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Adults over 40 may not need to spend hours in the gym to maintain muscle, preserve mobility and stay strong.
According to Los Angeles fitness entrepreneur Carl Daikeler, just 10 minutes of targeted resistance exercise each day can help preserve muscle, mobility and long-term function.
Daikeler, 63, who has spent 28 years leading BODi, the fitness brand formerly known as Beachbody, says his approach to exercise stems from a practical desire to stay healthy without having to be a dedicated fitness enthusiast.
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“I don’t like to eat healthy, I don’t like to work out,” Daikeler told Fox News Digital at the Strong New York conference in September. “I’m just constantly trying to figure out how I can hack my way without having to overturn my life to become one of these diehard health and fitness people, because I’m never going to become that.”
For adults looking to stay healthy in midlife, Daikeler recommends what he considers a “minimum effective dose” — short, targeted resistance workouts at home instead of lengthy gym sessions.
“Ten minutes a day, and you can establish and build and maintain muscle,” he said.
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Federal physical activity guidelines say that adults should perform muscle-strengthening activities involving all major muscle groups at least two days per week, in addition to regular aerobic activity.
Rather than doing a full-body workout every day, Daikeler recommends rotating muscle groups — focusing on the chest one day, upper body the next, then legs and glutes — to build consistency without requiring lengthy gym sessions.
“Ten minutes a day, and you can establish and build and maintain muscle.”
“Do that consistently, and you’re going to find your strength return, your muscles return, your joints will start to respond appropriately,” he said.
The 10-minute approach can be especially valuable for people taking GLP-1 medications, who may be trying to preserve muscle mass and bone density while losing weight but may feel intimidated by traditional gyms, Daikeler said.
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For individuals seeking more significant weight loss, he recommends extending daily activity to 20 or 30 minutes, incorporating a balance of strength training and cardiovascular exercise.
The balancing act
Daikeler cautioned against focusing exclusively on either cardio or resistance training, noting that different exercise types serve distinct functions in the body.
“Your body’s like a furnace,” Daikeler said. “The coal in that furnace is muscle. So you want to build muscle. But then you want to stoke that coal, and that’s cardio. So, you need a balance of both things.”
While resistance training builds muscle and strengthens bones and connective tissue, cardiovascular exercise challenges the heart and lungs, helping to maintain overall fitness, he said.
Shifting focus to function
As adults age, Daikeler says the primary motivation for maintaining physical activity should shift away from aesthetic goals and toward functional mobility and independence.
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Reflecting on his personal experience visiting his father in an assisted living facility, Daikeler observed how residents struggled with basic movement and balance.
Many residents relied on walkers and canes, and often stopped walking before talking to one another because they feared tripping over cracks in the pavement, he recalled.
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“This is no longer about my abs,” Daikeler added. “I need to work out in order to be able to walk and talk at the same time into my 90s … It’s no longer about aesthetics and vanity. It’s really about mobility.”
Maintaining healthy physical habits means accepting daily short-term discomfort to protect long-term independence, Daikeler noted.
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“If I do 20 minutes of discomfort, the rest of the day is awesome,” he said, adding that the goal is to consistently incorporate resistance training, cardio and flexibility work into a daily routine.
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