Core Strength Workout | SilverSneakers

probably most of us would like to firm up our midsection but more important than what we look like is how we feel your core muscles are your trunk muscles from your shoulders to your hips the front and the back side of your body improving core strength will help to ease back pain improve your balance enhance your posture and make you stronger so that your activities in your daily life are easier and more enjoyable this eight minute core workout will help to get you started to improve your core strength to see positive results i recommend you add this routine to your workout two to three times a week on non-consecutive days for more coaching and variety in your weekly programming see if you're eligible to join our silversneakers virtual live classes by clicking the link in this video for today's workout you'll need a chair flat seat no arms no additional equipment is necessary you can use a pillow behind your back to offer additional support if you'd like we'll do eight exercises for one minute each with a 15 second break in between the exercises so let's sit forward in our chair chest up nice and tall roll your shoulders back place your feet down on the floor and your hands on your thighs and we'll get started in four seconds three take a big deep breath inhale here and exhale let your hands slide down past your knees bring your chin to your chest and round your spine then lift tall and lengthen draw your shoulders back and down big deep breath inhale exhale draw your tailbone under round your spine and inhale and lengthen we don't have to hurry with any of the exercises and in the minute if you need to take a break or would like to take a break that's totally your choice do what you need to do then join back in to finish the exercise not only is the movement here important but also our breathing that will help engage our deeper core muscles so really take your time exhale and then inhale and then release all right you have a 15 second break our next exercise i'll get you started hold on to the sides of your chair as an anchor i'm going to extend my right leg out and i'm going to lean back to the distance that allows me to keep my feet connected to the floor and then i'll come up nice and tall and bring my foot in all right why don't you join me with the other leg out and in so as we lean back both feet need to stay connected to the floor and come up nice and tall perhaps there's a nice inhale breath here and an exhale breath here or you might be breathing exhale breath here and inhale breath here what's most important is that there is one complete full breath for each movement of the exercise keep your spine lengthened now you might choose to release your arms from the chair and maybe reach your arms forward and then gently draw back in we have about 20 seconds left so i'm going to think push pull up nice and tall all right this is our last one 15 second break next exercise we're going to open our legs out to the letter v and open our arms up like a t we're going to draw one elbow in and reach the other arm down return back to arms wide and then come into a side lean and return to center here we go let's go the other direction reaching down to where it's right for you and over good so there's a rotation and then a reach down return to center and then up and over i'm anchoring onto the chair and opening so we don't have to hurry and we can work within the range of motion that is best for how you feel today every day is a little bit different we always want to work within a pain-free range of motion connect again to your breathing nice big inhale and nice big exhale all right i think we're going to be able to get in one more nice arms float down and then heel toe back in next exercise left foot is out bend your elbows gentle fists again i'm going to lean back i'm going to rotate my heart to the right as i draw my left leg in i'm going to come up nice and tall and rotate to the left and here we go rotate to the right left leg is extended come up nice and tall and rotate to the left now find the range of motion that's right for you gentle fists maybe you have an inhale breath here and maybe have an exhale breath here just take your time now we are working all on one side for this full minute so nothing wrong at all if you want to take a little bit of a break maybe rub out your hip a little bit sometimes hip flexors really kind of take over in the exercises we want to keep the work quadricep might be feeling some of the work but then thinking about the core muscles and then the rotating muscles as well we have about 10 seconds left good big inhale and exhale two seconds but i think we're going to get this in nice all right before we go to the other side i'm going to bring my feet in we'll do a back exercise and then we'll hit the other side so i'm going to lean forward not too far about halfway i'm going to let my arms come down i'm gonna open bringing my palms forward and the backs of my hands towards the back of the room i'm gonna bring my arms forward and then we're gonna push into our feet and come up nice and tall and here we go lean forward halfway open close push through your feet squeeze your gluteals and come up nice and tall hands are in front of your knees open you can have a flat hand or a gentle fist whatever feels right for you good and again pay attention to where your breath is just a nice deep inhalation maybe a little deeper than normal breathing and then a nice long exhale we have a four part movement so if we wanted to have a breath here that would be fine and then a breath here here and here we have about seven seconds left so i think we can get one more in nice so 15 second break our next exercise the right leg is going to come out in front gentle fists at your shoulders lean back rotate to the left and draw in alright it's time to go rotate and draw in now i am creating a little bit of drag with my foot to the floor kind of pressing down and pulling back in that's going to engage my hamstring as well now i'm on a carpeted surface so that does increase the friction and the resistance so thinking about if you're on a tile surface or a wood floor your resistance is going to be a little bit different and find out what's right for you we always want to move within a pain-free range of motion now draw your belly button in take your breath and then come on and rotate back i like this one we have about 12 seconds left last one bring your chest back to center hands down all right next exercise with your feet right underneath your knees hands on your thighs we're going to lean forward halfway but then i'm going to funnel around to the left to the back to the right and back to center and then we're going to go the other direction so let's get started i love this funneling movement belly buttons in towards your spine think about your hips being at the bottom of a funnel and your shoulders at the top wide part of the funnel now your hips think about how they feel on the chair i'm putting more weight into my right but i'm trying to keep my left down to the back and around and you can make your funnel bigger or smaller [Music] and you can move at the speed that feels right for you if you want to bend your elbows and bring your fist to your shoulders you'll take less support or you'll have less support because you'll have taken your hands off your thighs all right this is it and now we're in our 15 second break and we're at our last exercise so hands are going to be down by our sides i'm going to bend my right elbow i'm going to reach my right arm up bend my left arm down come back to center bend both elbows and then go to the other side right arm reaches down his left arm comes up up and over and back to center and here we go side lean come back to center left arm up right arm down i'd like you to work at keeping your shoulders forward in the same direction as your hips we are moving laterally think about what's the appropriate range of motion for your spine if you need to move less just arms reaching up and down is an excellent way to move and then if it feels right for you we're bringing our rib cage towards our hip reach and come back to center and reach and come back to center there's only about seven seconds left and hold great all right eight exercise is done that feels great last thing i'm gonna have us do just to finish us off and kind of warm us down from the work i want your feet underneath your knees arms are down by your sides just take a nice big deep breath inhale lift your arms up shoulders are down palms are forward and then exhale sweep your arms down by your sides let your palms come down kind of add a diagonal and then rotate your palms in and let's go again inhale take your time i want your inhale to guide this big deep breath inhale and then exhale and i want you to keep exhaling exhale a little bit more and do it again good one more time might take practice to have this big long breath but it is worth the effort good for your lungs good for your core all right go ahead and breathe normally roll your shoulders back and down great job i always love working out with you following this workout two to three times a week will help to build your core strength it's also important to nourish your core with healthy meals and snacks drink water regularly and stay hydrated and don't forget to visit silversneakers.com we have additional resources for exercise and nutrition for our members and we have a terrific virtual live class schedule i'd love to meet you in one of our live classes see you next time [Music] you

Channel: SilverSneakers

Views: 65,758

Keywords: SilverSneakers, Senior Fitness, Free Exercise Video, Free Senior Workout

Id: csyjOaLX5s4

Length: 13min 9sec (789 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 29 2022