How to Exercise Your Stomach - 2 Great Exercises For Six-Pack Abs

Author: Susan Roberts

Everybody wants a flat, toned stomach. Problem is, too many people go about stomach exercises the wrong way. Getting a flat stomach involves two processes: building your abdominal muscles and burning the fat off those muscles.

The first part is easy: building the muscles by exercising your stomach. A combination of these exercises will ensure that you have tight abs.

Crunches are the staple of stomach exercises. Lie with your back and feet flat on the floor, and your knees bent at a right angle. Making sure that you don't move your legs at all, lift the shoulder blades off the ground, making sure to use your stomach muscles only. Shoot for 20-30 reps per set, and 3-5 sets at a time (with a couple of minutes rest between sets).

Regular crunches work out the top of your abs the best. For a balanced stomach work out, you should do sets of reverse crunches as well. Start by lying on your back with your feet a few inches from the ground. Move your legs towards your chest while lifting your butt off of the ground. Again concentrate on using your ab muscles for this, you should feel the burn quickly if you're doing it right.

As with all exercises, it's important to move slowly to develop range in your muscles instead of swinging your body around, which can develop flat spots in your muscles' strength.

Remember how stomach exercises aren't the sole part of building a tight, flat stomach? You also need cardio exercise to burn the fat off the stomach muscles. All the crunches in the world won't burn fat as fast as a few good cardio exercises. Go out and jog for a few minutes each day and get your heart rate up to burn those calories and work the fat off your stomach muscles.

About the Author:

Cardio exercises benefit you both by burning fat as well as generally bettering your health. Everybody should start on a fitness program for better health, in addition to building muscle.

How to exercise your stomach