Three Favorites: Core Exercises

(This article has been updated as of Dec 4, 2020. Covid has now dramatically accelerated the already growing trend toward online wellness coaching and age group-specific guidance on healthy habits. To address these needs directly I have launched a comprehensive online program for Boomers like me with my longtime colleague and favorite healthy eating expert , Anne Moselle, R.D. Check it out here.)

Ballet Dancers and gymnasts have strong, firm abdominal muscles.

But guess what? So do Sumo wrestlers.

What?!

Let’s get a stubborn misconception out of the way right up front: Ab work doesn’t trim belly fat.

Well, if all you did was an hour of Pilates every day, consistently ate a nutrient-rich diet and came in a few hundred calories under your needs every day for a few months, you would definitely drop about 10-15 lbs (if you had it to lose at the start). But you could replace the Pilates with a cardio class, strength training or dancing in your living room and get the same result.

So why do core work? The core integrates all upper and lower body movement, so when it’s trained properly, you can exercise more often, for longer and more intensely than you could otherwise because your back is better protected and your movements are more efficient. Simply stated, training your core raises the bar for everything else in your fitness program. And yes, if you eat to keep your body lean, your abdominal wall, now more firm and toned, will be a much more impressive body part to showcase than if you kept it out of the training mix.

With that, here are three of my top choices for core work. They address, respectively, the front, back and sides of the core, and together provide comprehensive coverage for the area between the base of your ribs and the base of your booty (video demos are linked at the exercise names):

1. X-Touch – Lying belly up, smoothly sweep opposing limbs (left arm/right leg) up to an imaginary line extending from the navel to the ceiling, gently back down, and then switch sides. Head and shoulder come off the floor with the sweep. 10-15 reps are plenty.
2. Spider Plank – A variation on a traditional plank, this one is much tougher and is dynamic (movement-based) rather than static (a fixed, held position). The set-up is a mirror image of the X-Touch, except that the pelvis is up off the floor with the hips slightly hiked above the shoulders and feet. Sequentially, each limb is raised on a diagonal path over five seconds, held for five at the top and lowered over five. Start with your left arm, then the right leg, right arm and finish with the left leg. One round will do it. It’s harder than it sounds.
3. Side Plank – Lying sideways, legs extended, the unmodified version has you stacking and loading the side of your lower foot along with your forearm, angled perpendicular to your spine, with your top side arm extended vertically. Hold for up to 30 seconds. More difficult variations include a hip tap down and back up repeated over the 30 seconds or a tap forward and back with the top side toe in front of and behind the bottom foot. Great for building stability at the waist.

A short core sequence works great as a cool down or, for the more fit, can be interspersed in a multi-format (cardio/strength) workout. Just make sure you don’t overwork it and compromise the core’s stability to support the back for the other movements in the workout.

Now go forth and contract!

Dan Taylor, ACE, NASM-CPT, is owner and head trainer at Pleasanton-based Tri Valley Trainer. They provide personal training and small group fitness solutions at their studio and a premium, innovative, medically endorsed web-based group coaching wellness program for the over-fifty tribe.