Need tummy exercises

[Teapot]

Hello!

I need a little help on how to start strengthing and flattening my stomach. What are some of the best exercises besides your basic crunch? I've heard it doesn't help "flat out" your stomach, just builds muscle. Is this true????

 

[new@gettinbig]

It really comes down to your DIET and CARDIO.......

 

[Sassy69]

Often that "estrogen related bodyfat" (the stuff nature puts there to protect babies -- you know -- hips, ass, tummy ) is the last to go -- the most fat cells there. Since you can't spot reduce, you have to do overall bodyfat reduction and the place that takes the longest to see the result is just going to be the place where it looks like you never make any headway.

Keep up the clean diet & cardio - helps reduce any bloat in that area and you will see results -- you may see the results quicker or more apparantly in other areas, but it will come. TRUST ME! LOL!

 

[Teapot]

I thought cardio would probably have alot to do with it. I am trying to eat healthy, but I think I am going to do some research on dieting.

 

[Teapot]

Sassy - I guess the saying is true! "Good things come to those who wait!" You just have to have alot of patience, I need to work on that!

 

[Sassy69]

That's the truth -- about 5 years ago I wanted to lose 10lbs for a trip to Cozumel -- I found a trainer at my gym and said I could guarantee an hour/day of time in the gym if he could help me lose 10 lbs in 30 days for this trip. Well I did it - had to change my lifestyle a little and do the 5-6 meals/day thing, etc. but I did it. Once you do that, then you have to maintain it. Set little goals with nice big rewards (not food). As you get towards the larger goal (be more specific than "I want to lose weight") you see the difference and it motivates you. But you have to embrace the lifestyle -- like challenge yourself. Can you do the diet for a week? OK-- takes 3 weeks to establish a habit -- can you do the diet for a month? You should start to see results. After that set a new goal and just keep going after it. But its definitely a life view -- not a success/failure thing and you can always pick up if you drop it.

 

[dEgeNeRaTe8211]

you're right...crunches and other ab work wont flatten out your stomach...just builds muscle there. you really need to clean out your diet and major cardio to get your abs to show. since i started doing crunches and stuff a couple years ago, my abs have gotten soooo strong. i can do leg lifts with an 8 lb dumbell between my feet, and sit ups with a 10 lb dumbell behind my head. my abs are so incredibly strong, but they dont show because i still have that layer of fat over the whole thing. so now i'm keeping a clean diet and staying w/ the cardio. but i think now i'm gonna do cardio in the morning on an empty stomach to really cut that fat off and get my abs to show.

 

[tripleV]

this is an article from elite
http://www.elitefitness.com/articles/ab-training.html

 

[Phemomena]

to make the stomach flatter, (other than the obvious diet and cardio) you need to work the muscle that pulls the rectus abs in, the transverse abdominal... its a hard muscle to hit, done best with hanging crunches and swiss ball work...

other things that really help are just concentrating on your posture, practice sucking that gut in and holding it like that for extended peroids of time (holding your stomach in, not your breath)... at first this is hard to do, but it becomes easier as the transverse becomes stronger...

i pulled mine and spent A LOT of time and energy concentrating on this doing the above (concentration on the muscle alone, with light swiss ball crunches once a week for 2 months...) my abs got to the point where they were concave... i'm now working on bringing out the voume in the rectus abs, which is bringing out my six pack quite nicely

 

[Teapot]

Dang! That is alot of hard work! Good job! My boyfriend and I just signed up at a gym today and tomorrow I will be talking to a trainer about my diet.