The Only 8 Exercises You Need to Be Strong for Life

There's no shortage of flashy exercises out there. But when it comes to building and maintaining lifelong strength, the only exercises you need are a handful of basic moves.

The effort you put into your workouts translates to everyday life, making things like sitting down on a chair and climbing a staircase easier. And an effective fitness routine should keep you moving about your daily activities with strength and confidence.

Here are the only exercises you need for healthy aging, according to trainers. Make sure to sprinkle these functional exercises into your workouts.

When you sit down onto a chair or couch, you're essentially doing a squat, according to Pete McCall, CPT, a certified personal trainer and host of the All About Fitness podcast. Squats are a fundamental movement you do every day, so make sure you're doing them correctly to avoid injury.

And because this lower-body exercise targets so many muscles — including your core, quads, glutes and hamstrings — it's one of the best strength exercises for seniors.

The deadlift is one move everyone should do, in some variation, at least once a week, says James Shapiro, CPT, a California-based personal trainer. Most daily tasks you do happen in front of your bodies, so it's easy to forget about the muscles in the back (aka your posterior chain). These muscles help keep your back strong and pain-free.

Dumbbell deadlifts strengthen your back, core, glutes and hamstrings, making them essential among strength-training exercises for seniors.

Bench pressing with a barbell is fun, but dumbbells have some big advantages, too, according to McCall. The barbell is a single, straight bar that only allows for a certain range of movement. Chest pressing with dumbbells, on the other hand, allows you to dip your elbows lower, giving your pecs (chest muscles) a better workout.

Plus, dumbbells place less stress on the wrists, whereas a barbell keeps your wrists locked in a fixed position. You can also hold dumbbells at slightly different angles for added comfort.

Whenever you stretch your arms overhead, you're doing some variation of a shoulder press. So it's an important movement pattern that should be worked on regularly to build and maintain upper-body strength with age, McCall says.

However, most overhead shoulder exercises are hard on your shoulder joints. The dumbbell incline press is the perfect alternative. It works your shoulders at a more comfortable angle while providing extra back support.

Most people spend a majority of their day at a desk, which can wreak havoc on your posture over time. But maintaining back strength through dumbbell rows can counter these effects and help prevent pain and injury.

Although there are several row variations, McCall recommends the hand-supported version. Standing in a bent-over position with your hips back helps target the deep stabilizing muscles in your core, which are responsible for protecting your back.

"Plus, doing rows from a standing position helps you stabilize when lifting objects, like a suitcase, from the ground," he says.

Like squats, lunges target your quads and help you develop core strength. But there's one big difference: Lunges are a unilateral exercise, meaning they focus on one leg at a time.

Single-leg exercises help improve balance and correct any muscle imbalances you may have, according to the American Council on Exercise (ACE). And neglecting unilateral movements limits your ability to develop long-term strength on both sides of your body.

Lunges also build glute and hamstring strength, which is needed for activities like walking or climbing stairs — another reason they're one of the only exercises you need as you age.

Back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide, according to the American Chiropractic Association, and it prevents many people, especially older adults, from carrying out everyday tasks.

While the dumbbell row involves pulling a weight horizontally, the lat pulldown is a vertical pulling exercise, which most people don't practice enough. This can lead to muscle imbalances in your back, according to McCall.

Practicing the lat pulldown will improve your posture and help combat chronic pain, he says.

"[This is] one of the best exercises that everyone should be doing on a regular basis," McCall says, citing the fact that it mimics the act of carrying heavy groceries and suitcases.

The farmers' carry is a full-body move that works your legs, glutes, arms and back. But it's an underrated core-strength exercise for seniors. With each step you take, your abdominals work to stabilize your pelvis and back against the movement of the weights.

Also a hip-strengthener, the farmers' carry builds balance to help reduce the risk of falling and/or injury, McCall says.