Fitness trends and a desire to achieve the body of your favorite celebrity may motivate you to hit the gym. But before you work out in earnest, consider the look you seek. If you want an absolutely flat stomach, for instance, your exercise routine will differ from one designed to give you six-pack abs. You can obtain a muscular stomach with either a flat or rippled look.
Cardio Training Not Enough
Cardio training -- exercises that elevate your heart rate, such as running, swimming or working out on an elliptical machine -- will help you achieve overall fat loss. But cardio training will not specifically target your stomach. You will lose weight in equal percentages in all parts of your body -- stomach, hips, butt, legs, arms, back and face -- so you could lose a substantial amount of weight and still sport a paunch. Liposuction provides the only way to achieve a spot reduction of abdominal fat, according to Amelia Burton, a health and fitness trainer who writes for The West Australian.
Abdominal Crunches
Abdominal crunches -- informally called ab crunches -- can help tone the muscles around your belly. Ab crunches are modified situps in which you use your abdominal muscles to lift your shoulders off the floor without attempting to elevate your body to a fully upright position. While ab crunches can tighten and strengthen your belly muscles, they do not eliminate stomach fat. If you combine ab crunches with cardio training, you may reach your flat-stomach goal. A flat stomach requires toned muscles and minimal fat. It may take several months of ab-targeted exercise, cardio training and reduced-calorie diet to achieve a flat stomach.
Flat or Six-pack Abs
To achieve a flat stomach, perform exercises that will tighten all of your abdominal muscles -- the rectus abdominis, internal and external obliques and transverse abdominis. If you want a flat stomach, don't overdo these exercise or you will end up with a rippled stomach. If you want a flat stomach rather than six-pack abs, also avoid working with weights. In addition to ab crunches, you do can situps, oblique crunches and reverse crunches to obtain a flat stomach.
Considerations
Food and beverage enemies of a flat stomach include refined sugars like alcohol, sweets and cookies. Avoid low-fiber, carbohydrate-rich foods such as white bread, rice and pasta. Include foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and low-fat dairy products. Yoga, Pilates, swimming, aerobics and running are some of the exercises that will help you lose the extra fat in your tummy.
References
- "The West Australian"; Flat Tummy Myths; Jan. 18, 2011
- "Daily Record"; Fit Me, Baby: How to Get Britney's Toned Tummy; April 26, 2007
- "Sunday Herald Sun"; How to Have a Flat Tummy at Any Age; James Duigan, Donna Duggan; Jan. 16, 2011
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