Why Do I Ache More As I Get Older? And Does It Mean I Should Train Less?

It is something we hear regularly at SPC: “I never used to feel this stiff when I was younger.” Perhaps your back feels tight when you get out of bed, your knees complain after sitting for too long, or a hard training session seems to stay in your legs for a couple of days. You may also find that it takes a little longer to feel properly warmed up before you can move freely.

It is easy to put all of this down to getting older. Age certainly changes the body, but feeling increasingly stiff or achy does not automatically mean your joints are wearing out or that you should start doing less. In many cases, the opposite approach is more useful. We need to keep moving, maintain our strength and make sure the body continues to have the physical capacity to cope with the things we ask it to do.

What actually changes as we get older?

One of the biggest physical changes associated with ageing is a gradual loss of muscle mass and, perhaps more importantly, muscle strength. If we do nothing to counter it, this can eventually affect everything from sporting performance to climbing stairs, carrying shopping or simply getting up from the floor comfortably.

Resistance training is one of the most effective ways of limiting these changes. Research consistently shows that older adults can improve strength, muscle function and physical performance through progressive resistance training. That is worth remembering because ageing itself does not remove our ability to adapt to training. A 50, 60 or 70-year-old body is still capable of becoming stronger.

Do we genuinely recover more slowly with age?

Possibly, but this is more complicated than it is often made out to be. It is commonly assumed that older people automatically take much longer to recover from exercise, but the evidence is mixed. Some research has identified age-related differences in muscle repair and recovery, while other studies looking at practical measures such as muscle soreness and strength recovery have not found clear or consistent differences.

A recent systematic review also found that increasing age was not necessarily associated with greater exercise-induced muscle damage. So if you feel more beaten up at 45 than you did at 25, age may be part of the picture, but it is unlikely to be the whole explanation.

Your life probably looks very different too. You may spend more time sitting at work, sleep less because of children or work commitments, carry more stress, move less during the day and then try to fit all of your exercise into two or three intense sessions each week. All of those things can affect how you feel.

Sometimes we are simply moving less

People often say they have become less mobile because they are getting older, when in reality part of the problem may be that they are moving less. Think about how much movement you naturally accumulated as a child or young adult. Walking, running, sport, sitting on the floor, climbing, changing direction and generally moving your body through different positions happened constantly.

For many adults, the working day can now involve sitting for eight hours before driving home and sitting again. The body is very good at adapting to what we repeatedly ask it to do. If we stop regularly moving through certain ranges, those movements can begin to feel less comfortable.

This does not mean everybody needs an hour-long mobility routine every morning. Often, simply being more active, changing position more frequently and continuing to strength train through comfortable ranges of movement can make a significant difference.

Aches do not always mean damage

Pain is something we should take seriously, particularly if it is severe, persistent or associated with an injury. But normal muscular soreness and occasional aches are not necessarily signs that something has been damaged.

Delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS, commonly appears after unfamiliar or particularly demanding exercise. It usually develops after training rather than during it and can last for several days. You are also more likely to experience it when you introduce a new exercise, dramatically increase your training volume or return to training after time away.

This is one reason consistency matters. Constantly stopping and restarting training can leave every return feeling like the first week again. Regular exposure allows the body to become accustomed to the training stimulus and makes the same workload easier to tolerate over time.

Should you train less as you get older?

Not necessarily. You may need to train differently, but that is not the same thing as simply doing less.

The goal should be to find a level of training that challenges the body enough to maintain or improve physical capacity without repeatedly exceeding what you can recover from. For one person that might be two resistance-training sessions each week. For somebody else it might be three strength sessions alongside running, cycling, padel, football or another sport.

Research in older adults shows that progressive resistance training is effective for improving strength and physical function, and there is good evidence that regular exercise remains beneficial well into later life. The answer to feeling older is therefore unlikely to be avoiding everything that feels physically challenging. We simply need to manage that challenge properly.

Strength gives you more capacity

One of the simplest ways to think about strength is as a reserve. Imagine two people both needing to lift a 15kg suitcase. For someone capable of comfortably lifting 50kg, that suitcase represents a relatively small percentage of their capacity. For somebody whose maximum ability is close to 15kg, exactly the same task is much more demanding.

