-ups raise the bar quickly because your entire body has to travel upward. There’s no external load to choose here. Your back and arms have to handle your bodyweight, so five clean reps is a strong benchmark after 50.

Grip strength also comes into play. You need to stay connected to the bar long enough for your upper body to do its job, and each rep gets tougher as fatigue builds.

Muscles Trained: Lats, upper back, biceps, forearms, core.

How to Do It:

1. Grab a pull-up bar with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width.
2. Start from a controlled hang.
3. Brace your core and begin pulling your body upward.
4. Continue until your chin clears the bar.
5. Lower yourself under control.
6. Return to the bottom position before starting the next rep.

Test Standard: Complete 5 reps with your chin clearing the bar and your body under control. Avoid kicking or swinging to create momentum.

Build Toward It: Use assisted pull-ups or controlled negatives. Even working toward your first unassisted rep is meaningful progress.

Form Tip: Think about pulling your elbows down as you rise.

Bodyweight Squats

Few exercises tell you more about lower-body fitness with less setup than a squat. You have to lower your body through a useful range and stand back up, then repeat the effort without losing depth.

For this test, 25 reps give the set enough length to challenge your legs beyond a handful of easy repetitions. Strength gets you moving, while muscular endurance helps you keep the same squat as you get deeper into the set.

Muscles Trained: Quads, glutes, hamstrings, core.

How to Do It:

1. Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart.
2. Turn your toes slightly outward if that feels comfortable.
3. Brace your core and begin lowering your hips.
4. Bend your knees as you lower.
5. Reach at least parallel with your thighs.
6. Drive through your feet and stand fully.
7. Repeat for 25 reps.

Test Standard: Complete 25 squats with your thighs reaching at least parallel and a full stand at the top of every rep.

Build Toward It: Use a chair or box as a depth target. Gradually work toward a lower target as your strength and mobility improve.

Form Tip: Keep your whole foot planted as you lower and stand.

Walking Lunges

As you walk forward through lunges, each leg takes turns doing most of the work. That makes this movement a useful follow-up to the squat. You’ve already shown you can produce force with both legs. Now you’re asking each side to handle more responsibility.

Ten reps per leg also challenge your ability to keep moving without letting your stride get shorter as the set goes on. That makes the information gives your next few weeks of training some direction.

Come back to the challenge after several weeks and use the same standards. You may hit a rep goal that was out of reach the first time or notice that an exercise simply feels better. Progress doesn’t always need a new test. Sometimes repeating the same one tells you exactly what you need to know.

How to Build Toward the Full Challenge

You can train these exercises as part of a regular full-body routine instead of testing all five every workout. Two or three strength sessions per week give you plenty of opportunities to improve the movements while still allowing recovery.

• Scale exercises early: Use an incline for push-ups or assistance for pull-ups while you build strength.
• Own your range of motion: Use controlled depth on squats and lunges, then expand that range as your mobility allows.
• Leave a few reps in the tank: Most training sets can finish before failure. Save the true max effort for occasional testing.
• Progress one thing at a time: Add repetitions, improve the exercise variation, or increase the challenge when your current level feels solid.
• Keep the whole body involved: Include upper- and lower-body movements across the week so one area doesn’t get all the attention.
• Reassess periodically: Run the five-exercise test again after several weeks and compare your results using the same standards.

Bodyweight training gives you a simple way to stay connected to what your body can actually do. If you can complete all five standards after 50, you’ve built an impressive level of relative strength and control. Keep training those qualities and give yourself another shot at the test down the road.

References

• Archila, Linda R et al. “Simple Bodyweight Training Improves Cardiorespiratory Fitness with Minimal Time Commitment: A Contemporary Application of the 5BX Approach.” International Journal of Exercise Science vol. 14,3 93-100. 1 Apr. 2021, doi:10.70252/WEQD2681
• Mear, Emily et al. “The Effect of Breaking Up Sedentary Time with Calisthenics on Neuromuscular Function: A Preliminary Study.” International Journal of Environmental Research and public health, vol. 19, 21, 14597. 7 Nov. 2022, doi:10.3390/ijerph192114597

Jarrod Nobbe, MA, CSCS
Jarrod Nobbe is a USAW National Coach, Sports Performance Coach, Personal Trainer, and writer, and has been involved in health and fitness for the past 12 years. Read more about Jarrod
Filed Under
Bodyweight Exercises // Fitness Test // Over 50