Abdominal fat can increase your risk for heart disease, according to the American Heart Association. If you have excess weight in your stomach area and want to slim down and tone up, there are a number of slimming ab exercises that can help you get your body in shape.
Seated Ab Crunch
This classic slimming ab exercise requires only a chair. Sit on the edge of the chair with your hands next to your butt and over the front of the chair. Flex your abdominal muscles and lean your upper body backward, extending your legs out and up and lifting them until they are about 6 inches above the ground. Bend your knees and bring your legs up until they are touching your chest, simultaneously curling your stomach toward your knees and crunching your ab muscles.
Side Plank
Lie on the ground on your right side. Extend your legs out and prop yourself up on your right forearm. Your body should form a long, diagonal line. Rest your left hand on your upper hip bone. Flex your abs to stay balanced and hold for 60 seconds, or as long as you can. This exercise will help tighten your abs by toning your core and oblique muscles.
Seated Medicine Ball Trunk Rotations
This exercise will help slim your abdominal muscles by tightening your obliques and helping your waist look trim. You need a weighted ball to make this exercise more effective, but it can also be done without one. Begin by sitting on the floor (or a mat), your knees bent, feet together and heels pressing into the floor. Hold your weighted ball at chest height. Flex your abdominal muscles and rotate your torso and the ball to the right. Keep the ball held at chest-level, not allowing it to drop toward the floor. Pause and exhale. Slowly rotate your body to the left, keeping your abs flexed. Repeat back and forth. You can make this more difficult by leaning your upper body back a little bit or by lifting your legs off the floor when rotating.
Military Press
This exercise will help you burn calories while working your abdominal muscles, your core and your shoulders. You will need two dumbbells of whatever weight you are comfortable with positioned at shoulder height, palms facing in. Sit on the edge of an exercise bench or a chair and flex your abs. Push the dumbbells straight up, extending your arms until they are straight but the elbows are not locked. Throughout the exercise, keep your abdominal muscles engaged so that your body does not swing, but stays ramrod-straight. Return the weights back to your shoulders to finish one full repetition.
References
- American Heart Association: Abdominal Fat Distribution Predicts Heart Disease
- Women's Health Magazine: Lose Belly Fat: Fat-Burning Abs Exercises: Seated Ab Crunch
- Women's Health Magazine: Flatten Your Belly With This Ab Workout: Side Plank
- American Council on Exercise: Seated Medicine Ball Trunk Rotations
- Women's Health Magazine: Lose Belly Fat: Fat-Burning Abs Exercises: Military Press
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