Gaining extra body fat around the waist is a common problem for women during menopause and beyond. There are various reasons for this, associated with changing hormones and their effect on the body. It’s not something you have to just accept though. With sensible eating and regular ab exercise, you can have a slim, toned waist – or even a 6 pack if you work hard enough! Ab exercises for women over 50 should start with a foundation of building core strength to correct pelvic alignment. This is true for ab programs at any age, but it’s more likely that over 50s – if they haven’t kept up regular exercise all their lives – will have poor pelvic stability. The exercises in this routine will help you to start re-building your core strength, ready to move on to more challenging ab workouts.
How to get good ab tone
First, you need to make sure you’re eating a healthy diet. If you have a bad diet that is causing you to store fat, muscle tone won’t show. Read about a healthy diet here.
There are 4 sets of ab muscles, which all work in different ways. So for good ab tone, you need exercises that work all of them. This 6 exercise circuit is split up into 3 types of exercise:
Exercises for the 6 pack
This is the top layer of muscle, the one that shows most. Exercises that work these muscles are ones that bring the upper body and lower body towards each other.
Exercises for the obliques
There are 2 sets of obliques muscles. They are less visible, but show when they are very trained. They also help to pull the abdominal area in flat. Exercises that work them are ones involving rotating the spine and reaching to the side
Exercises for the deep stabiliser
The deepest layer is the one that stabilises the pelvis and has the most effect on having a flat abdominal area.
Ab exercises for women over 50 – about this workout
Please read these general guidelines before you start.
You will need some form of cushioning for your spine – ideally an exercise mat. See an exercise mat buying guide here.
Ab exercises for women over 50 – the routine
These are the exercises and number of reps to do. You should do 3 sets of the routine – that is, complete all the exercises for the number of reps shown then start again and repeat twice more. For best results, do the workout 3 times a week. Exercise instructions are below the chart.
Exercise instructions
Related to ab exercises for women over 50
