What Exercise Can I Do To Flatten My Stomach

I’ve Just Had A Baby Can I Do These Exercises

HOW TO FLATTEN YOUR STOMACH (5 Tummy Toning Exercises)

As we all know, a woman’s body changes a lot in her lifetime, and most significantly during pregnancy. To that end, stomach exercises that worked for you before, might not work now. You’ll likely have lost a lot of core strength, and getting back into exercise post-pregnancy is something that requires hyper-attention to the safety of you and your postpartum body. Before you try anything, you must get permission from your doctor. That’s a non-negosh, OK?

Once you’ve got the doctor all-clear, PT and postpartum specialist Charlie Launder suggests keeping the following five things front of mind as you jump back in:

Ensure your trainer is qualified in pre and post-natal training

Listen to your body

Make time for rest and recovery

Get a post-natal physio check-up

Be confident to say ‘no’ if an exercise doesn’t feel right for you

For more of Launder’s expertise as well as a plethora of post-natal workout wisdom, check out our full post-pregnancy workout guide.

To Perform The Goblet Squat:

Start standing with a tall posture.

Hold a dumbbell close to your chest, right around the sternum area.

Squat down with the chest up, keeping an erect spine.

Return to standing.

The movement is challenging because the weight forces your core to work to keep yourself from rounding over. So, not only do you work the legs, but you are also getting a nice tummy workout!

Perfect Poses Reduce Paunch

Along with abdominal exercises, certain types of yoga poses and stretches can step up your saggy belly reduction workout routine. The plank and boat poses are an intense tummy workout.

For the plank pose, start on your elbows and knees and place your feet out behind you in a plank position so your body is parallel to the floor. Hold this position for as long as you can, breathing normally throughout and try to increase the amount of time each time you do this exercise.

Begin the boat pose by sitting on the floor with your feet stretched out in front of you. Slowly tip your upper body back while you raise your feet and legs off the floor. Stretch your arms toward your legs. Your ultimate aim is to make a V-shape with your torso and legs. You might feel a bit wobbly, but your abdominal muscles will tighten as they help keep you in place. Breathe normally as you stay in boat for up to one minute, and don’t worry about falling out of it. Keep trying until you can nail the pose.

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Exercises To Lose Belly Fat In Women

Women are built for child-bearing which makes us fat-storing machines. Fast and furious efforts to lose belly fat are often not sustainable and can lead to health issues, eating disorders, and the loss of precious muscle.

In order for women to lose belly fat and body weight safely, they must commit to a long-term program that combines simple exercises with a healthy diet.

Losing one to two pounds per week is a safe and realistic goal. It will also help prevent type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

Plus, belly fat is unsightly and makes your clothes fit tight and uncomfortable. There are two types of fat :

the soft fat that makes you look pudgy and
the visceral fat that causes your body to release cortisol, the stress hormone and other compounds that increase inflammation throughout your body.

The first fat you lose when you start an exercise program is visceral fat, however the subcutaneous fat may take a little longer to lose, so be patient.

For women, here are 6 exercises to consider in order to lose belly fat:

To Perform The Hollow Hold:

Lie flat on your back, with your arms and legs straight out.

Crunch your abdominal muscles inward, as if you were trying to suck your belly button to the floor.

Raise your arms, legs, and upper back off the floor, creating a smiley face with your body.

If the movement is too difficult or you start to feel it in your lower back, bend the legs to make it easier.

As with the plank, this movement is done for time and not repetitions. Aim for 3 sets of a 20-30-second hold.

Avoid Swallowing Air And Gases

The biggest source of gas in the diet is carbonated beverages such as soda.

The bubbles in it contain carbon dioxide, which is released from the liquid in your stomach. This may cause stomach distention or bloating.

This can also happen when you chew gum, drink through a straw or talk while eating.

Eating in silence, drinking from a glass and swapping carbonated drinks out for water may help you achieve a flatter stomach.

Bottom Line:

Carbonated drinks and gum may both cause stomach distention and bloating in some people.

Eat Fewer Refined Carbohydrates

Refined carbs are one of the leading reasons for obesity. By cutting down on your consumption of refined carbs, you can reduce fat accumulation around your organs and improve your metabolic health.

A study showed an improvement in metabolic health in people who ate unprocessed carbs and whole grains. Their waistlines also reduced over time.

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To Perform The Bicycle Crunch:

Lie with your back on the floor, hands behind the head and legs off the floor, bent.

With your elbows wide, try to bring the opposing knee and elbow together, and repeat on both sides.

Make sure your elbows stay out, not closing in on your face.

As you bring one knee in close to your chest, straighten the opposing leg without touching the floor.

Do the same amount of repetitions on each side.

