5 Top Core Exercises for Midlife Women

Let’s be real—our core isn’t just about rocking abs (though, hey, no complaints there). It’s about keeping us strong, steady, and ready for whatever life throws our way. Whether it’s lugging around heavy groceries, hoisting grandkids who seem to weigh as much as a small car, or just getting through the day without tweaking your back, a strong core is your MVP. For midlife women, it’s even more important. A solid core can help protect against falls, improve bone density, and even support pelvic floor health—because nobody warned us that sneezing would become a risky activity post-menopause. So, if you’re ready to level up your strength, move better, and laugh without worry (yes, I went there), these top 5 core exercises are for you. Let’s get to it!

Banded Side-Plank w/Iso-Hold Clam

This exercise is not only great for improving lumbo-pelvic hip stability (core strength), but also for strengthening the abductors (glute medius) as well as assisting with shoulder and scapular stability.

1. Place a band around your knees. Start on your side with your knees bent and heels in line with the sit-bones.
2. Press up through your arm lifting your hips up and forward with a tucking of the pelvis to bring it into a neutral position.
3. Be sure that your shoulder is directly over your elbow and that you are “pushing away” from the floor with your arm and engaging your lat muscle.
4. Be sure to close down the rib cage.
5. Clam your knees open and hold open as high as you can while tucking and activating your glutes. Heels together, toes open. Iso-hold this position for prescribed amount of time.
6. Progression: Close and open the top knee for reps (10-15).

1/2 Kneeling Cable Rotation

The Cable Rotation is a core exercise designed to strengthen the rotational aspect of the trunk. Rotation is a heavily underused training method for your core and it’s not surprising that trunk rotation is a functional exercise…..we need to rotate through our trunk on a daily basis.

How to perform this exercise:

1. Start in a 1/2 kneeling position at a 90 degree angle to the origin point of the cable machine. You should set up a small distance away from the cable to provide constant tension throughout the exercise. Place your knee on a pad.
2. Find your grip – Use the rope attachment with your hands set just wider than shoulder width a part.
3. Keeping your hips square to the initial direction you are facing, rotate your torso over the raised leg, keeping your arms straight and following your hands with your eye’s.
4. Control the movement back to the starting position and don’t forget to train both sides.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Setting up with the wrong leg forward – You should aim to rotate toward and over the your raised leg and not away from it.
2. Turning with your hips – Doing this takes the emphasis away from the core and changes the exercise, so keep your hips square.

Pall of Press

As mentioned, the Pall of press is an anti-rotation exercise. Essentially, this means the core muscles have to work to resist rotation. Anti-rotational exercises recruit the muscles deep in our core, building stability and strength through the obliques and spine. It might not sound as glamorous, but training your core in this way will do wonders for your big compound lifts and athletic ability, helping boost your ability to stabilize your body against external forces.

The banded Pall of Press is the most common way to perform the exercise. You’ll need a long, light—to medium-weight resistance band looped around the rig or power rack at chest height. If you’re doing your ab workout at home, you will need to secure the band around a point that isn’t going to move, for example, a heavy table or desk leg.

How to perform this exercise:

1. Take the free end of the resistance band, interlacing your fingers to clasp it between the palms of your hands. Stand perpendicular to the rig, holding the band in your hands just in front of your chest.
2. Take a couple of steps away from the rig so there is tension on the band. Keep a soft bend in your knees, feet hip-width apart.
3. Take a deep breath, squeeze your shoulder blades, and press your hands straight out in front of you. Keep your core tight to resist the tension pulling you toward the anchor point.
4. Hold for 1 second, then slowly bring your hands back towards your chest in a controlled way.
5. Repeat all of your reps on one side, then turn the other way and perform the exercise on the other side.

Dead Bug + Iso-Foam Roller Press

Dead Bugs are great for improving lumbo-pelvic stability. This variation with the foam roller is one of my favorite versions of Dead Bug. Here I’m performing a Dead Bug while applying constant pressure against a foam roller with my thigh, and the hand that is on the opposite side of my body.

1. Before starting my reps, I take a deep inhale and “brace” my abs. Do not brace by “sucking in”, but rather brace as if someone were going to punch you in the gut, or that you are closing down the rib cage and pelvis, moving them closer toward one another.
2. Once you are braced and you are applying pressure with your hand and knee against the foam roller, begin by extending the opposite arm and leg out. Be sure you are exhaling through your mouth while contracting the core muscles as you do so.
3. Keep ribcage down and lower back does not change shape or “arch” while doing this exercise.

Short-Lever Copenhagen Plank

Copenhagen Planks are not only great for improving lumbo-pelvic hip stability (core strength), but also for strengthening the adductors (inner thighs) as well as assisting with shoulder and scapular stability.

How to perform this exercise:

1. Position yourself on your side and thread one leg through the bottom of a bench and the other leg over the bench, bending the knee 90 degrees so that the lower part of your top leg is resting on the bench.
2. Place your forearm bent at 90 degrees with shoulder directly over your elbow.
3. Then press up through your forearm, lift your hips up to the sky and squeeze the bench between your top knee and bottom leg.
4. Be sure to “tuck” your pelvis under you so that your core is engaged, ribcage in, and you are not allowing your lower back to arch.
5. Keep your chin tucked in and neck in line with your spine.
6. Engage your lat muscle to ensure your shoulder and scapula are stable. Think of “pressing away” though your forearm to accomplish this.
7. Hold for the desired amount of time.