The grades in this post: Meta-analysis means pooled trials; Small study means one study or a few small ones; Coaching practice means what I do and why, labelled as mine, not a trial result.
What follows is coaching practice, not trial-tested programming. Where there’s evidence, I’ve said so. Where it’s my experience, I’ve said that too.
More than sets and reps
Most gym programmes are built on sets and reps: lift, lower, and move at whatever speed gets you to the end. That works up to a point, but it leaves a lot on the table, especially if you want to move better, hurt less and stay robust as you age.
In What Your Class Can’t See I said personal training can fill the gaps classes leave. This is what that looks like.
One exercise, many jobs: the sit-to-stand
If one exercise shows what this article is about, it’s standing up from a seat. Everyone does it dozens of times a day, and it’s one of the simplest tests of how your legs are ageing. It can be trained in more ways than most people realise:
- Range. A higher or lower seat changes how deep you go, so it can match anyone’s age and mobility.
- Slow lowering. Take three to five seconds to sit, instead of dropping.
- A pause at the bottom. Hover just above the seat, or touch it without relaxing, then stand.
- A hold at the top. Stand tall and still for a few seconds: posture and balance.
- An explosive stand. From the bottom, with or without a pause, stand up as fast as you can with control.
- Arms. By your sides, across your chest, swinging to help, or held overhead. Each changes the balance and trunk demand.
- Load. A weight held at the chest, or in each hand.
- A Swiss ball as the seat. Use its bounce to help you out of the bottom, or deliberately don’t, so your legs do all the work from a dead stop.
Why the speed matters. Across 79 trials in people over 60, training with fast intent did best for five quick sit-to-stands, while slower, traditional training did best for how many you can do in 30 seconds (Lopez 2023). Same movement, different job, different result. Meta-analysis A network meta-analysis; the effect depends on the test. That’s the whole point of varying it.
Breathing. Because the technique is simple, the sit-to-stand is a good place to learn to breathe with a movement. I cue breathing for three reasons. First, to stop breath-holding: people hold their breath not only from effort, but because they’re overthinking the exercise or have their mind on something outside the session, and they quite literally forget to breathe. Second, to time the effort: a brief brace and hold to set the trunk, then breathe out as you drive up through the hardest part. Third, to help you stand tall: breathing that supports an upright upper back, which can mean more than one breath in a single slow rep rather than one simple in-and-out. Coaching practice
One caution: if you get light-headed when you stand up quickly, keep the stand slow and steady, breathe through it rather than holding your breath, hold the top position, and mention it to your GP.
The principle: effort first, skill second
Many of my pairings start with a high-effort, low-skill exercise and go straight into a high-skill one, with little or no rest.
Bodybuilders call the first part pre-exhaustion. I use it differently. The aim isn’t just to tire a muscle; it’s to take the edge off a dominant muscle, the one that always grabs the work, so the muscles that should be helping have to step up.
What the evidence says. In one study, 17 men did knee extensions to tire their quads, then went straight into a leg press. Their quads were less active in the leg press, and they managed fewer reps (Augustsson 2003). Bodybuilders read that as a reason not to pre-exhaust. For what I’m doing, switching a dominant muscle down so others take more of the load, it’s the effect I want. Small study One small study measuring muscle activity in a different exercise. Whether it corrects an imbalance over time hasn’t been tested.
Pairing 1: low lunge hold into ball jackknife
For the “quad-dominant” client, whose thighs take over every lower-body movement.
The hold. Start in a static lunge with your back knee on the floor. Lift off and stay as close to the floor as you can, with good posture, for about 10 seconds. Pick a depth you can hold and still drive up from, because the hold ends with a strong push up out of the weakest part of the range. Effort is everything; there’s nothing to think about except holding on.
The jackknife. With minimal recovery, go into a prone jackknife on a Swiss ball: hands on the floor, shins on the ball, then draw the knees in. Shins rather than feet on the ball shortens how far the knees and hips bend, which keeps the range honest. The pelvis stays still, the lower back doesn’t round to cheat, and you only move through the range where both hold.
With the quads already tired, the trunk has to work harder to hold the body up and aligned against gravity.
Pairing 2: ball plank into ball press-ups
You can load the upper body hard with nothing more than a Swiss ball.
The plank. Hands on the floor, legs on the ball, with as little contact as you can manage. Clients progress from knees on the ball, to shins, to feet, and for some, toes. Hold at your limit for 10 to 30 seconds, depending on the work-to-rest ratio we’re after.