Increasing Lean Muscle Tissue

5-Minute Workout to Get a Flat Stomach In a Week

As you get older, you lose muscle tissue, your metabolism slows down and fat makes up a larger proportion of your weight, according to MayoClinic.org. Strength training exercises in a gym increase your lean muscle tissue, which helps elevate your metabolism and improve your body’s ability to burn fat at rest. Focus on exercises that target your major muscle groups. Do seated chest presses for your chest, dumbbell or seated shoulder presses for your shoulders, seated rows or lat pulldowns for your upper back, and leg presses for your legs, hips and glutes. Do three sets per exercise using light to moderate weights for 10 to 15 repetitions. Warm up with a cardiovascular routine to burn calories and fat and increase your core temperature. For example, do a 15- to 20-minute brisk walk on an inclined treadmill, or 15 to 20 minutes on the elliptical machine, stationary bike or rowing machine.

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Eating To Flatten Your Stomach

1Eat more often. Instead of three large meals that can fill your belly and tax your digestive system, eat small, frequent meals or snacks. Eat your meals about two to three hours apart they’ll take up less space in your stomach, cause less expansion, keep your metabolism up and keep you feeling full.XExpert Source

Walking Your Belly Away

Brisk walking is a gentle low-impact activity that is ideal if you are new to exercise, have joint problems or recovering from an illness. According to Harvard Health Publications, brisk walking at least 30 minutes a day combats belly fat. If you weigh 185 pounds, Harvard Health notes a 30-minute walk at 4.5 mph will burn 220 calories. Ensure you wear appropriate walking shoes to minimize any stress on your knees, particularly if you have a condition such as arthritis flat walking shoes may put less stress on your knees.

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Exercising To Flatten Your Stomach

1Go with cardio. Nothing beats aerobic exercise in the battle against belly fat. A study by Duke University found that aerobic exercise was the most effective way to burn deep, visceral belly fat and that aerobic workouts burn 67% more calories than resistance training or a regimen that combines cardio and resistance.XResearch source

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends that healthy adults get at least 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes a week of vigorous aerobic activity spread throughout the week. Activity sessions can broken up throughout the day but should be at least 10 minutes long. If you’re looking to lose weight, you’ll have to increase the intensity, the duration or both.

You can’t spot-reduce fat away from a certain area, so you don’t have to worry about only doing exercises that tone your stomach. Instead, pay close attention to your diet and try to follow a balanced workout plan that works your body evenly.XExpert Source

Tips For Getting A Flat Stomach

1. Do core exercises

Exercises that target your core and strengthen the muscles there can help you get a flat and toned stomach without losing many pounds. These include core workouts and resistance training. Some of the simplest core-strengthening exercises include:

Basic plank :
Get on all floors in a table-top position with your face down. Make sure your hands are directly below your shoulders.
Start lifting your knees slowly until youre supporting your weight on just your toes and hands.
Keep your body in a straight line from the top of your head to your heels.
Keep your core tight and back straight.

Plank-walk down :

Get in an elbow plank position.

Lift your right arm, followed by the left, and go into the basic plank position.

From here, go back to the starting position.

Do this as fast as you can.

Make sure you keep your core tight and back straight.

Bicycle crunches:

Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor, and placed hip-width apart.

Put your arms behind your head and bend your elbows at your sides.

Extend your right knee, then bend and lift the left knee.

Lift your upper body and bring your right elbow and left knee toward each other.

Do the same for the other side.

Keep switching sides and perform the exercise as fast as you can.

Perform 3 sets of 15 reps each.

2. Try resistance training

3. Mix up your workouts

In addition to core exercises and resistance training, you may need to do cardio, although this will result in overall weight loss.

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Drinking To Flatten Your Stomach

1Make water number one. You always need to drink water, but it can be especially important if you’re trying to flatten your stomach. When you drink water, you help your body maintain proper fluid balance, stop water retention and feel full so you’re inclined to eat less overall. Water also breaks down fat for energy and moves nutrients to your muscles to maintain your metabolism.

Add lemon, orange or cucumber slices to your water to give it a little flavor boost you can also try herbs and flowers such as mint or lemon verbena.

2Turn to green tea. Among its many benefits, green tea can also lay claim to helping reduce belly fat thanks to antioxidants called catechins that it contains. For extra fat-burning power, sip green tea before a workout.Advertisement

3Blend up a smoothie. Smoothies are a great way to stay hydrated and can contribute to a flatter stomach. When you make a smoothie with watermelon, you have the advantage of an amino acid known as arginine that’s found in watermelon. A study in the Journal of Nutrition found that arginine can decrease body fat and increase lean muscle mass.XResearch source A smoothie made with pineapple gives you the benefit of bromelain, an enzyme in pineapple that helps break down protein, ease digestion and banish bloat.

4Add ginger. Ginger helps calm your GI tract and can help reduce bloating. Add some fresh, grated ginger to your green tea or boil some chopped pieces of the root to make ginger tea.

Plank With Thoracic Spine Rotation

Start in a standard high-plank position.
Press the right hand into the ground, rotate both feet and hips to the left while raising the left arm off of the ground. Rotate the left arm down, then repeat the move to the other side, pushing the left hand into the ground and rotating the right arm up.
Repeat for three to six repetitions on each side.

