If you want to do your daily lifestyle and overall wellness a solid, consider working out to rebuild lost muscle. Regaining strong, healthy muscle is key for staying independent—and losing lean muscle mass and age is a natural part of aging. Muscle enables you to perform simple, everyday tasks, like bending down to grab the soap you dropped while showering or reaching up to change a lightbulb.

Exercising for a short time each day can help you maintain strength and support an active, healthy lifestyle. That’s why we spoke with Jacob Siwicki, founder and head coach of Siwicki Fitness, NCSF and AFAA certified, former top 1% globally ranked Equinox group fitness instructor (2019), Dartmouth economics graduate and former Dartmouth football player, fitness expert on FOX 5 DC, and are here with a 10-minute morning routine that can help restore muscle tone faster than gym machines after 60.

“A short home routine can maintain or rebuild muscle, but it has to get harder over time. Add weight. Do more reps. Slow the movement down. Or move to a harder version. If you keep doing the same easy workout forever, your body has no reason to change,” Siwicki tells us. “Gym machines aren’t bad; they make it easy to add resistance. But they lock you into one path and take balance out of the exercise. This routine trains several muscles together. That’s how your body actually works when you stand up, climb stairs, or pick something up.”

Perform each of the below exercises for 45 seconds. Take 15 seconds to switch. Complete two rounds in total.

Sit-to-Stands

 

1. Begin seated at the front of a sturdy chair with your feet placed on the floor under your knees.
2. Lean forward slightly.
3. Try to stand up without using your knees, hands, or additional support.
4. Use control to slowly sit back down.

Counter Pushups

1. Place your hands on a counter, shoulder-width apart.
2. Walk your legs back so you’re at a straight incline from your head to your heels.
3. Keep your legs together and rise onto the balls of your feet. Engage your core and keep your gaze forward.
4. Bend your elbows to lower your body until your chest lines up with your elbows.
5. Return back to straight arms.

Chair-Supported Reverse Lunges

1. Begin standing tall behind a sturdy chair, holding onto the back of it for balance.
2. Place your feet hip-width apart.
3. Activate your core and step one foot back, placing the ball of that foot on the ground.
4. Slowly bend your knees, lowering your back knee toward the floor while keeping your front knee tracking over your toes.

Dumbbell Rows

1. Stand tall, feet hip-width apart and a lightweight dumbbell (or water bottle) in each hand in front of you.
2. Hinge at the hips until your torso is parallel to the ground.
3. Maintain a flat back and soft knees.
4. Allow the weights to lower with your arms completely extended.
5. Row the dumbbells up toward your torso.
6. Lower to the start position with control.

Dumbbell Hip Hinges

1. Stand tall, feet hip-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand.
2. Bend your knees slightly and hold the weights in front of your thighs.
3. Press your hips back as you lower the dumbbells down your leg. Maintain a straight back as you do so.
4. Squeeze your glutes to return to the start position.

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