If you love your body, it will love you back—right? It makes perfect sense. After all, it’s the only one you’ve got. Building and maintaining core strength is essential—especially as you age. Your core—made up of your abs, obliques, and lower back muscles—plays a key role in balance, stability, posture, breathing, and daily movement. You rely on it to bend, lift, and sit comfortably. Essentially, a healthy core means a much better quality of life. That’s why we’ve put together a six-minute standing workout that builds more core strength than planks after 50.
Building a strong, stable core doesn’t mean you have to lift weights for several hours a day. To the contrary, this speedy six-minute routine will get the job done. And let’s be honest: Everyone has six minutes to spare! That’s what makes this standing routine so great—plus, it’s even better than floor work.
“Standing core exercises differ from floor exercises by engaging more muscles to stabilize and balance the body against gravity, requiring a larger range of motion and while performing functional, real-life movements,” explains Eric North, aka The Happiness Warrior—a wellness speaker, coach, and advocate redefining what it means to age with purpose, strength, and emotional vitality “Floor exercises often target the abdominal muscles more directly through a limited range of motion, while standing exercises incorporate the legs, hips, and postural muscles, making them a full-body workout. This can also reduce strain on the neck and back while building stronger secondary stabilizer muscles.”
6-Minute Standing Routine to Strengthen Your Core After 50
Below, North breaks down a sample six-minute standing exercise routine. Perform each move for 45 seconds with a rest period of 15 seconds in between each set.
Standing Marches
Standing marches may seem simple, but they’re surprisingly excellent for improving core strength, stability, and balance. This exercise emphasizes controlled movement, giving your deep core muscles a stellar workout while boosting coordination, posture, and body awareness.
- Start by standing tall with your feet hip-width apart.
- Lift your left knee up to hip height while keeping your core engaged.
- Lower your foot and repeat with your right knee.
- Maintain solid posture and steady breathing throughout.
- Perform standing marches for 45 seconds.
Front Kicks
Front kicks are an underrated lower-body exercise that engages the core, glutes, quads, and hip flexors. This move puts your coordination, balance, and stability to the test, requiring your abs and obliques to stay engaged throughout.
- Start by standing tall with your feet hip-width apart and your hands placed on your hips for stability or in front of your chest.
- Shift your body weight onto your right leg, maintaining a tall posture and an engaged core.
- Lift your left knee toward your chest, then extend that leg straight ahead of you in a controlled kick motion.
- Slowly lower the leg to the start position.
- Repeat on the other side.
- Continue to alternate kicks, performing the exercise for 45 seconds.
Squats
Bodyweight squats are a tried-and-true exercise trainers love—for good reason. This simple, incredibly productive lower-body movement not only works your legs and glutes, but also fires up your core, helping to boost balance, stability, and functional strength.
- Begin the exercise by standing tall with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Extend your arms in front of you or place your hands on your hips. Use a chair for support, if necessary.
- Bend at the knees and hips as you lower into a squat.
- Use control to descend until your thighs assume a “sitting” position or lower.
- Press through your heels to return to standing.
- Perform squats for 45 seconds.
Lunges
Lunges are a simple yet highly effective lower-body exercise that activates the glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves, offering a functional challenge for your legs while firing up the core. This move helps boost balance and lower-body strength.
- Begin by standing tall with your feet parallel and hip-width apart.
- Step one foot forward.
- Bring your hands to your hips.
- Engage your core as you bend your knees, lowering to form 90-degree bends in both legs.
- Keep your upper body straight.
- Press through your front heel and the ball of your back foot to rise back up.
- Perform lunges for 45 seconds.
Standing Side Bends
Standing side bends help sculpt and tone your waistline by engaging the obliques and deep core muscles. Incorporating lightweight dumbbells or a resistance band revs up the intensity of this core-strengthening move.
- Begin by standing tall with your feet hip-width apart and arms relaxed by your sides or holding a light dumbbell in each hand.
- Activate your core and slowly bend your torso to the right, lowering your right hand (or dumbbell) toward your thigh while keeping your left arm by your side.
- Return to the start position.
- Slowly bend your torso to the left, lowering your left hand (or dumbbell) toward your thigh.
- Continue to perform the exercise for 45 seconds.
Standing Twists
This dynamic core exercise trains your core as you rotate your body from one side to the other. Standing twists fire up the obliques and deep ab muscles while boosting spinal rotation. For added resistance and intensity, you can hold a medicine ball or dumbbell.
- Begin by standing tall with your feet hip-width apart and knees bent just a bit.
- Hold your hands together in front of your chest or hold a light weight/medicine ball.
- Rotate your torso to the left, and make sure your hips stay facing forward.
- Return to the center.
- Rotate your torso to the right.
- Continue to perform this exercise for 45 seconds, engaging your core throughout.
Alexa Mellardo
Alexa is a content strategist, editor, and writer based in Greenwich, Connecticut. She has 11+ years of experience creating content for travel, lifestyle, fitness, wellness, F&B, home, and celeb news publications. Read more about Alexa
