Exercises To Shrink Your Stomach

You cannot exercise to burn fat in one area of your body. The only way to lose your belly fat is to exercise regularly and eat fewer calories than your body’s energy requirement. Cardio and weight training exercises are an effective way to burn calories and help you shrink your stomach.

Weight Training

Weight training will improve your muscle strength and mass. Your muscles require energy to contract and this energy need increases considerably when you exercise. The more muscle mass you have the more calories you will burn, even at rest. Whole body weight training will increase your muscles and tone your physique. Do two to three weight training exercises every week that target your chest, back, legs and abdominal muscles.

Sprint Interval Training

Sprint interval training incorporates high intensity intervals to your regular cardio workout. When you add short but powerful intervals to your exercise routine, you will increase your heart rate and burn more calories during your workout. Start with a five to 10 minute low intensity warm up. After your warm up, increase your exercise intensity to moderate by kicking up your pace. Start incorporating vigorous sprints every few minutes by increasing your intensity to high for 60 seconds. After the 60-second sprint, continue with a moderate intensity for two to three minutes to recover, and then repeat the sprint. Do a 30-minute to an hour workout, three times a week.

Aerobic Classes

Take a high intensity aerobic class at a health club. Kickboxing, indoor cycling, step aerobic and circuit training are great classes that keep your intensity and heart rate high throughout the workout. The more vigorous the exercise, the more calories you will burn during an hour program. In addition, your metabolism stays high long after the workout, making you burn more calories even at rest.

Hiking

Although high intensity and sprint interval exercises are effective ways to burn more calories in less time, you can burn fat and get results doing low or moderate intensity exercises as well. During a low intensity exercise you will burn fewer calories than during a vigorous exercise in the same amount of time. However, most of the calories you burn come from fat. In addition, because you are exercising with a lower intensity, you can keep exercising for longer periods of time. A two to three hour cross-country hike is a great moderate intensity, fat burning exercise.

Abdominal Workout

Once you start burning fat and your waistline begins shrinking, your abdominal muscles start showing. Abdominal exercises, like situps and crunches, are a great way to tone and build your muscles. Do abdominal crunches and twists. Start by lying on the floor on your back, with your hip and knees bent. Place your hands behind your head and lift your upper body off the floor until you feel your abdominal muscles contract. Hold for a few seconds and then lower your body back to the floor. Repeat 20 times. For abdominal twists, raise your body to a sitting position, while holding your knees and hips. Lean back until you can feel a your abdominal muscles contract. Hold your arms straight in front of you. Begin turning your upper body from left to right while holding your lower body unmoved. Repeat 20 times. Take a break and then do two more sets of each exercise.