Walk your way to stronger abs by adding these moves to your next cardio session.
Your abdominal muscles have an important job. They keep you balanced and stable while protecting your spine. Your abs, lower back, and pelvis are vital in strengthening your core. They make it possible for you to lift, walk, bend, and perform activities every day with ease.
Now that you know just how critical abdominal strength is, let’s learn how you can maintain it. To get started, we spoke with Coach Amanda Grimm, a qualified Personal Trainer, Running Coach, and Sports and Remedial Massage Therapist who holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Sports Science.
“Past the age of 40, muscle mass naturally begins to decline, so it’s crucial that we factor in activities for strength and stability,” explains Grimm. “As a sports massage therapist, I find many of my post-50 clients favor walking workouts—they’re fab for building fitness gradually, have lower impact on joints, and can be a great way to keep healthy alone or with friends.”
Below are six exercises that can help strengthen your abs during your walking workout after 50.
Weighted Walking
A simple way to turn your walk into a productive strength-training session? Add some weights! According to Grimm, you can do this by wearing a weighted vest, carrying dumbbells, or even holding weighty water bottles. You can also strap on some ankle or arm weights.
“Just make sure that you’re carrying the same amount on each side,” she stresses. “The additional weight will make your core correct and rebalance itself as you walk. Muscles worked: obliques; back extensors.”
Walking Lunge With Rotation
Grimm says the walking lunge with rotation fires up your deep stabilizers, obliques, glutes, hamstrings, and quads.
- Stand tall.
- Step forward with one leg into a gentle lunge.
- Raise your arms to shoulder level.
- Slowly twist from the waist, rotating your torso toward your front leg, noting the point where the motion stops feeling smooth.
- Return to the center.
- Repeat on the other side.
Walking Punches
“Doing this while walking will automatically engage your core muscles to keep you upright and aligned,” Grimm explains. “Muscles worked [include the] obliques and transverse abdominis.”
- Start to walk forward.
- Form a light fist.
- Punch it out in front of you, alternating arms without locking your elbows.
Walking With Knee Raises
“Your core muscles will lock in to balance you while standing on each leg, holding you steady as you raise and lower,” Grimm tells us. “Muscles worked [include the] lower abs and hip flexors.”
- Begin walking.
- Lift one knee up to hip height.
- Hold for a moment.
- Lower in a forward stepping motion.
- Repeat and continue to alternate legs.
Standing Knee-to-Elbow Crunch
“As with knee raises and lunges, you’re working a leg raise into alternate steps of your walk,” Grimm explains.
- Begin with your feet hip-width apart and hands behind your head, elbows turned out wide.
- Activate your core and lift your left knee toward your left elbow as you crunch your torso to the side, keeping your chest tall.
- Use control to lower.
- Lift your right knee toward your right elbow as you crunch your torso to the side. Make sure to keep your abs engaged.
- Continue to alternate sides as you walk forward.
Side Taps
“This’ll open up your hips, while challenging core stability through the sideways movements,” Grimm says. “Muscles worked include the obliques and outer core.”
- Begin by taking a wide yet comfortable step to your right.
- Bring your left foot across to tap your right.
- Return to the center.
- Repeat on the left side and continue to alternate.
Alexa Mellardo
