“Six-pack” abs might look like a sign of fitness, but they reveal surprisingly little about your health. The true secret to healthy aging lies not in visible abdominal muscles, but in the intricate network of muscles that make up your core.
These deeper core muscles stabilize your spine, protect your back, and power almost every movement you make. Yet training with standard moves like crunches for the sake of visible abs can do more harm than good, says Ben Yamuder, an exercise physiologist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.
“When training in that manner, you isolate a very small proportion of muscles in the core,” Yamuder says. He adds there are 35 muscles in your abdomen, and the rectus abdominis—the muscle that runs down the front of the abdomen, commonly referred to as your “six-pack”—only consists of two of them.
Understanding what the rest of those muscles do—and how to strengthen them—could be one of the most effective ways to stay strong, balanced, and pain-free as you age. Here’s what you need to know.
The muscles that make up your core—and how they work
To understand why the core is so vital, it helps to look at how it works. “The core is a complex system of muscles that stabilizes and moves both the spine and the pelvis,” says Tom Holland, CEO and founder of TeamHolland LLC, a fitness consulting company. “These muscles work together to support the spine, manage intra-abdominal pressure [pressure inside your stomach that’s caused by the organs and fluids within it], and create a stable base for movement.”