These overlooked muscles are the key to aging well

“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 re