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What Exercises Can I Do To Flatten My Stomach

Best Flat Stomach Workouts You Can Do at Home Toe reaches. Side planks. Bicycle crunches. Boat pose. Oblique crunches. Burpees. Other tips. Results timeline. Luckily, there is one stomach flattening exercise that can also reduce low-back painthe plank. Because the plank exercise requires minimal movement while contracting all layers of the abdominal fascia, it is an excellent way to strengthen the core, which, in turn, helps reduce low-back pain. High-Intensity Interval Training workouts are a much more effective way to target your belly fat. Studies have found its more effective for fat burning around the abdominal area. It will also increase your heart rate and boost your overall fat burning.

Finally: Cardio And Healthy Eating

How to Flatten Your Stomach With a Water Workout

While targeting your ab muscles, remember they are protected by the fat and tissue surrounding them. A common mistake Lee sees when clients are working on flattening the belly is working on the abdominal muscles but forgetting about the layer of fat that covers them. You could have great muscles covered with a layer of fat. Calorie burning activities like spinning, HIIT, and cardio workouts are a great addition, and diet will need to be addressed trim down the belly most effectively, Lee says. I definitely think nutrition and exercise are equal partners in a goal of a flatter midsection, says Locey. You can do all the abdominal and core work you want for hours a day and every day of the week, but if you arent eating well, you will mask that muscle growth with layers of fat. As a fan of pasta, cheeseburgers with buns, and bagels, I will say you can have your carbs and get your flat belly too. Carbohydrates themselves are not the things holding people back from having a flat belly it is the amount in which they are consumed. So as long as you live by the old phrase everything in moderation, you can still see results. Pssst! Here are 23 ways you can lose belly fat without exercising at all.

Nolan Lee, chiropractic physician in Chicago, IL.
Jessica Fritsche, certified strength and conditioning specialist in Baltimore, MD.
Brent Locey, certified personal trainer and SoulCycle instructor in Chicago, IL.

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Tone Every Part Of Your Core With These 7 Exercises

Losing belly fat and toning the stomach is one of the most common goals I hear from my weight-loss clients.

In addition to cardio, ab exercises can help you start getting rid of excess belly fat and flatten and tone the stomach area. Plus, abs are considered your bodys center of gravity and are responsible for aiding in balance and coordination. So theres much more benefit to strengthening your abdominals beyond the aesthetic reasons.

Many people’s first instinct is to drop down and start crunching. While there is a place for crunches in a core routine, they only target one muscle group in the abdominal region. To really see results, it’s important to incorporate exercises that target all of the muscle groups that make up your core.

Go Without Processed Grains

Processed grains, like white bread and pasta, take less time to digest and are quickly converted into sugar and eventually fat.

“By frequently eating highly processed grain products, even in moderate amounts, you will be signaling to your body to store the high levels of sugar as fat,” Quebbemann says.

What the research says: A 2010 study found that people who limit refined grains and eat more whole grains have lower levels of visceral fat, which is located around abdominal organs.

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Drink A Glass Of Water Before Eating A Meal

Research has also found that drinking a glass of water before a meal can help to suppress appetite, meaning that you’re more likely to indulge in a smaller and healthier sized portion while feeling fuller. One way to remind yourself? With a super chic reusable water bottle.

Stainless steel water bottle, £7.79, eBay

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Am I Engaging My Core Correctly

Many people learn to do sit-ups and crunches in a way that shortens the rectus abdominis muscle, making it pooch out at your middle instead of creating long, flexible muscles. If you do Pilates exercise in the same way, you won’t achieve core strength and long, lean ab muscles.

If you think this might be your problem, work on correcting your form and engaging all your abdominal muscles, as well as the lats, paraspinal muscles, hip flexors, and glutes, to keep your spine safe and stable. Hint: Picture zipping up your absbringing your navel up and toward your spine.

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Tricks To Flatten Your Stomach

Is a tight, toned stomach near the top of your wish list? With these 10 exercises from fitness professionals like Denise Austin, youll flatten your stomach and say goodbye to those Spanx once and for all…

1. Denise Austins Lower Tummy FirmerCheck out fitness maven Denise Austins favorite belly-busting exercise. This core exercise comes straight from her book, Tone Your Tummy Type .

2. Minna Lessigs Side PlankFitness guru and former Ms. Fitness USA Minna Lessig recommends the side plank for a challenging workout that targets your core, plus your shoulders and arms.1.Start from push-up position. Tighten abs.2.Bring your right hand to the center, halfway between its starting position and your left hand.3.Turn your body to the left. Shift weight from toes to the outer side of your right foot, stacking your left foot on top of your right.4.Lift your left arm off floor. 5.Extend your left arm toward ceiling in line with your shoulders. Your body should form one, straight line from head to feet, sideways. 6.Look straight. Hold position for 10-30 seconds. Repeat 2-3 times. 7.Repeat on other side.Want to learn more? Get a copy of Minna Lessigs Tank Top Arms, Bikini Belly and Boy Shorts Bottom .