Core Strength for 50+: A Customized Program for Safely Toning Ab, Back, and Oblique Muscles

by Karl Knopf

Stay young, improve your mobility and prevent injury with the bestselling fitness guide for core strength training for 50-plus from Dr. Karl Knopf.

From swinging a golf club to carrying a bag of groceries, the core is everything. Balance, agility and youthful stature are just a few of the benefits of a toned and powerful midsection. Core Strength for 50+ has everything you need

• Improve posture
• Enhance sports performance
• Guarantee low back health
• Avoid injury

With workouts ranging from basic mat work routines to unstable training with foam rollers and stability balls, Core Strength for 50+ provides more than 75 exercises that build and maintain strong muscles in the abs, obliques, lower back and butt.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Health

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 23, 2012

Reviews

[Stephen Hiemstra · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 2012 I worked for 3 months in an Alzheimer’s unit associated with a local hospital. One of the critical features of life in the unit was the question of mobility, strength, and stability. Loss of mobility was often the kiss of death because bed-ridden residents would suffer muscle atrophy, depression, and decline—even death. The triggering event is most frequently a fall. Consequently, physical therapy—usually simple exercises—was critical to health maintenance and longevity.

Interest in “core exercises” arose out of the increasingly sophisticated field of sports medicine. The core is “the region from the tops of the legs to the shoulder” (8). Just likely the elderly, professional athletes are prone to injury although they heal better than older people. National attention was drawn to core exercises in the early 1980s when it is was used San Francisco 49er quarterback, Joe Montana (9).

The motivation for adding core exercises to your routine arises because:

“Having an aligned and strong yet flexible core can take the load off the vertebral column and discs [lower back], which results in improved function and less discomfort and pain” (8).

The benefits of core exercises include both preventative and rehabilitation objectives:

“improved posture, which allows you to present a more youthful appearance [not bent over like many elderly people], and balance. It also means less load on the lumbar region of your low back, reducing the risk of injury to any arthritic joints and discs in addition to pain. Performance in sports and recreational pursuits is also boosted.” (13-14)

I wish that I had been introduced to such exercises as a young person because in junior high school I injured my back tube-surfing at the ocean and suffered severe lower back pain episodically ever since. In 2008, the pain was so bad that I was on my back for 3 days in a row twice during the summer and after visiting a back specialist started doing Pilates exercises before my daily swim[1]. Pilates are, in fact, a kind of core exercise.

Karl Knopf’s book, Core Strength for 50+, draws on the author’s experience with both the elderly and professional athletes. Knopf is a professor emeritus of Foothill College[2] and longtime director of senior fitness with the International Sports Science Association (127)[3]. He is also the author of numerous exercise books (125)[4]. Knopf divides his book into 3 parts:

1. Getting Started
2. The Programs and
3. The Exercises (v).

His introduction is part of part 1. Following part 3 are a topical index, acknowledgments, and a brief biography of the author.

Knopf divides core training into 4 stages:

1. Leaning to contract deep-lying muscles.
2. Focus on endurance of those muscles.
3. Challenges to the core with arm motions. And
4. Additional challenges to the core (14).

The attitude appropriate for these exercises is important. Knopf sees these principles as key:

o Concentration and perseverance.
o Quality of movement is more important than quantity.
o Slow, purposeful progression to more challenging movements. and
o The ability to perform every action from a neutral spine (15).

This last point came as a surprise. Knopf is very concerned with proper posture. He writes: “Learning to sit, stand, and move in the most biomechanical manner is foundational.” He advises: “If you want to look young, stand tall.” (16) After reading this, I became very self-conscious how I walked…

The philosophy of core training is likewise a bit different. Knopf writes: “The key to a well-aligned core is to strengthen that which is weak and lengthen that which is inflexible.” (22) The way this is done explains all the exotic equipment found around gyms these days—big round plastic balls, form rubber rollers, kettle bells, etc. Exercising with unstable surfaces engages more muscle groups in the core (23).

Karl Knopf’s book, Core Strength for 50+, is an interesting and helpful book. Not only did reading it help me understand my own exercise routine—the Pilates—but I also appreciated the update on what I observed in the gym everyday—people using all that exotic equipment doing exercises that did not exist when I was young and in physical education classes. I have changed my daily routine; you may want to too.



[1] http://pilates.about.com/od/whatispil...

[2] 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022. (http://www.FootHill.edu).

[3] https://www.linkedin.com/pub/dr-karl-....

[4] http://karlknopf.blogspot.com.

[Stan]

Good exercises

A string core is essential for proper strength training. I can't wait to put this knowledge to use before working out.

[Steve H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Start with about 90 subtly distinct exercises/stretches and then have about 20 pages of collections of these exercises/stretches as workouts and you have this book. The descriptions of the exercises are relatively clear and most have a photo or two to help with the explanation. It's a good starting point, and it would no doubt be useful if the workouts were followed regularly, but there's little to motivate you to do the workouts. I think that's probably a case of user error (mine) rather than a fault of the book, though.

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a lot of text in this book, mostly a list with illustrations of exercises and different programs to try.
The exercises are easy to understand and I am working on the programs one at a time.
I will try to remember to come back and tell you how things go after a few weeks. Looks promising though.

[Maureen]

interesting series of core exercises for 50 year olds plus; including prone, tabletop, supine series for 4 levels plus series of appropriate stretches