Bring on the Strappy Dresses: My Four-Month Strength Experiment at 61

I have a wardrobe full of strappy summer dresses, and I absolutely love wearing them. The problem is not that I avoid them. I wear them anyway. The problem is that every time I put one on, I am very aware of my upper arms.

When the weather is warm but not unbearably hot, I will often add a little cardigan with sleeves that come somewhere around my elbows. It is not really necessary, but it covers my arms and makes me feel more comfortable. Then there are those wonderfully hot summer days when wearing another layer is simply ridiculous, and I think, “Oh, for goodness' sake,” and wear the dress without the cardigan.

If I am being completely honest, I am still very aware of how my arms look. I know that most people are probably far too busy thinking about themselves to give my arms a second thought, but knowing that and feeling that are two different things.

I am not expecting to have the arms I had when I was twenty-five. I am sixty-one, and I have no intention of spending the next decade fighting every natural change that comes with getting older. But I would like my arms to feel firmer, and I would like to see more muscle definition. Most of all, I would love to put on one of those strappy dresses and simply enjoy wearing it without thinking about my upper arms.

So I have decided to see what happens if I stop concentrating quite so much on what I want to lose and start concentrating on what I can build.

This is not another weight-loss challenge

I have spent plenty of time thinking about food, calories and weight loss, and there is certainly a place for healthy weight management when it is appropriate. But this time I want to approach things from a different direction. I want to build muscle and become stronger, with a particular focus on my arms.

My trainer has also helped me to think differently about the appearance of cellulite. Building muscle will not make cellulite disappear, and I know that cellulite is incredibly common, including among women who are very fit. However, developing the muscle underneath the skin can improve the overall appearance of an area by making it look firmer and more defined. That made me look at my own body a little differently.

Perhaps I have spent enough time thinking about what I need to lose. Perhaps it is time to think about what I can build.

I am giving myself four months

I originally thought about this as a sixteen-week challenge, but four months feels like a better way of looking at it. It gives me enough time to establish a proper routine, become stronger and see whether the changes are meaningful.

My usual training already includes two strength sessions with my trainer each week. Monday is mainly focused on my legs, while Friday concentrates more on my arms and upper body. I enjoy training my legs and I definitely want to keep working on them, but they are not the focus of this particular experiment. The Strappy Dress Challenge is about my arms.

For the experiment, I have added two shorter workouts at home, with my Tuesday and Thursday sessions giving me additional opportunities to work on my upper body and arms. The idea is not to train my arms endlessly, but to give them consistent resistance training, allow them to recover and gradually increase the resistance as I become stronger.

My home gym is hardly impressive. I have a pair of five-kilogram dumbbells, pairs of two-and-a-half kilogram, two-kilogram and one-kilogram dumbbells, along with resistance bands. I have had most of this equipment sitting in my house for quite some time, gathering dust.

The plan is not to spend hours exercising or to make every workout exhausting. I want to train consistently, use good form, allow my muscles to recover and gradually increase the resistance as I become stronger.

When a particular weight becomes comfortable and I can complete the recommended repetitions with good form, I will increase the resistance where I can. I want to give my muscles a reason to adapt and become stronger.

I am paying more attention to protein too

Exercise is only part of the picture. If I am deliberately trying to build muscle, I also want to make sure I am giving my body enough protein to support that process.

I have therefore increased my protein intake without turning my diet upside down. Most days, I have two scrambled eggs, followed by Greek yoghurt with 20 grams of OVO protein, chia seeds, blueberries, and a tablespoon of peanut butter. I usually have ten raw almonds and a 75-gram tub of cottage cheese as a snack, and dinner is generally a portion of chicken or fish with plenty of vegetables.

I am not following a complicated high-protein diet, and I am certainly not trying to eat like a professional bodybuilder. I am simply including protein throughout the day and making it part of the experiment along with my strength training. It is a small change, but it is one I can easily maintain.

I am already two weeks in

And this is where things get interesting. I have now completed two weeks of the challenge, which means I can already tell you that some things have surprised me. The first is how much I enjoy the home workouts. I had expected them to feel like something I needed to squeeze into my week because they were part of the plan. Instead, I have actually found myself enjoying them.

Some exercises are considerably harder than others. Lateral raises, for example, have reminded me that a relatively light dumbbell can feel very heavy when you are using the right muscles. Triceps exercises have also been challenging.

But I am already noticing little changes in what I can do. My arm exercises are beginning to feel more familiar, and I am becoming more confident with the movements and the weights. I know that two weeks is far too early to expect a visible transformation, but that is not really the point yet. At this stage, I am establishing the habit and giving my body a reason to become stronger.