The stronger person has a larger physical reserve. The same idea applies to climbing stairs, lifting children, gardening, playing sport and dozens of other everyday activities.

This is why maintaining strength as we age is about much more than how much you can lift in the gym. Increasing strength can make everything outside the gym relatively easier.

You probably do not need to avoid heavy weights

There is also a tendency to assume that strength training should automatically become extremely light as we get older. For most healthy adults, that is not necessary.

Appropriately prescribed resistance training can include relatively challenging loads, provided exercise selection, technique and progression are suitable for the individual. Studies involving older adults have shown significant improvements in strength from progressive resistance training.

The important word is progressive. Someone who has never strength trained should not immediately be given a very heavy programme. But over time, as their ability improves, increasing resistance is exactly how we encourage the body to continue adapting. Being older does not mean every exercise has to be easy.

What about stiffness?

Feeling stiff is not always the same as physically having poor flexibility. Sometimes stiffness is simply a sensation that improves once we begin moving and warming up. This is why someone can feel extremely stiff getting out of bed but move perfectly well after ten minutes of activity.

Stretching can improve range of motion and research suggests it can reduce passive muscle-tendon stiffness in older adults. But stretching does not have to be the entire solution. Resistance training performed through a good range of motion, regular walking, changing position throughout the day and continuing to use the movements you want to retain are all useful strategies.

If you want to continue getting comfortably down to the floor, squatting, reaching overhead or rotating as you age, it makes sense to continue practising those movements rather than gradually removing them from your life.

Recovery still matters

None of this means recovery should be ignored. Hard training only works if we can recover sufficiently to do it again.

Sleep, nutrition, overall training volume and the other stresses in your life all contribute. If you are strength training three times per week, playing sport twice, sleeping five hours per night and spending the rest of the week rushing between work and family commitments, adding another hard workout may not be the answer.

This is where good programming becomes important. There will be periods where you can push training harder and periods where maintaining what you have is perfectly acceptable. Training should fit around your life rather than constantly competing with it.

When should you get an ache checked?

There is a difference between general stiffness or post-training soreness and pain that deserves further assessment. Pain following a specific injury, significant swelling, an inability to bear weight, pain that continually worsens, neurological symptoms such as numbness or weakness, or symptoms that do not improve should not simply be written off as “getting older”.

If something does not feel right, getting it assessed is sensible. But occasional muscular soreness, feeling slightly stiff in the morning or needing a longer warm-up than you did 20 years ago does not automatically mean you need to stop training.

The goal is not to feel 20 again

At SPC, the objective is not to pretend ageing does not happen. It does.

The objective is to maintain as much strength, movement, muscle and physical capability as possible while it happens. You might need a longer warm-up. You might need to be smarter with your training week. You might not recover from every session exactly as you did when you were 21.

But that is very different from becoming fragile.

Regular resistance training, sensible conditioning, staying active outside the gym and managing recovery can allow people to remain remarkably capable as they get older. So if you are beginning to feel a little more achy than you used to, the first question should not always be, “What should I stop doing?”

A better question might be, “What can I improve so my body is better prepared for what I want it to do?”

References

Fernandes JFT et al. Aging and Recovery After Resistance-Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage: Current Evidence and Implications for Future Research. Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, 2021.

Hayes EJ et al. Recovery from Resistance Exercise in Older Adults: A Scoping Review. Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, 2023.

Fernandes JFT et al. Advancing Age Is Not Associated With Greater Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, and Meta-Regression. Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, 2025.

Liu CJ, Latham NK. Progressive Resistance Strength Training for Improving Physical Function in Older Adults.Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2009.

Hunter GR et al. Effects of Resistance Training on Older Adults. Sports Medicine, 2004.

Borde R et al. Dose-Response Relationships of Resistance Training in Healthy Old Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine, 2015.

Kashi SK et al. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Resistance Training on Quality of Life, Depression, Muscle Strength and Functional Exercise Capacity in Older Adults. Biology, 2023.

Nakamura M et al. Acute Effects of Static Stretching on Passive Stiffness in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Sports Sciences, 2024.