No-one knows the demands of midlife better than 53-year-old PT and mum-of-two Caroline Idiens. Which is why, for her exclusive Women’s Health training plan, she curated ten 10-minute workouts, including this core session. ‘Ten-minute workouts aren’t just effective – they’re often exactly what your body needs in midlife,’ she says. ‘When you’re juggling work, family life and hormonal changes, quick, targeted movement sessions can deliver real results without leaving you feeling overwhelmed.’
The 10 exercises in this 10-minute bodyweight core session are Caroline’s go-tos for strengthening her abdominals, while the circuit format helps ‘improve both strength and cardiovascular health’, she says. ‘You perform every exercise for 40 seconds, then take just 20 seconds rest between each. This keeps your heart rate elevated which boosts calorie-burn and fat loss, while the whole routine strengthens every muscle in your abdominals.’ Here’s how to do it.
The 10-minute bodyweight core circuit
How to do it: Perform each exercise for 40 seconds, rest for 20 seconds, then move on to the next move. Run through the whole thing once (or double up if you’re feeling energised).
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1. Deadbug
- Lie flat on your back on the floor or a mat. Raise your arms straight up towards the ceiling, and bend your hips and knees to 90 degrees to create a ‘table top’ with your shins.
- Without any part of your spine losing contact with the floor, reach your left arm up above your head and extend your right leg.
- Without allowing your heel to touch the floor, slowly return to the setup position and switch to the opposite arm and leg. Continue switching for 40 seconds.
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2. Leg raise
- Lie on a mat on the floor, face up, legs extended. Place your hands underneath your lower back and glutes so your pelvis is supported. Begin to raise your legs toward the ceiling, pressing your thighs together and keeping the legs straight. Lift until your hips are fully flexed and you can’t go any higher with straight legs,
- Then lower back down with control to extend your legs away from you at a diagonal with your lower back pressing into the mat, and repeat.
3. Bicycle
- Lie on your back with feet flat on the ground, knees bent and interlace your fingers behind the head or place fingertips to the temples. Inhale and as you exhale peel the shoulder blades off the ground and lift the knees to reverse tabletop. This is your starting position.
- From here, twist to draw your right elbow over to the left knee, extending the right leg out as you go. Inhale and as you exhale reverse the movement and repeat on the other side.
4. Low plank knee tap
- Hold a low plank position on your elbows and engage your core.
- Keep your torso absolutely still, drop one knee to tap the floor while keeping the rest of your body in the same position, then alternate knees.
5. Crunch
- Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor – hip-width apart. Place your hands around the back of your head, fingers touching your temples with your elbows pointing outwards.
- Engage your core and lift your upper body a few inches from the ground – sliding your hands up your thighs towards your knees (or staying on the temples). You only want to take your head, neck, shoulders and upper back off the floor – your lower back stays grounded. Come back down again with control, and repeat.
6. Reverse crunch
- Start lying on your back and lift your legs, bending your knees to 90 degrees. Keep your hands by your sides with your palms pressing into the ground.
- Drawing your belly button to your spine to engage your abs, pull your knees towards your chest to lift your hips off the floor. Pause at the top, then slowly reverse the move to come back down, touching one vertebra to the mat at a time.
- Tap your toes lightly to the floor at the bottom – don’t rest your weight on them – before going into rep number two. Breathe in as you crunch and out as you lower down. Remember, it’s your abs doing the work here – don’t rock backwards and forwards and allow momentum to carry you.
7. Plank shoulder tap
- To start, get into a high plank position on your hands with your wrists directly underneath your shoulders. Now brace your core and squeeze your glutes.
- Lift your left hand to tap your right shoulder. Press it firmly back down into your mat, then lift your right hand to tap your left shoulder. Continue repeating.
8. Jack knife
- Start by lying on your back with your arms extended above your head. Draw your belly button in towards your spine and lift your legs off the mat slightly.
- Now bend your knees and using your abs, exhale and draw your knees in towards your chest, keeping your feet stay together. At the same time, bring your arms in towards your feet, slowly lifting your head, shoulder blades and upper back off the mat. Reverse the move to get back to your starting position and repeat.
9. Russian twist
- Sit on the floor, with your knees bent and the soles of your feet flat on the ground. Lean yourself back until you feel that you need to brace your abdominals to stop yourself falling backwards, your upper body should be at around 45 degrees to the floor.
- Once your upper body position is set and abdominal wall is still braced, lift your feet off the floor. You can leave your knees bent, and at this point your body will be forming a V-like shape. Ensure you’ve got your balance, link your hands together in front of your chest.
- Keeping your legs relatively still, rotate your arms all the way over to one side, return to centre and then twist to the other side. Continually twist from one side to the other, maintaining a straight spine as best you can.
10. Bear crawl
- Start in a high plank position, wrists directly under your shoulders. Then walk one leg in to bend your knee so that it’s hovering above the ground at a 90-degree angle to your body, then do the same with the other leg. You should now be in a bear hover position, both knees hovering off the ground.
- Extend one leg back behind you to its original position, then the other leg to return to a full high plank position. Continue walking your legs in and out.
As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director (and a qualified yoga teacher), Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism. She secured her first role at Look Magazine, where her obsession with fitness began and she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!. Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red.
Now, she oversees all fitness content across womenshealthmag.com.uk and the print magazine, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, where we showcase the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise. She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how.
Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.