Liz Earle has become one of the UK’s leading voices on healthy ageing, but her strength-training routine is probably much shorter than you’d expect.
The 63-year-old entrepreneur and Women’s Health cover star says she doesn’t spend hours lifting weights. Instead, she relies on brief, consistent sessions that have helped her become, in her own words, ‘fitter, stronger, happier’ in her 60s.
Speaking on the Just As Well podcast, Liz explained that one of the biggest misconceptions about strength training is that it has to dominate your day.
‘I’ll lift some weights,’ she said. ‘I think one of the things that I’ve learnt, which is really good news, at least for me, if someone doesn’t really think of themselves as a gym person is, it’s short.
‘You know, you don’t have to train for hours.’
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Her routine includes weighted squats, push-ups, tricep dips, skipping and lat pulldowns, but she keeps the sessions deliberately concise.
‘I do weighted squats. I do my own body weight push ups. I bought myself a lat pulldown machine the Christmas before last. That was my Christmas present for myself,’ she said.
‘Again, just using my own body weight, but not for very long. I mean rarely for more than 20 minutes. I mean, it’s, it’s and maybe only three times a week. So it’s not that much.’
Rather than adding more time, Liz focuses on gradually increasing the challenge.
‘I think it’s for me and I’m not a personal trainer. I’m just relaying what I’ve been told by personal trainers who I work with. It’s better to do fewer reps with a heavier weight.’
She added: ‘I’ll do weighted squats every year. I kind of up my dumbbell weight. So I think I started on 16 kilo dumbbells, one in each hand like kettlebells to do weighted squats. Then it was 18, then it’s 20. My current dumbbells are 22s.’
For Liz, strength training isn’t about aesthetics. It’s about staying capable for decades to come.
‘I think as we get older, you know, for me working out now, it’s not really about how much you know, how I look or changing my shape for that. It’s about maintaining my independence. I want to be able to get up off the floor unaided. If I fall over, I want to be able to feel that I can carry my bags up an escalator that’s not working, and I don’t have to rely on somebody else to help me.’
You can read our full cover interview with Liz by hitting this link. Subscribe to Women’s Health here.
Isaac Williams is Site Editor for both Women’s Health UK and Men’s Health UK, guiding and supporting the content teams to create content across all platforms. Isaac’s love of health and fitness began at Loughborough University, where he graduated with a History and English degree in 2014. His first job was at Men’s Running magazine, where he progressed from Staff Writer to Editor. Among his highlights of those four years include completing a 24-hour track race (never again), just about finishing a multi-day ultramarathon in the Azores, and chugging his way around a ‘beer mile’. Isaac ventured into the world of freelance journalism in 2018, interviewing some of the biggest names in sport – like Anthony Joshua and Ben Stokes – and writing features for the likes of The Guardian, Red Bull, ShortList and BBC Countryfile. He was also a regular contributor to an adventure series called ‘The Man Who’: speaking to some of the world’s most extreme explorers from the wilds of Caffè Nero. In late-2019, Isaac became Editor of Men’s Fitness UK. In his five years there, Isaac was responsible for editing the monthly magazine and managing website content, ultimately helping the brand transition to a ‘digital-first’ approach. He joined Hearst UK as Multiplatform Editor in December 2024, where he manages day-to-day digital output, edits content and writes articles on all things health and fitness. When he’s not hammering at his keyboard, Isaac enjoys exercise and trying – unsuccessfully, so far – to teach his baby son to kick a football. You can follow Isaac on Instagram @isaacw1993.