Types of Stomach Toning

Men have more of a tendency to accumulate fat in the abdominal region and women who have gone through child birth can sometimes find it hard to get the abdominal muscles back in shape. Fat, anywhere in the body, is burned through aerobic exercise, so you can't spot-reduce specific areas of your body. However, toning the muscles is important and can be done in several ways.

Pilates

Pilates was invented by Joseph Pilates in the early 1900's. According to the website Balanced Body, this exercise technique focuses on the core, which includes your abdominals and back. However, its aim is to condition and strengthen the entire body. Pilates also emphasizes breathing and correct spinal and pelvic alignment while incorporating smooth, flowing movements to help you become more in tune with your body. Popular Pilates exercises for toning the stomach include the hundred, roll up, rolling like a ball, bridge core and single leg circle.

Yoga

According to Cyndi Lee, who owns a yoga studio and is an expert at YogaJournal.com, yoga "is a program of physical postures designed to purify the body and provide the physical strength and stamina required for long periods of meditation." Many yoga poses make use of the abdominal muscles, such as seated forward bend pose, upward extended foot pose, bridge pose and upward bow pose.Yoga enthusiasts believe that it's important to have strong abs, but not so much that they compromise flexibility of the core or flatten out the lower lumbar spine.

Stability Ball

The American Council on Exercise commissioned a study in 2001 to find out which abdominal exercises were best. The third best exercise, according to the study, is performing crunches on a stability ball. In this study, researchers discovered that abdominal exercises that made use of "constant abdominal stabilization, as well as body rotation, generated the most muscle activity in the obliques." The stability ball ranked highest in home exercise equipment because it met these standards. Besides crunches, you can perform stability ball knee tucks, Russian twists and pikes.

Calisthenics

Calisthenics is a form of exercise that only uses your body as resistance. It also takes little space and can easily be done in your home. Popular calisthenic abdominal exercises include situps and crunches. According to the ACE study, the bicycle maneuver was ranked No. 1 for activating the rectus abdominis muscles and No. 2 for activating the muscles of the obliques. The reverse crunch, vertical leg crunch and the hover, or plank, were all listed in the top 10 best exercises for the abdominal muscles.