Do you feel like your core switches on and keeps your spine stable when you run, jump or dance around?
Or do you feel that your arms and legs have a mind of their own?
And do you even know what the core is?
Because today in this 'Wobbly Core Strengthening Exercises for Women Over 50" post, we're going to have a deep dive into the transverse abdominus muscle, the deepest abdominal muscle that we've got.
I find it an interesting thing with the core, because if it's stable, you can see somebody when they're running along and they're doing a nice stable jog. It's that person that runs along with their arms and legs dangling all over the place. I think, oh, I'm sure that that's their core that's not switching on.
Years ago I had somebody that came in for Zumba when I used to work as a Zumba instructor. And she would come in each time and I'd watch her as she did the moves.
And when we would go to the side, doing little steps to the side and everything so stable through the torso. And she would just be kind of this sort of wobbly thing as she went to the side and she really didn't have any control over that torso.
We started to work on her core and it was amazing how those moves then started to get nice and strong with everything that she did.
Watch: Core Weakness Symptoms + Simple Fixes
Ready, let's jump into the 'Wobbly core strengthening exercises for women over 50' lesson:
So let's have a bit more of a dive into the transverse abdominus.
#1. Breath-Based Deep Core Activation
Lying Position:
The first exercise we're doing is just lying on the floor.
- We're going to keep our neutral back there. So keep the little arch in your back
- We're going to breathe in
- As we breathe in, we're going to draw this tummy out
So, we're going to be doing what's called abdominal breathing.
- Again we're going to breathe in
- Let those abdominal contents push out
- And then as we breathe out, we're going little pursed lips and we're just going to draw that belly button in
So, as we breathe in, really pull, draw the air into the abdomen. And as we breathe out, the belly button's got to go into the spine.
Prone Position:
Now there's another way of doing this. If your knees are okay with this, we'll come over onto our front. And what we're doing from here, we're going to actually do the same thing.
- So we're going to breathe in through our nose
- Drop the abdomen down. We're not moving the spine at all. As we breathe in, we're just allowing all the abdominal contents to come away from our spine
- As we blow out, we're doing it through pursed lips and pulling that core in. And as we breathe out through pursed lips, we're going to draw those abdominal contents in.
- So, one more time, bring the belly button into the spine. One more time as we breathe in, we're going to let the air, the abdominal contents hang away from the spine. And as we breathe out, we're just going to suck that abdomen in again.
- We're not trying to move our spine here.
- The spine is staying still, it's just the belly button that we're trying to draw in and out.
Why This Breathing Matters:
Abdominal breathing is not just “breathing,” it’s your first core strengthening exercise for women over 50. It’s about activating the transverse abdominus, testing whether that muscle is actually engaging, and building the awareness to keep it switched on during every movement that follows. Once you master this, everything else-leg lifts, bridges, ball roll-outs-becomes safer, more effective, and infinitely more empowering.
#2. Core Strength & Test
So now we're going to look at another exercise on the floor that we can do to actually see if our core is working and actually strengthen that core at the same time.
Spinal Press:
- So we're going to lie on the floor and we're going to get that arch under our back. So our fingertips are going to go under the arch of our back. And all we're going to do here is we're going to press down our back
- Now you may need to do a bit of a pelvic tilt, so tilt the pelvis
- But you don't want the hips up off the floor. They're staying on the floor
- Press your spine into your fingers
Imagine your fingers are like a sponge and you're trying to really push that sponge down and pull all the water out of it, trying to squash it with your spine.
Exercise Repetitions: So I want you to hold there, keep breathing, keep pushing, hold for about 10 seconds and then relax. You should feel all these abdominals working quite hard.
Spinal Press With Leg-Lifts:
- Now if you can do that okay, your next one can be where we squash down and then lifting a leg,
- But don't let the squash go from your finger.
- So you're trying to keep the squeeze down with every change of the leg that we do. It's actually quite hard to do. So you're actually working quite hard to maintain that squeeze on your fingers.
Exercise Repetitions: Try a number of 10 seconds and then have a relax for maybe 20 seconds, go again, see if you can do 12 of them. But if you can do that first one, okay, this is a little bit harder.
Spinal Press Bridging:
Another one that we can be doing is in the air in a bridge position.
- And then we take those fingers under again. This is a lot harder for any of those of you that have achieved the earlier ones
- Okay, we're going to press that belly button down and then try and take a foot down to the floor
- And then the other foot down to the floor
- A way that you can make this a bit harder is to hold a weight overhead, really press that back down and taking one foot down and the other foot down.
#3. Stability Ball
Now we're going to look at two ball exercises that are perfect for working that deep transverse abdominus muscle. Let's have a look.
Rollouts:
- I'm going to have the ball in front of me. I'm going to have my core on and I'm just going to roll forward
- And as I roll forward, my hips come forward as well
- So they don't stay up in the air. They roll forward as well
- Then come back to the start
- VARIATION: Now if you want to work a little bit harder, we can do the alphabet or just some small circles
- So I'm going to come forward with this one. And I'm just taking some little circles side to side. And it's just making my core work that little bit more
- NOTE: If you start to feel this in your back, go back again. You know your core's gone off and you probably don't have it activated at the time.
Exercise Repetitions: And then I'm holding that for about 10 seconds. And then I'm rolling myself back again. Let's go again. Core is on. I'm bringing that those hips down and holding here for about 10 seconds and taking it back.
Pull-Ins:
Now another one that we're going to do is on top of the ball. This may be a bit hard for some of you. So stick with this one if the second one is too hard.
- So this next one that I'm doing, I'm coming over the ball until the ball's under my knees
- Now we can bring those knees in
- If you want from here, we can take that ball out a bit further. So the ball's more under my shins and bring that in
- So they're staying up in the air, just drawing that in and bring it out
- Making sure that when we extend that we don't drop the hips down here
- VARIATION: Now, if we want to work this a little bit harder
- We can bring these knees around in a circle
- And bring them back around the other way
- Keeping that core on the whole time and you'll feel those abdominals working. Just make sure when you straighten out again that you don't drop those hips down.
Final Thoughts
And I hope I hope that you found these core strengthening exercises for women over 50, helpful.
Let me know in the comments below what you think and if you can achieve any of those. Sometimes people find that the ball is too unstable for them, but it's certainly a great one for building that core.
So have fun with it and let me know how you go.
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