There have also been some strength improvements outside the arm exercises. Sit-to-stand-to-sit squats were initially surprisingly difficult for me. They are becoming much easier, even when I add weights. Wall sits have also improved enormously. These may not be the things I am measuring as part of my Strappy Dress Challenge, but they are important reminders that getting stronger is about much more than how my arms look in a dress.

My home workouts

I thought I would share the programme I am following because one of the things I have already realised is that you do not need a room full of fancy equipment to start working on your strength.

My Tuesday workout takes around thirty to thirty-five minutes and focuses on my upper body and arms. It includes biceps curls, supported triceps kickbacks, lateral raises, front raises, hammer curls, band rows and wall push-ups.

I have also adapted my Thursday session so that I get another opportunity to work on my arms and upper body, while my regular training with my trainer continues to take care of my overall strength, including my legs.

I am following a simple progression over the four months. The first four weeks are about learning the exercises and establishing good form. As I become stronger, I will gradually increase the weights where I can, while keeping the repetitions in the appropriate range. The final four weeks will be about seeing what those months of consistent training have produced.

Here is the programme I am following:

This is my personal programme, so I am not suggesting that everyone should simply copy it. The exercises, weights and amount of training that are appropriate for one person may not be appropriate for another. For me, the important things are consistency, good form, gradual progression and allowing my body enough time to recover.

My readers are now my accountability buddies

There is another reason I have decided to write about this publicly. I am putting myself out there. It is very easy to say, “I am going to start exercising more,” and then let life get in the way. It is considerably harder to announce to a whole lot of people that you are embarking on a four-month experiment and that you are going to come back and tell them what happened.

So, whether you realised it or not, you are now my accountability buddies.

I am going to document the experiment honestly. I will share the things that go well, the things that are harder than expected, the exercises I enjoy, the exercises I would happily never see again, the strength improvements and any changes I notice along the way.

I also want to be honest if something does not work. I do not know what the final result will be. I cannot promise that my arms will look completely different in four months, and I cannot promise that I will suddenly become someone who loves every single exercise I have been given. What I can promise is that I am going to give this a proper try.

I am measuring more than my arms

Before I started, I measured my waist, upper arm and thigh, and I took photographs from the front, side and back. I will admit that I did not particularly enjoy taking those photographs. There is something rather confronting about deliberately photographing the parts of your body that you normally prefer not to examine too closely.

But if I am going to call this an experiment, I need to know where I started. My upper-arm measurements and photographs will be particularly important because my arms are the main focus of the challenge. I will take comparison photographs during the four months and keep track of my measurements, but I am also going to pay attention to things that cannot be captured with a tape measure.

Are the weights becoming easier? Can I do more repetitions? Am I getting stronger? Do my arms feel firmer? Am I noticing more muscle definition? Am I becoming more confident when I wear my favourite dresses?

And perhaps most importantly, am I becoming more confident in my own body?

The bigger goal

Of course, I would love to see more definition in my arms by the end of this experiment. I would love my upper arms to feel firmer, and I would be delighted if I could see some changes in the way they look.

And yes, I would absolutely love to reach into my wardrobe, pull out one of my favourite strappy dresses and put it on without immediately thinking about my arms.

But there is a bigger reason I am doing this.

At sixty-one, I want to keep building a body that can carry me through the years ahead. I want strength, good balance and physical independence. I want to be able to hike, walk, climb stairs, carry shopping bags and get myself up from the floor without wondering whether I am still capable of doing it. I want to give my future self the best possible chance of remaining active and independent for as long as I can.

We talk so much about losing weight as we get older. We talk about reducing calories, losing centimetres and fitting into smaller clothes. Perhaps we should also be talking just as much about building muscle, becoming stronger and finding out what our bodies are still capable of doing.

That is what I want to concentrate on now.

So, bring on the strappy dresses

I have four months ahead of me. I have my dumbbells, my resistance bands, my two weekly sessions with my trainer and my two shorter workouts at home. I have my measurements and photographs, and I have already completed the first two weeks.

Most importantly, I have no idea exactly what will happen. That is what makes this interesting. I am not waiting until the end to tell you whether it worked. I am going to take you along for the experiment and see what happens alongside you.

There will be an update after the first month, then again at eight weeks, twelve weeks and finally sixteen weeks. I want to share the changes honestly, whether they are visible in photographs or measurements, noticeable in my strength, or simply reflected in how I feel when I get dressed.

And somewhere around the beginning of December, when summer is properly underway, I am hoping there will be a rather important moment.

I will reach into my wardrobe, pull out one of those strappy dresses and put it on.

Let's see what four months of getting stronger can do.

Bring on the strappy dresses.

Want to follow along?

I am going to share an update as I reach each four-week milestone, so if you would like to see what happens over the next four months, come back and follow my progress. And if you are working on your own strength, fitness or confidence goals, I would love to hear about them too.

Are you joining me? What would you love to become stronger at?

Next update: Four weeks in — what has changed?

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