09/11/2026
Crepey skin on the inner thighs is one of the things my clients mention most quietly, as though it were simply something to be accepted once collagen begins to decline and the skin there grows thinner and looser. The new science says otherwise. A study published in Scientific Reports followed women through sixteen weeks of regular resistance exercise and found measurable improvements in the dermis, the deeper layer of the skin that gives it its thickness and structure, alongside better elasticity.
I know this from experience as well as from the research. At forty, my inner thighs were the part of my body I liked least, and today, aged 60, they look better than they did then, which I would never have believed possible at the time. It didn’t happen by accident, though, and the order in which you do things matters enormously.
The food comes first, always, because no amount of toning will show through if the body underneath hasn’t been reshaped by what you eat and drink. Alongside that comes steady, consistent resistance work, whether that means bands, weights or squats, built up gradually week by week so the body keeps responding. The third part is the one most people miss: this is not a short-term fix. Resistance is a use-it-or-lose-it affair, and within a couple of weeks of stopping, the benefits begin to slip away, so it has to become a permanent part of your life rather than a six-week project.
Many of us grew up in an era when nobody talked about resistance exercise at all, and so we are coming to it now, in our fifties and sixties, for the first time. That is no reason to hold back. If anything, this research is the most positive endorsement midlife could ask for: what you see in the mirror can still change, and it is never too late to begin.
This was one of your questions from my Monday Live Q&A, where I answer your questions live every Monday from 6pm to 6.30pm.
