Your rectus abdominus muscles are paired muscular sheets that form part of the front of your abdominal wall. When you exercise these muscles, you can gain the classic six-pack associated with a well-developed, trim abdomen. People without belly fat typically have more prominent or visible rectus abdominus muscles than people with significant amounts of belly fat.
Understanding Your Abdominal Muscles
Your rectus abdominus muscles originate at the top of your pubic bones and extend to the lower front portion of your rib cage and the bottom of your sternum, or breast bone. Their main function is to allow you to flex your lumbar spine in your lower back. In practical terms, this allows you to raise yourself from a lying position to a sitting position. The other muscles that help form your abdomen are the paired internal obliques, which sit on either side of your rectus muscles; the paired external obliques, which also sit on either side of your rectus muscles, and the transversus abdominus, which sits deeper inside your abdominal wall.
Belly Fat
You have two types of fat in your abdominal region. One type, called subcutaneous fat, sits outside your abdominal muscles below the deepest layer of your skin. The other type, called intra-abdominal fat or visceral fat, sits beneath your abdominal muscles and occupies the open spaces around your abdominal organs. Because it sits on top of your rectus abdominus muscles, subcutaneous fat can have a significant impact on your appearance and obscure your six-pack. Accumulated visceral fat can alter the appearance of your abdomen by increasing your waist size.
Toning Your Abdomen
You can tone your rectus abdominus and other abdominal muscles with exercises that include crunches, reverse crunches, pelvic tilts and pelvic lifts. Alternatively, you can perform exercises that simultaneously work the deep muscles of your abdomen and lower back. Examples here include a movement system called Pilates and a variety of exercises performed with a stability ball. If you have unwanted fat on your belly, you can lose it by getting regular weekly amounts of aerobic and muscle-building exercise and reducing your intake of foods that contain simple carbohydrates and saturated fats.
Considerations
Despite their reputation as a tummy-flattening exercise, traditional situps don't do a very good job of toning your abdominal muscles, MayoClinic.com notes. If you have too much visceral fat in your belly, you can seriously raise your risks for diabetes, breast cancer, heart disease, colon cancer and several other dangerous or potentially fatal ailments. Men usually have too much visceral fat when they have waistlines in excess of 40 inches. Women usually have too much of this fat when they have waistlines that equal or exceed 35 inches. Consult your doctor for more information on the relationship between belly fat and the appearance of your abdomen.
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