[[{“value”:”The size and shape of your abdomen isn’t determined by body fat alone. It’s one of the first things I want my clients in their 60s, 70s, and beyond to understand. I’m looking at body composition, obviously, but I’m also looking at how well the abdominal wall is functioning, their posture, how they’re managing intra-abdominal pressure, and even what’s happening with their digestion and bloating. These three standing moves work on all of it, and they go much further than another set of sit-ups.
Meet Your Deep Core
One muscle I’m particularly interested in is the transverse abdominis, or the TVA. It’s the deepest of the abdominal muscles. Its fibers run primarily in a horizontal direction around the abdomen, almost like a corset. They run all the way across the front of your abs and all the way around the back, and they attach into your spine, but they’re deep, so they’re below all the other muscles.
When I’m working with somebody, I don’t just care about how many sit-ups they can do. I want to know whether they can actually recruit and control that deeper abdominal wall. I’ve worked with plenty of clients who are relatively strong and can do a ton of traditional abdominal exercises, especially sit-ups. But when I have them isolate the TVA, they have a very difficult time finding it.
The TVA isn’t there to flex the spine. It’s involved in controlling the abdominal wall, stabilizing the trunk, and managing intra-abdominal pressure. I don’t only want that muscle getting stronger. I want the entire abdominal wall to be able to contract, relax, and coordinate.
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Get Your Belly Moving
This becomes particularly important for clients who deal with bloating, constipation, or just feel like their stomach is constantly distended. By incorporating controlled movement of the abdominal wall, we can create an alternating contraction and relaxation through that region rather than simply holding everything tight all the time.
There’s some evidence that physical activity and abdominal movement can support gastrointestinal motility. I’m careful not to tell anyone that an ab exercise is going to fix a digestive problem, because that’s a much bigger conversation. But clinically, I’ve had clients tell me they notice a difference in how their abdomen feels when we start getting more movement through that area.
That’s an important concept if somebody’s abdomen is distended, or they’re bloated or constipated. Doing more sit-ups isn’t necessarily going to address the problem they’re actually seeing. The belly roll is how I train this, and you can see it in the video below.
March Away Belly Fat
Now, we have to separate all of that from actual body fat reduction, and I want to be very clear about this. We cannot spot reduce abdominal fat. For actual fat loss, we have to increase overall energy expenditure. That’s where I like to bring cardiovascular movements into the equation.
Marching is something I’ve used a lot with older clients because it’s incredibly scalable. It allows us to safely elevate our heart rate and involve the large muscle groups of the body that help boost our metabolic output. I can modify it based on who’s standing in front of me. We can change the speed, the knee height, and the duration. We can also incorporate various arm movements into the action to move more blood around. That’s much more useful to me than simply telling someone to do more sit-ups.
Once we’re good at marching, we can actually incorporate the abdominal work into the march. I’ll show you that in the video below.
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Three Goals for Your Midsection
When I’m working on the abdomen with an older client, I’m really looking at three different physiological principles:
Can we improve recruitment and control of the deep abdominal wall?
Can we restore some contraction, relaxation, and movement throughout the region, which may support normal digestive function? We do that with the belly roll.
Can we get enough of the body moving to increase cardiovascular demand and overall energy expenditure? That’s where the marching comes in.
This takes us far beyond just training the abs. We’re addressing abdominal function, movement, and body composition as three different things tied into one program. In my experience, that’s a much more useful way to approach the midsection than simply doing more sit-ups.
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