The Best Core Exercises for Beginners Over 50

If you're over 50 and you find yourself doing things like sit-ups or crunches or you find people telling you to do some really complex moves like V-ups or even L-sits like this, well guess what? You're doing things that are way too hard on your body. In this video, I'm going to show you the best beginner core exercises for people over 50. If you're a beginner and you're over 50, then you're probably making a lot of mistakes when it comes to training your core, but the good news is today I want to teach you three steps. That is activate, lengthen, and strengthen. Instead of focusing on the core muscles that are just on the front side of the body, which is what most core movements do, we're going to focus on movements that stretch and strengthen all the muscles of the core on the front side as well as the back side because the purpose of having a strong core is to protect your spine and to protect your body. So follow along and let's activate, lengthen, and strengthen your whole core. The first step towards having a stronger core is to activate your core, but what most people tell you to do is this. Draw your belly button in towards your spine, and while that does activate some of the deep core muscles, it doesn't activate all of the core muscles that we're trying to activate today. So if you want to have the strongest core, a core that protects your spine and allows you to move freely for as long as possible without getting injured, then this is the way to do it. It's a move called the elevator. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to find the spot between our belly button and our hip. So right in the middle of that is a nice fleshy spot right at the side of our abdominal muscles. We're going to take our fingers just like this, and we're going to push down into our belly just like this. Now these are the people, and your belly is going to be the elevator. So we're trying to push the people up to the next floor. So it looks like this. We're going to take a big breath in and push the belly out and feel the core where those soft spots were get hard. What we're doing is a move called abdominal bracing and creating intra-abdominal pressure in your pelvic floor, your diaphragm, and all the muscles of the core. This is the best way to activate and strengthen the core while protecting the spine. Now at first when you do this, you might have to take that big breath in and hold for a second, and then when you exhale your fingers might just go right back down. That's totally normal. This is the first phase of learning how to activate your core this way. But what we really want is for you to be able to lift the fingers up while you're talking, while you're inhaling, while you're exhaling, and even while you're moving. So over time the goal should be can you create that lift while taking bigger and bigger breaths instead of shallow breaths or exhaling fully to maintain that lift inside your stomach. Now this is a move that you can practice every day first thing in the morning or before you go to bed and see if you can hold the elevator by pushing your fingers out for just one minute. This is not a traditional movement where you're looking for muscular fatigue. This is a movement where we're trying to rebuild the mind-muscle connection with all the muscles that stabilize and activate the core. So practice it frequently, practice it often, and eventually you'll be able to push those fingers out without having to take big breaths in. You can inhale, you can exhale, and you can move. Now the next three moves you're going to want to apply the elevator to those movements to protect your spine and to strengthen your core even more. So remember this move as you do each one of the moves I'm about to show you. Okay now that you've activated your core I'm going to show you three different moves that are going to lengthen and strengthen your core. Now what you're going to want to do is do these moves three days per week. You can practice each move for one minute each with as much rest as you need between each move and then do this three times around. For this movement a beginner variation is going to be sliding to the edge of your chair, nice tall posture. This one's focusing on lengthening the spine and strengthening the muscles on the sides of the body. So first we want to activate our elevator if we can, big breath in, tighten the core, one hand reaches down, one hand reaches over, and the thumb points backwards like this. Then we're going to reach to the side and really what I'm trying to do is lift my rib cage toward the sky. So I'm not collapsing my body down like this, we're not trying to create as much bend as possible, trying to create as much length as possible through the side of the body. So lift to the side and then slowly come back to the center, switch. I like to go palms forward on this so that my shoulders rotated backwards, thumb backwards with this one so that my shoulders rotated backwards. That's going to keep the shoulders in a good position and really help you focus on lengthening the spine. We can inhale more as we go down, activate the core, exhale as we come up, relax for a second, inhale as we go down, activate the core, come down and relax for a second, and just go back and forth like this. Now if this still feels too easy for you, we can come up to a standing position and we can do a standing side bend. So it's important to look down at your feet and make sure your feet are straightforward and right underneath your hips. You can have a soft bend to the knees if you need to. One hand this time goes on the hip. We're going to use that hand to push that hip out as we bring the other hand overhead. So again, inhaling, thumb backwards, reaching the ribcage toward the sky as we come to the side, and then switching, inhaling, activating the core, reaching the ribcage toward the sky, up this way as much as possible, going back and forth just like this. Again, once you finish one minute of whichever variation of side bends you feel is the best fit for you, rest for a second and then go on to the next move. Okay, the next move is going to be focused on strengthening the front side of your core. You can do this on the ground, or if you have trouble getting down to the ground, you can do this on a couch or even in your bed. Again, practice this one for one minute, slow and controlled, and make sure you pay attention to the form because that's what's going to protect your spine and make sure your core is as strong as possible. Now