Liz Earle believes it’s never too late to age better, and she loves sharing her fitness and wellbeing tips on her lifestyle platform. She's a skincare expert, but the 63-year-old also regularly walks her followers through her strength training routines.
While she often shares upper-body workouts and those with leg and glute exercises, in a recent video, Liz reveals: "I don't do any exercises for my stomach. I think that the way that women have been taught to think about exercise has been so focused on our appearance. And I really want us to be thinking about health span. So that's how strong, healthy, and happy and mobile we can feel in our later years. And this is so much more important than having washboard abs."
Speaking from her home gym, she says: "When it comes to exercises for my core, I'm really not doing crunches day in, day out." While these core exercises can help improve core strength, she says she prefers doing a "broader range of exercises" that focus on different parts of the body and work the core as a "byproduct" or a "beneficial side effect".
In a video posted on her Liz Earle Wellbeing YouTube channel, the businesswoman shares some of her exercise and lifestyle hacks for strengthening her core. She says simple exercises or movements many people are familiar with can give our core a “sneaky workout” too.
1. Squat
One of the key exercises Liz does to improve her core strength is weighted squats. Demonstrating with 8kg dumbbells, she explains that her personal trainer emphasised the importance of bringing your navel to your spine when you do these exercises.
This will stabilise your lower back and activate your abdominal muscles while you’re working out. She says doing this while you squat will “automatically firm and tone” up your core.
2. Push-ups
“Push-ups are really good for the arms, but you’re toning your core at the same time. Because even if you’re doing them on your knees instead of a full plank, you’ve got to engage your core while you do them,” says Liz.
Engaging your core will help to improve your core strength by getting all the muscles in this area (deep and superficial) to work together as one unit.
3. Planks
If you can't do a full push-up, then a plank is a good place to start. Just hold this position with straight or bent arms for as long as you can.
4. Balance exercises
Liz has another suggestion for an easy way for you to improve your core strength and balance, and it’s one all of us can do twice a day. She stands on one leg while she’s brushing her teeth. She says she’s been doing this for so long now that she doesn’t “even think about it” anymore.
She will stand on one leg and then swap halfway through. “You will feel your (core) muscles engage, because you need them to balance,” she tells viewers.
It's not only core and mobility exercises that Liz says have made a difference in her life. Prioritising protein has been a “game-changer” for her by “supporting my strength but also keeping me full so I don’t overeat”.
She aims for 25-30g of protein at every meal and will have a protein shake during the day too if she’s done a workout. She suggests sneaking protein powder into your diet in several ways, from drinking it to adding it to pasta sauce or soup. Protein supplements can also be beneficial for people who follow a vegan or vegetarian diet.
If you eat a balanced diet with plenty of lean meat, fish, eggs, beans, nuts, tofu and lentils, you may not need anything extra.
