Growing a bulging belly can take a long time and you might find you'll need to work just as hard to lose it. You can use targeted exercises to tackle your tummy but that's just one element to the solution. More general exercises and a good diet will also help you banish your belly. You'll find a program of weights and resistance exercises are a great help. Use a program of weights, exercises targeted at your abdomen and aerobic exercise and you'll be slim and trim again before you know it.
Bicycle Crunches
You need to lie flat on your back and crunch your stomach --- like a mini sit up --- while gently cycling both of your legs. Concentrate on keeping a gentle, steady pace and really feeling your abs contract as you complete each crunch.
Inclined Knee-Ups
Use a decline abs bench to lie on and grab hold of the foot rests while you lift your knees towards your chest. Think of it as a reversed crunch and you should try to lift your pelvis from the bench a little. To get a really strenuous abs workout you could go for 10 repetitions repeated 10 times with just a 30 second rest between sets. Do this and you'll really know that you're fighting your bulging belly.
Negative Crunches
Negative crunches reverse the usual emphasis of these exercises and you'll be working hardest as you return to the horizontal. Start as if you were at the top of crunch and slowly return your body to the horizontal, taking between three and six seconds. You'll be able to do negative crunches once you're all crunched out from the standard exercises. You can use your arms to push you up to the start position and try and keep going until you can't manage any more. You'll be working the rarely stretched transverse abdominis muscle according to "The Abs Diet."
Side Bends
You'll know them as "love handles" if your oblique muscles are sagging. To tackle this sideways expansion use a hyper-extension machine. First, lower yourself, bending at your waist before crunching up, feeling your obliques contract as you do so. If you start to feel too comfortable doing these bends try holding a 10-lb. weight to get a real burn.
Hyper-Extensions
It's important to work your back muscles alongside your abs to avoid injury and these exercises concentrate on the erector spinae muscles at the base of the spine. Secure your feet at the foot-pads of a hyper-extension machine and slowly bend from the waist to lower yourself towards the floor. Once you're fully extended use the muscles of the lower back to rise back to the horizontal. A slow lowering movement will also work on your abs.
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