the first step you want to focus on here is to activate your core with the elevator, and there's a second step that can really help you maintain this, which is pushing your lower back into the ground. The moment we tuck the pelvis like this, so instead of arching the lower back like this, we tuck the pelvis like this, we press that lower back on the ground to the point where you can't even get your fingers underneath your lower back, we're automatically going to activate the same muscles that the elevator activates. If you need to, you can lift your head up and extend tall to the top of your head, you can rest it down like this, or if you want, you can even grab a pillow and put it behind your head just like this as you continue to press the lower back into the ground. Now the first variation I'm going to show you is for complete beginners, so take your palms toward the sky, drop your fingertips away from your ears, push that lower back on the ground, bring both legs up like this, and all you're going to do is take a big breath in, inhale as you drop one leg down, exhale as you come up, inhale as we drop one leg down, exhale as we come up, right? Slow and controlled fashion, and trying to bring the knee up as high as possible at the top, that's going to help push the lower back into the ground and make you feel your core muscles working even harder. Now if this is too easy for you, then a more challenging version is to bring the legs together like this, bend the knees at a 90 degree angle, and now as you come down, do both legs together, inhaling as you go down, exhaling as you go up, and making sure that lower back is pressed against the ground the entire time to keep that core active, okay? And again, if you can still do this one for one full minute, a way to make this move harder is just extend the knees a little bit more, so you can come to 135 degrees, you can just have a slight bend in the knees, or you can straighten the knees all the way, point the toes, and do full leg raises like this. Just make sure to pick a variation that you're absolutely sure you can do for one full minute with perfect form, with an active core, with the lower back pushed into the ground. If you feel that lower back starting to lift up, you're probably doing something that's too hard for you, and you should go back a step instead. Once you finish one minute of these, then go on to the last move. Okay, for the final movement, we're going to focus on strengthening the muscles on the back side of the body, because remember, your core isn't just these muscles right here, it's all the muscles from your chest all the way down to your hips, and strengthening the back side of the core is incredibly important if you want to have a strong, healthy back that allows you to move freely in your daily life. So I'm going to show you a beginner variation and a slightly harder variation that you can practice. Again, focus on the one that feels like the best fit for you that you can do for one minute with perfect form. So to start out, we're going to do a move called a frog hip hinge from a seated position. So we're going to bring the legs out, we're going to turn the toes out, and when I look down, my knees are going to go the same direction as my toes. So I don't want my knees to wobble in like this, that's going to put pressure on the knee joint, and I also don't want them to be out super wide, and my weight distribution to be on the outside of my feet. I want my feet nice and flat, I want my knees going the same direction as my toes. I'm going to press my heels into the ground, that's going to help support me as I do this, okay, and I'm going to bring my hands down forward like this, and all I'm going to do is imagine that I'm trying to bring my belly really low in my abdomen down between my thighs, all right, now this is important because what I don't want is for you to do this, this is not the movement, we're not rounding our spine and extending our spine, that's going to put too much pressure on the spine. Instead what we're doing is this, we're going to lean forward from the hips, try to bring the belly button between the thighs, you'll feel a stretch in the hamstrings, on the inner thighs, come down as far as you feel comfortable as you inhale, and then exhale as you push your heels on the ground and come back to the start position. So we're creating flexibility in the hips, and if you do this for a whole minute, you'll feel your core muscles on the backside of the body working as well, especially if every time you start to go forward, you take that big breath in, you activate your core, you come as far forward as you can, then you press your heels in and you exhale as you come back to the start position, okay. Now if this feels too easy for you, then we can do this in a standing position as well, which will put more pressure on the backside of the body. So it looks like this, again, nice wide stance, toes turned outward, and as we come down and bend our knees slightly, make sure those knees are not caved in like this, make sure they're going the same direction as your toes like this. Now from there, you can put your hands on your hips, or if you need to, you can put a chair in front of you or a countertop for support, just in case you need for better balance or adding a little bit of help as you come back up. To take that big breath in, activate the core, push the weight to your heels, push your butt back, hinge as far forward as you can without rounding your back. The moment you start to do this, you've gone too far, all right? So once you find that position where you feel that tension in the hamstrings, maybe in the groin as well, we're going to come back up by pressing the heels on the ground, squeezing the glutes, and extending the hips all the way. Real quick, we'll do it one more time. Inhale, come down, feel the stretch, come back up. Inhale, come forward, exhale as we reach the top, okay? This is you strengthening the muscle of the backside of your body, and you're also practicing proper movement of things like picking stuff up off the ground like this rather than picking them up like this, which is really important for your overall health and making your body feel good, because remember, when you move your body better, you feel better in your body. If you like these moves and you're interested in learning more core moves that will help you strengthen your core that are appropriate for beginners, well, then watch this video right here, the four best beginner core moves. I'll see you there.