Core exercise?

Short answer: no, it's never too late

Long string of questions: How often do you run? What do the workouts you speak of consist of? What is the frequency of those? When will you know you've reach your "strong core" goal?

This is all quite cardio focused (with perhaps some HIIT with Beachbody but they have a fazzitrillion program options).

To get the goal you want, it may be helpful to review the types of workout programs that can get you there (using the resources you have...or can easily/happily acquire).

While I've not heard of MBF, others may have. Furthermore there's a thread in the forums about program optimization. I'll be back when/if I find it lol

Which lifting program is best for you

I’m just past 50, also had 4 pregnancies and have a pretty strong core — or at least I think so.
I love BeachBody. I’ve done plyo, Brazil butt lift, all the 21 day fixes, two rounds of MBF+a (12 weeks), 80 day obsession and I’m just finished the first two weeks of Hammer and Chisel.
I’m sure you already know you cannot spot reduce.
If your goal is to have visible abs, then you need to lose more weight — as Sagi (Hammer) says “you get abs in the kitchen”.
I’ve definitely noticed improvements with my core strength and muscle definition the heavier the lifting I do. Continuous increase in weight and volume of lifting challenges the muscle to fatigue and contributes to muscle gains.
I also find when I track my food and ensure my protein intake is at least 30% of my calories, I ‘lean out’ more than when I don’t do that.
I am not any kind of expert, just sharing my own personal experience.
Happy to do a BOD program with you. There is also a BeachBody discussion group here on MFP, but it is not very active.

Re 645: I have not looked at it. I don’t understand why anyone would pay extra for a program to get it as soon as it is released. There are a 100 BOD programs and all become included in the subscription after 6 months.

I really enjoyed MBF and MBFa. I’ll definitely do that program again.

I’ve read that regardless of the workout routine you do, it is important to change it every 12 weeks. I’ve definitely noticed that I see changes when I do that. It is interesting because in many cases the general exercises are the same across different programs, but they are stacked differently with different weight and tempo patterns. It keeps us from getting bored and provides a different challenge for our muscles.

In terms of abs:
I recently read this article - https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness-exercises/abs-over-60 which has some good inspiration.
I also recently discovered PromeWomen.com. They’ve got some interesting articles on exercise and fitness for women over 50.

Age-height-weight:
I’m also 130 pounds. My highest non-pregnant weight was 145.
My goal is 120 pounds and 25% body fat.
Two years ago I got to 125 and stayed there for 18 months. Then last October my youngest daughter started baking bread and other treats. I put on 10 pounds in 6 months. In April she moved back to school 1800 km away. So far I’ve lost 5 pounds. It always seems so much easier to gain it than to lose it.
I’m 5’5” my current body fat % is 29%. I use health status.com (https://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/body-fat-percentage-calculator/)BF% calculator + my bio impedance scale and take the average of the 5 results to determine my BF%.
I’d really love to have that flat tummy I had 30 years ago, but I honestly do not think that is realistic for me because I’m not prepared to lose that much weight. I also weighed 115pounds 30 years ago. My goal is to be healthy and fit. My obliques are defined, I’m no where near a “6-pack”. I say “I have abs, they are just hiding under a half an inch of fat”.

My kids: my children are all pretty much adults now. Girl 25, boy 23, girl 21, boy 17.

Take care

OP, is your goal a strong core (as you say) or cute abs (which is where some of the comments will lead)? Those are related, but not identical.

I had a pretty strong core even when obese, but folds and rolls, not cute. Strong core can be mostly about exercise/strength/activities.

Cute abs is some combo of abdominal muscle mass and body fat percent/distribution, and it realistically may be out of reach for some women with some body fat distributions, at any reasonably healthy body fat percentage. However, the strong core can help a woman get to the cute zone, both via muscle mass and posture improvement.

I agree with MaltedTea and Maxxit about good exercises for core strength. Much of any core strength I personally have came from hundreds and thousands of hours of rowing (boats and machines) over a couple of decades, so I can't really recommend that as an expedient route.

