Tips To Flatten The Stomach

There's a lot of contradicting information out there about the best way to get a flat stomach. Some people will tell you to do hundreds of crunches. Some commercials will tell you to buy a certain piece of exercise equipment. Others will tell you to forget exercising; all you need is a pill or drink. A flat stomach is a worthwhile goal. The pursuit of one will lead to a healthier, less injury-prone you. But nothing worthwhile is easily attained.

Perform Abdominal Exercises

In "The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding," Arnold Schwarzenegger explains that it's not possible to spot-reduce fat. You won't burn fat specifically in your abdomen by performing abdominal muscle exercises. However, a girdle will undoubtedly flatten your stomach, and the abdominal muscles are the body's natural girdle. If that girdle is weak and loose, it won't adequately hold in your organs and visceral fat--the fat beneath your abdominal muscle that surrounds your organs. If it's strong, it will prevent the bulging that causes a pot belly.

Increase Abdominal Exercise Intensity

Abdominal exercises can flatten your stomach but not if you're just going through the motions. Don't perform hundreds of crunches at high speeds. Doing this trains your abdominal muscles to process lactic acid. It doesn't make them stronger. If you concentrate and flex your abs hard, you can exhaust them in sets of 10 to 20 reps, even with basic crunches. But to increase the intensity of your abdominal workouts, perform lots of exercises and plenty that put you in unstable positions. Try bicycle crunches and plate twists and windshield wipers. Try the Turkish getup, one of the strangest exercises you'll encounter. All this will shock your abdominal muscles into growth, which will cinch in your waistline.

Lift Heavy Weights

To really flatten your stomach, you need to not only develop the exterior abdominal muscles, but your entire core. This includes deeper abdominal muscles and your lower back muscles. A study published in the January 2008 issue of the "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research" found that heavy lifts such as squats and deadlifts activate as many core muscle as do ab-specific stability ball exercises. This is due to an effect that heavy lifts cause called "abdominal blocking." "Strength Training Anatomy" explains that when the body prepares to move extremely heavy weight, it activates the entire core, even the opposing muscles, in order to create internal pressure that prevents the spine from folding forward. The result is total abdominal development, which will flatten your stomach better than ab-specific exercises alone.

Perform Aerobic Exercises

Remember that performing abdominal exercises isn't going to get rid of fat specifically in the abdomen. Weightlifting isn't the most efficient way to burn fat. That title belongs to aerobic exercise. Running is a great choice because the repeated lifting of the legs stimulates the abdominals in a way similar to leg lifts, but if you can't stand the thought of spending extra hours in the gym, there are other ways to get your aerobic exercise. Take up a martial art. Many are affordable and let you take as many classes as you like. Start cycling. Take up indoor soccer. The point is that it's possible to have so much fun burning calories that you don't even realize that you're exercising. The most important variable in fat loss is consistency. It's more important to find an exercise you'll do regularly than to find one that's the best at burning calories.