Workout and Diet Advice for Women over 45

 Build muscular endurance with yoga moves like this one, called “plank pose into chaturanga dandasana.”  Practiced correctly on a regular basis, you will strengthen your chest, shoulders and arms as well as your core muscles.

Begin in a straight-arm plank position.  This is more difficult than the regular plan we’ve spoken about in other posts.  In this position your hands are directly under your shoulders, your arms are straight, (without “locking out” your elbows) and your fingers pointed forward.   As with the regular plank push back with your heels and draw the crown of your head forward to create a long line throughout your body.   Most important is not to let your hips sag.  It may help to think of your butt as being slight “up”, rather than feeling yourself tightening your hips and “thrusting forward” – which is definitely not the position.  Pull in your abdominal muscles to support your spine.

You’ve now moved beyond the basic plank from previous posts (or you were already doing the Plank anyway).  Here are some more interesting and more advanced Core exercises.

These will help you to flatten your abs; work the core beyond your sixpack – such as the obliques (see the side plank); and also make you focus on balance (see the lunge in 1.)

1.        Lunge with Rotation

lunge rotation

 Now that I have heard from my readers that the regular “plank” was either fairly easy or a good challenge ‘that made my legs shake’, it is time for the next level.

This time, after stabilizing your position you will lift up one leg while maintaining that stable posture.  Hold for a count of 10 or twenty and lower the leg.  Repeat this with the other leg.  The pictures below are really good to follow.

 First review the Basic Plank

Did you ever look at the cute Chia Pets and wonder of the sprouting vegetation was edible…. Me neither.  In fact I think the closest I came to a Chia Pet was the commercial on TV – and I never thought of them as food.  The seed on the other hand IS food.

  Looking for something a little different this week I found a set of poses (courtesy of Self.com online magazine) that make you work your core.  Nothing revolutionary, but useful and it came with some nice illustrations.  I have edited where I thought a little more explanation was needed.  Remember, tighten your abs to hold your body aligned, and blow the air out of your stomach and lungs as you tighten.

Yoga for abs and core

The title of this post comes from a sentence in an article on abs from a guy with really great abs.  Yeh, I know there are a lot of hot guys with great abs – see the plethora of calendars, online and offline, making the rounds now that 2010 is in sight.  You haven’t seen them? Maybe I can find some links to help you out.  In the interim – our focus is on our own sixpacks!  Or on our journey there.  The “hot guy” contends we all have Sixpacks!