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FeedGive a Little, Get a Lot
Core strengthening makes for a quick and effective workout anyone can live with.
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Maybe you haven’t noticed, but workouts are getting easier and more convenient. Back in the 1980s, exercise was nothing unless it involved a mirrored room full of sweaty people, all caught up in a fast-paced “feel the burn” group ritual like aerobics. Starting in the ’90s, things began to simplify somewhat, with an emphasis on a range of moderate to vigorous exercises like weight training, hiking and yoga.
Today’s fitness trends may be harder to sum up, but judging from the guidelines recommended by the National Institute on Aging, we now have greater leeway when it comes to exercise. Indeed, judging from the title of the institute’s free booklet, Exercise & Physical Activity: Your Everyday Guide (available at nia.nih.gov), and the many exercise options it contains, the new emphasis is on everyday activity that falls into the “keep moving” category. That might include two-and-a-half hours of brisk walking or an hour and 15 minutes of jogging or running each week, so long as you move on to what’s known as an integrated workout.
The NIA acknowledges that the key change in its 2009 guidelines is the stipulation that older adults (the 50-plus group) need to supplement their cardio workout days with muscle-strengthening activities or core strength development. Physical fitness professionals tend to use the terms “full body” and “core conditioning.” Regardless, the idea is to develop your body “from the inside out,” says John Rosado, a trainer at Sweat Fitness in King of Prussia. “Ninety-five percent of people who come to the gym want to tone up and lose weight. Many of them are de-conditioned, I would say. They have all sorts of joint issues, or posture and flexibility issues, from sitting at the computer all day or from not being very physical.”
Along with the requisite exercise machines and weight-training areas, Sweat offers unusual classes with names like “Hip-Hop Cardio” and “Trampoline-Based Urban Reboundin.” Rosado is likely to steer “de-conditioned” newcomers away from all of that and begin with an easy visual evaluation followed by basic core-strengthening exercises.
On my own visit, the evaluation included an overhead squat test, which involved bending my knees in a squat position while holding a light wooden bar above my head with outstretched arms. Rosado stood by with a clipboard, visually moving down a page as he checked off what, to me, was an alarmingly high number of problem points.
“We want to see how your body moves,” he says. “I can tell right away what [core] strength exercises you’ll need just by seeing how flexible you are or how tight you are in certain muscles.”
Apparently, I had weak abdominals and my “scapula wings,” or shoulder blades, were pronounced. The more serious issue was my perception that I was fit merely because I go to a gym three times a week.
Like the name implies, core-strengthening exercises involve muscles of the body’s midsection or core—muscles especially apparent when you lie on your back, pull in or contract your belly button, and do those crunches. That’s not to be confused with developing one’s outward abdominals—the so-called abs or “six packs.” Rather, it’s the ones deep inside your abdomen. “The muscles that help you sit upright,” says Rosado, who often has his clients use stability balls when sitting at their desks or computers. “Developing them is going to improve your posture, too.”
Core strengthening usually involves basic equipment like stretching or resistance bands, large stability balls and smaller weighted balls. The exercises Rosado recommended for me required nothing more than a mat.
At first, the shoulder and back issues that came up on my squat test seemed unrelated to the exercises he had me try. Aside from the two performed on the floor—the Bridge and the Cobra (see sidebar)—I was asked to stand in an open doorway with my arms at a 90-degree angle along the door frame. I did the “pectoral wall” stretch by leaning forward until I felt a slight pull between my shoulder blades.