The press-ups. Without stopping, carry that posture into press-ups off the ball, working only in the range where alignment holds. In the last couple of reps you’re trying to move fast but can only move slowly. That’s near-maximal tension on the chest, shoulders, triceps and abdominals: it feels like lifting heavy, with body weight alone.
Pairing 3: prone cobra into band bent-over row
The whole back of the body, from upper back to calves.
The cobra. Lying face down, lift into a prone cobra and hold for 30 seconds rather than the usual 10-second repeats. If posture and coordination are truly there, hold a light dumbbell (typically 2–3 kg) in each hand at full extension.
The row. Go straight into a standing bent-over row with a resistance band. Stand on the band and hinge at the hips until you feel tension the whole way down the back of the body. Drive the elbows back and out wide. The twist is the change of pace: from a slow hold to fast, fluid reps with no pauses, keeping the band taut and alignment intact. Depending on the band and set length, it can feel like strength, endurance or cardio.
Pairing 4: Bulgarian split squat into hop lunge
A strength exercise turned into a power and landing drill.
The split squat. Back foot raised; lower under control and drive back up. A heavy single-leg exercise for the quads and glutes.
The hop. Come up and hop forward into a lunge, then hop back to the start and repeat. Each landing means catching your body weight on one bent leg: a big braking load on the thigh, and the same skill you need to catch a stumble. You won’t load your quads like that in a typical Pilates class. My view The mechanics are well understood; that it prevents falls is my reasoning, not a trial result.
Not yet if you have knee pain on landing, balance problems or osteoporosis. Do the split squat alone, then the fast-feet progression below, first.
Progression 5: fast feet, from speed to power
This is how I bring power into training for most clients, including older ones.
- Fast feet. A quick, short alternating step forward into a half lunge and back, like running on the spot forwards and back. Plant, brake the front knee, heel of the back foot up, return, switch. Light, quick contacts; as many good reps as you can in a timed set. It trains braking, knee and ankle control, and balance, and it raises your heart rate if the set is long and fast enough.
- Hold and go. A static half-lunge, then accelerate back so your feet land hip-width apart.
- Add a spring. A small step or raised block adds the stretch-shortening cycle (the elastic rebound of muscle and tendon).
- Add load, if and when it’s right for you. Speed with little resistance first, then speed with load, then conventional power exercises.
Upper body and hips: I use boxing, kickboxing and Muay Thai pad work. Punches and kicks are natural power actions, and different pads give different resistance.
Other options: high knees, skipping (with or without a rope), small jumps and hops, and stepping off a low step into a soft landing. Impact can be reduced with a wall or bands for support. Across 12 trials in older adults, jump and hop training didn’t increase injuries (Vetrovsky 2019). Small trials Small, supervised trials.
Power isn’t “fast with short rests.” That’s power endurance. Power needs a full, focused effort, and enough rest to make the next one just as sharp. The hardest part for many people isn’t the body. It’s stopping, focusing, and giving it everything for one rep instead of grinding out twenty.
Beyond pairs: technique under stress
Sometimes I chain four or five exercises like this. Each is subtly different, but they build towards one goal: technique under stress. Anyone can hold good form when fresh. The test is when you’re tired and tempted to do whatever gets you to the end. Training in that state, with someone watching and correcting, builds the kind of resilience real life asks for.
Coached, not copied
These aren’t a template to copy from a screen. Every one depends on details: how deep to hold, which contact point on the ball, where your range ends, when your form starts to go. Getting those right for your body is the coaching.
Sources
- Augustsson J et al. Effect of pre-exhaustion exercise on lower-extremity muscle activation during a leg press exercise. J Strength Cond Res 2003;17(2):411–416. PMID 12741886. doi:10.1519/1533-4287(2003)017<0411:eopeol>2.0.co;2
- Vetrovsky T et al. The efficacy and safety of lower-limb plyometric training in older adults: a systematic review. Sports Med 2019;49(1):113–131. PMID 30387072. doi:10.1007/s40279-018-1018-x
- Lopez P et al. Does high-velocity resistance exercise elicit greater physical function benefits than traditional resistance exercise in older adults? A network meta-analysis of 79 trials. J Gerontol A 2023;78(8):1471–1482. PMID 36378500. doi:10.1093/gerona/glac230