There's some research suggesting (not IMO 100% definitively proving) that strength training and *some* high intensity cardio can help mobilize abdominal fat in older women.

I can't really see whether it's the case from your photos (not full-body), but you might see some visual improvements fairly quickly from work on posture. If some of your goal is appearance, that's something to consider.

Many of us these days have some "anterior pelvic tilt" and some "kyphotic posture" unflatteringly a.k.a. "nerd neck" (not actual kyphosis, which is structural). If either or both of those are present, they can emphasize the abdominal area by (putting it ungracefully) pushing any remaining body fat in that area downward and forward so it protrudes. There are exercises specifically for those things, if you think they might be true of you.

I'm 5'5", weigh 125ish pounds, estimate my bodyfat in the lower 20s percent (about 23% if I use the kind of estimating approach (calculator+BIA) that @age_is_just_a_number mentions. I'm age 65. At this bodyfat, I have fairly obvious abdominal vertical lines (from the obliques) and just the faintest suggestion of a central vertical and the uppermost horizontal, in the right light, when not in a higher water retention phase. I think I might be able to get higher on the ab cuteness scale (if I cared, but I don't) with more strength training, more direct ab work, and another maybe 10 pounds less fat. (I don't think 10 pounds less fat is a good plan at current muscularity, for me.).

So, bottom line, I don't think "nearing 50" is any kind of doom, and I think you can absolutely achieve improved core strength, and probably can achieve a more defined appearance if that's part of what you want. I think the exercise suggestions from the @MaltedTea and @Maxxitt would be more helpful, probably, than other things that have been suggested.

If you have it, you might enjoy delving into this thread, which shows lots of real women's abdomens at varied weights, ages, etc., with comments on their exercise history and what not. (I'm even in there at a higher weight & BF% than now.)

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10689837/does-this-uterus-make-my-stomach-look-fat/p1

Best wishes!

age_is_just_a_number wrote: »

(snip for reply length)
I’ve read that regardless of the workout routine you do, it is important to change it every 12 weeks. I’ve definitely noticed that I see changes when I do that. It is interesting because in many cases the general exercises are the same across different programs, but they are stacked differently with different weight and tempo patterns. It keeps us from getting bored and provides a different challenge for our muscles.
(snip)

I'm skeptical about the bolded. For what reason would it be important to change it every 12 weeks? Fitness? Appearance?

I do think a well-rounded overall exercise program is important in order to achieve well-rounded fitness. But the main place I've seen "switch up programs frequently" advice is from people/organizations that sell programs and equipment, which provokes a little cynicism in me, personally.

I'm loosely familiar with elite training programs for my sport (what's done with Div I college athletes, some about national team). They do used periodized plans that emphasize different aspects of fitness across a competitive year, but it's not the kind of changes that would be embodied in switching BBOD or similar programs. I'm not dissing BBOD, because recreational-fitness folks get some decent results, and seem to enjoy the approach, but if that were the way to maximum fitness, we'd see elite athletes doing body confusion kind of switching . . . and they don't. They run specific training plans with specific training goals.

For sure, if someone is getting bored, feeling stale, it makes sense to change things up, no argument. But I haven't seen diminishing returns on doing the same exercise, as long as there's progressive challenge in the picture . . . at least not beyond that relatively brief, happy period of newbie gains, after which the improvement rate is slower. (My main time investment has been the same exercise for almost 20 years now, FWIW.)

age_is_just_a_number wrote: »

I’ve read that regardless of the workout routine you do, it is important to change it every 12 weeks.

That's a negative, ghostrider.

For me... Squats, bench have been awesome, but many cannot do those (or make it work)...

For direct work... Planks, pushups, Superman, bicycles, Russian twists, leg lifts...resistance band twists, medicine ball situps, exercise ball crunches, glute bridges... The list is pretty endless.

Indirect... Boxing was AHHHMAZING. Heavy lifting. Pullups.

What @AnnPT77 said about cute vs functional is spot on. You can have a solid core, but if it's covered in a layer of fat, it won't be visible. Visible abs are largely a product of having lower body fat and genetics as to where the fat comes off first.