Building strength may get slightly harder over 40, but that doesn’t mean your training needs to become more complicated. In fact, simplifying your workouts can help you focus on the movements that matter while giving your body enough time to recover between sessions.
That’s something fitness coach Tom Ragusa, 48, knows well. As he shared in a recent Instagram post, his full-body training now centres on just eight movements, performed primarily with dumbbells.
‘At 48, my training isn’t complicated anymore,’ he says. ‘No more random workouts. No more chasing soreness. No more guessing what’s actually worth my time.’
‘These eight movements are the foundation of my full-body training now – built around the patterns your body should never stop doing.’
He also explained why each exercise made the cut – and why you don’t need much more than a pair of dumbbells to build a strong, capable body.
8 Exercises for Building Lifelong Strength
‘We should always be squatting,’ Ragusa says. ‘It’s the base pattern that keeps your knees, hips and legs functional for life. Have access to a belt squat or barbell? Use it. The pattern matters more than the tool.’
How to Do a Dumbbell Goblet Squat
Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, holding a dumbbell vertically at chest height.Brace your core, push your hips back and bend your knees to descend into a squat, keeping your knees tracking in line with your toes.Lower until your thighs are at least parallel to the floor, or as deep as your mobility comfortably allows.Drive through your feet to stand back up, squeezing your glutes at the top.
‘We should always be pressing overhead,’ Ragusa explains. ‘It’s what separates guys who stay strong through their shoulders from guys who lose that range entirely by 60.’
How to Do a Dumbbell Overhead Press
Stand with your feet hip-width apart, glutes lightly engaged and core braced.Bring the dumbbells to shoulder height with your forearms vertical and elbows slightly forwards.Keep your ribcage stacked over your pelvis, avoiding excessive arching through your lower back.Press the dumbbells overhead until your arms are fully extended.Lower the weights back to your shoulders under control and repeat.
‘A second pressing angle, this time horizontal,’ Ragusa writes. ‘Builds the chest and front shoulder without hammering your joints the way [a] flat barbell bench [press] does.’
How to Do an Incline Dumbbell Press
Set your bench to a 30-45° incline and sit with the dumbbells resting on your thighs.Lie back, using your knees to help bring the dumbbells into position above your upper chest.Plant your feet firmly on the floor and brace your core.Lower the dumbbells under control until you feel a stretch across your chest.Pause briefly, then press the weights back up until your arms are extended.
‘We should always be hinging,’ Ragusa says. ‘This is the movement that keeps your hamstrings and low back doing their job instead of quitting on you.’
How to Do a Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
Stand tall with your feet underneath your hips, holding the dumbbells in front of your thighs.Push your hips backwards with a slight bend in your knees, keeping your back flat and the dumbbells close to your legs.Continue lowering until you feel a strong stretch through your hamstrings.Drive your hips forwards to return to standing, squeezing your glutes at the top.
‘The counterbalance to all that pressing,’ Ragusa explains. ‘Undoes everything a desk does to your posture.’
Both movements provide a vertical pulling pattern to balance out the pressing work, targeting your lats, upper back and biceps.
How to Do a Pull-Up
Hang from the bar with your arms fully extended.Brace your abs and create full-body tension.Pull your shoulders down away from your ears, then drive your elbows towards your sides.Pull until your chest approaches the bar.Lower yourself under control until your arms are straight, then repeat.
How to Do a Lat Pulldown
Sit facing the machine and grip the bar with your palms facing away from you.Lean back slightly, brace your core and lift your chest.Pull the bar towards your upper chest, driving your elbows down.Slowly return the bar to the starting position and repeat.6. Dumbbell Seal Row
‘Strict, chest-supported pulling,’ Ragusa says. ‘Takes the low back out of it completely so you can actually load the muscles that need it.’
How to Do a Dumbbell Seal Row
Elevate a flat bench high enough that your arms can hang fully extended without the dumbbells touching the floor.Lie face down on the bench, holding a dumbbell in each hand.Pull your shoulder blades back and drive your elbows upwards, rowing the weights towards your torso.Squeeze your upper back at the top, then slowly lower the weights under control.
‘Single-leg work,’ Ragusa writes. ‘This is fall-prevention training before you ever think you need it.’
Walking lunges challenge each leg independently while requiring balance and stability – qualities worth maintaining as you get older.
How to Do a Dumbbell Walking Lunge
Stand tall with a dumbbell in each hand, your chest up and core engaged.Take a long step forwards and bend both knees, lowering your back knee towards the floor.Keep your front heel planted and your torso tall.Push through your front foot and step straight forwards into the next rep.Continue alternating sides.
‘Grip and core strength that carries straight into real life,’ Ragusa explains. ‘One trip grocery bag hauls.’
Loaded carries are about as straightforward as strength training gets: pick up something heavy and walk with it. Your grip, core, shoulders and upper back all have to work to keep the weights – and you – under control.
How to Do a Farmer’s Carry
Stand tall with a heavy dumbbell in each hand.Brace your core, pull your shoulders back and begin walking with deliberate, controlled steps.Keep your torso upright and avoid allowing the weights to swing.Walk for your prescribed distance, turn under control and head back.
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