Best Strength Training Exercises for Women Over 40

If you’re looking for the “best” exercises after 40, I want to clear something up first.

There isn’t a special list of exercises that suddenly becomes necessary—or off-limits—once you turn 40.

A good strength program still needs to do the same basic job: challenge your major muscle groups, allow you to train with good technique, and give you room to progress over time.

In fact, current resistance-training guidance emphasizes that consistency and individualization matter more than finding a supposedly perfect exercise or piece of equipment.

So instead of chasing dozens of different exercises, I’d start with a few basic movement patterns.

Strength Training Exercises for Women Over 40: Start With the Basics

A well-rounded program can be built around movements like these:

1. Squat or lunge

Squats, goblet squats, split squats, lunges, leg presses, and hack squats are all different ways to train your legs.

You don’t have to do all of them.

Pick a variation that works for your body, your experience level, and the equipment you have available.

2. Hip hinge

Deadlift variations are one option here. In my own training, for example, I use stiff-leg deadlifts to emphasize the hamstrings and glutes.

3. Push

Think chest presses, push-ups, or overhead presses. You can use dumbbells, machines, barbells, or even body weight depending on the exercise.

4. Pull

Rows and pulldown variations help train your back and arms and balance out your pushing movements.

Those four categories can give you the foundation for a very effective strength program without needing 15 different exercises every workout.

The “Best” Exercise Depends on the Person

This is the part that often gets missed.

An exercise can be great on paper and still be the wrong choice for you.

I’ve had to make this decision in my own training. After hernia surgery, I temporarily chose a hack squat instead of regular squatting because the machine gave me more stability. I’ve also pointed out that someone without access to a leg press could use lunges or split squats instead.

That’s how I want you to think about exercise selection.

The movement matters more than being married to one particular exercise.

Machines aren't automatically worse than free weights, either. The American College of Sports Medicine's updated 2026 guidance found that using a particular equipment type—such as machines versus free weights—did not consistently change outcomes for the average healthy adult.

So if a machine feels better, use it.

If you prefer dumbbells, use dumbbells.

If you're training at home, bands and body-weight exercises can also be effective options.

What I Tell My Clients

Keep your program simple enough that you can actually get better at it.

If you change every exercise every week, it becomes much harder to see whether you're progressing.

Choose movements you can perform well, track what you're doing, and gradually increase the challenge. That's the same reason the Parnell Plan connects workouts over time: we want to see whether you're actually progressing rather than simply completing random workouts.

And if something doesn't work for your body, we adjust it.

You aren't failing because you use a leg press instead of a squat or a machine instead of a barbell.

We're looking for the version that allows you to train effectively and consistently.

The Bottom Line

The best strength training exercises for women over 40 aren't fundamentally different from the exercises everyone else uses.

Start with the basics: squat or lunge, hinge, push, and pull.

Then choose variations that match your current ability, equipment, comfort, and goals.

You don't need a complicated workout.

You need exercises you can perform well, progressively challenge, and keep doing consistently.

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References

1. American College of Sports Medicine. Resistance Training Prescription for Muscle Function, Hypertrophy, and Physical Performance in Healthy Adults: An Overview of Reviews. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2026. The position stand synthesized 137 systematic reviews involving more than 30,000 participants.

2. González-Gálvez N, Moreno-Torres JM, Vaquero-Cristóbal R. Resistance training effects on healthy postmenopausal women: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Climacteric. 2024;27(3):296–304. doi:10.1080/13697137.2024.2310521. Resistance training significantly improved upper- and lower-body strength in the included postmenopausal women.