4 Standing Exercises That Trim Love Handles Faster Than Gym Sessions After 60

By Alexa Mellardo

August 21, 2026

Excess fat around your lower abdomen and hips is one of those frustrating bodily changes that can occur with age. Many individuals develop love handles due to reduced physical activity, hormonal shifts, and a slower metabolism—ugh. One thing is for sure: Love handles aren’t going anywhere unless you take action.

“Your love handles are pockets of fat that sit just beneath your skin and over the top of your muscles. If you build bigger muscles, those pockets of fat are still there. They do get spread out over a larger surface area, which makes the fat appear less noticeable, so it does help a little. But, what helps the most for addressing love handles is exercising in a way that burns calories quickly, since doing so makes it easier to lose fat,” explains Domenic Angelino, MS, MPH, CSCS, CPT, Chief Exercise Scientist at FitCraft.

We spoke with Angelino to learn the best way to address them. To help you get started, he shares four standing exercises that can help trim love handles quicker than gym sessions after 60.

“Most standing exercises that target your core are easier to do than exercises that involve you lying on your back,” Angelino points out. “Standing exercises also let you shift the emphasis towards calorie burning more easily, instead of focusing on training your muscles directly. This will be way more effective at reducing your body fat and addressing love handles.”6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

With this in mind, let’s explore four effective standing exercises that can help reduce body fat and strengthen your midsection.

​​

Standing High Knee March

“This exercise is a great blend of burning a lot of calories and involving your abdominal muscles. You’ll go through a relatively large range of motion as you lift your legs up with each step. This allows it to target your muscles in a way that can increase their strength,” Angelino tells us.

1. Stand tall with your feet placed shoulder-width apart and your knees soft.
2. Make sure your spine is long and your arms are crossed high in a “genie” position.
3. Then, lift one knee up toward your chest.
4. Lower it.
5. Lift the other knee up toward your chest.
6. Continue to alternate in a marching fashion.

​​

Standing Cross-Arm Toe Touch

“This exercise is helpful because it allows you to work on your flexibility while also using your core muscles to lift your body back up from a bent forward position. It’s great because it’s highly functional and achieves multiple important things at once, making it very time efficient,” Angelino explains.

1. Start standing tall with your feet placed hip-distance apart and arms reaching out to your sides.
2. Activate your core and maintain slightly bent knees.
3. Hinge at the hips and allow your torso to slightly rotate as you reach your right hand down toward your left foot.
4. Use control to return to standing.
5. Repeat on the other side and continue to alternate.

​​

Standing Jog In Place

“This is a great exercise for burning a lot of calories. Because it doesn’t involve bringing your legs through a large range of motion, you can take a lot of steps before you get tired and burn out,” Angelino says. “Your core helps stabilize you while you jog, and this will translate to helping strengthen core muscles that are important for daily activities like walking.”

1. Begin standing tall with your feet hip-distance apart and arms at your sides.
2. Activate your core and maintain a tall chest.
3. Start to alternate taking quick steps in place, lifting one foot and then the other.
4. Gradually pick up the pace until you are jogging in place.
5. Continue to do so for the prescribed time.

​​

Goblet Squat

“This might seem a bit unconventional for the goal here, but it’s effective at increasing core strength by targeting your lower back muscles while you’re essentially transitioning from sitting to standing,” Angelino explains. “It helps you get used to using your core muscles to keep your back upright in a healthy way, strengthening them in a way that can reduce back pain. This exercise involves using free weights, like a dumbbell or kettlebell, and that means you can keep progressing as you get stronger.”

1. ​​Stand tall with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width.
2. Grasp a dumbbell or water bottle with both hands, holding the weight in front of your chest with your elbows pointing down and tucked in.
3. Hinge at the hips and bend your knees to squat, keeping the weight in place.
4. Squat as far as you can with a straight back.
5. Push through your heels to return to the starting position.