Senior Health 5 Exercises to Tone Your Stomach | SilverSneakers

Standing abdominal exercises help strengthen deep core muscles that stabilize the body and tone our belly. Today I have five standing abdominal exercises and you don't need any equipment so we can go ahead and get started. Our first exercise is a side bend woodchop combination. So we're going to start with our feet wider than shoulder width apart, hands down at the side. We're going to bend, reaching as far as we can, come to stand. Same thing other side. Squeeze the side body, working those obliques. Keep the chest nice and lifted and don't forget to breathe. Exhale, inhale. Last bend and one more on this side. Now bend our knees, bring our hands out to front and we're going to rotate to the side in a nice smooth motion. This is our woodchop. Back to center, other side. Squeeze the core, those abdominals. Now you can pick a pace that works best for you, faster or slower. Rotate, nice smooth motion. Side, center and side, center. Back to our side bends, arms at the side. Here we go, bend and squeeze. Can you feel this in your obliques? In your sides, right? Last set on each side. Ah, horizontal woodchops. Arms back out, bend the knees. Here we go, let's rotate the torso, squeeze the midsection. Last set and other side. Excellent. Our next exercise is a jab cross combination. So start with your feet comfortably apart, arms up in front of the body, bend the knee. We're going to step out to the side and extend the arm in our jab. Come back to our starting position. We're going to rotate the hip, pivot on the foot and extend the arm in our cross. Let's try that again. Jab, cross, jab, cross, jab, cross. These jabs and crosses are often thought of just an upper body workout, but that's not the case. We're working every muscle in our midsection. Breathe and squeeze the abdominals. Let's do two more. Excellent. Our next exercise is a knee lift with rotation. So start with your feet comfortably apart, bend in the knee. We're going to bring our arms out and up to a goalpost position. So start with just a simple knee lift, lifting the leg towards the ceiling, squeezing the core, right? It's a little crunch. Now, if you can't bring your knee up to 90 degrees, pick a range of motion that works best for you. Now, are you ready for a rotation? Let's do it. Rotate, rotate, exhale, inhale. Let's do four more. Three, two, and one. Our next exercise, we've got our jab cross on the opposite side. You know this setup, right? Hands up, bend in the knee. We're going to step out into our jab, come back, rotate in our cross. Let's do it. Jab, cross, jab, cross. My palms are facing down. Breathe, work that midsection as you add a little power behind these movements, right? Where's that power coming from? Yeah, it's coming from our core. Jab, cross, jab, cross. Let's do four more. Two. Our next exercise, our final, is a T-cross toe touch. So stand with your feet comfortably apart. We're going to bring those arms out to the side, shoulders down and back. Start by lifting a leg up out in front to hip height, and then we're going to rotate our arm across the body, reaching for that toe. The key here, again, just like all of these exercises, is squeeze that midsection. Exhale, inhale. If you have tight hamstrings, a slight bend in the knee is okay. And you can even bring those arms down to the side of the body if you need to. Let's do four more. Three, two, and one. Fantastic work. Thanks for joining me for this Tone Your Belly workout. All of these exercises can be done as a standalone workout or combined with your favorite cardio and strength routines. See you again next time.