A fitness trainer shares the No. 1 exercise for a ‘longer life’: It has ‘major aging benefits’

Starting at age 30, your muscle mass starts to deteriorate. But there are steps you can take to help fend off the negative effects.

As a personal trainer, strength training is the No. 1 type of exercise I recommend to live longer. Research has even shown that people in their 70s with mobility issues can boost their longevity with a strength-training program.

Some major aging benefits include:

• Increased bone health: Regular strength training can help reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
• Muscle maintenance: It allows you to maintain muscle that would otherwise begin to waste away as you get older.
• Better joint mobility: It improves your range of motion and protects your joints by strengthening the muscles that surround them.
• Weight management: Building muscle helps boost your metabolism, making your body more efficient in burning calories.
• Better balance: Improving your balance is critical to helping prevent falls that may lead to injury.

My favorite strength-training routine requires no gym or equipment. It do it every day, and the best part is that it take less than 20 minutes.

What it targets: lower body, core, and knee, hip and ankle joints

Squats help your body perform everyday activities as you age, like getting up from a chair or picking something up off the ground.

How to do a squat:

1. Stand with your feet a little wider than your hips and your toes facing forward.
2. Drive your hips back while bending your knees and pressing your feet firmly into the floor, as though you’re about to sit down. Aim to squat parallel, or as comfortably close to floor as you can.
3. Press your heels into the floor to push up and return to a standing position.
4. Do 12 to 15 reps.

What it targets: hamstrings, quadriceps, glutes and calves

As a unilateral movement (working one side of the body at a time), lunges improve your stability and help correct muscle imbalances by strengthening each side of…