This program is not the right starting point for you

Why we are saying that

You told us that at least one of these is true right now: getting out of a chair takes your hands, you use a walker or cane or steady yourself on furniture, ten minutes of walking is not comfortable, or you have fallen more than once in the past year.

This program was written for women who manage daily life on their own two feet, and it starts with barbell and dumbbell training that assumes that. Handing you that program would not be careful, and careful is the whole point.

None of this means you cannot get stronger. Strength training works at every age, and the research in the very oldest and frailest adults is some of the most encouraging in the field. It means you should start with a person in the room, not a website.

What to do instead

Ask your physician for a referral to physical therapy for strength and balance. That exact phrase matters, because it is different from rehab for one sore joint.

Things worth asking the therapist for by name:

• Sit-to-stand work, progressing to holding weight
• Balance and gait training, since falls are the risk that matters most
• Progressive resistance training, not just stretching and range of motion
• A plan for what you keep doing after the visits end, which is the part most people never get

If falls are part of the picture, ask about a falls assessment too. Medication review, vision, blood pressure on standing, and foot problems all play a part, and none of them are fixed by exercise alone.

Come back when it fits

Plenty of women do exactly this: a few months of supervised work, then a program like this one. If you get to where you can stand up from a chair without your hands and walk ten minutes comfortably, this program will be waiting and you will be ready for it.