The Best Exercises to Flatten your Stomach

What are the best exercise to flatten your stomach? There are many, but no one thing will work. If you are not eating right and doing cardio, no amount of crunches and sit ups will help. To flatten your stomach, you need to do cardio exercises and eat right. Abdominal crunches tone and give you definition, but cardio (jogging, aerobics, stairmaster, etc.) burn the fat that is hiding your abs. If you do not eat right and exercise, you could do 500 crunches a day, but if you aren't burning your body's overall fat, you'll just be building muscle on top of our existing fat. You've got to work on changing your eating habits, i.e lean protein, low fat, no empty carbs. Then you'll find that the crunches and cardio you do will be more effective

To get those six pack abs you desire, you have to get your body fat down to less than 10%. That is a tall order for even the healthiest of people. That means a lot of cardio, lean protein, and strength training. How easily six pack abs develops depends on your age, genes, diet, and metabolism. Some people can obtain one pretty easily while others have to really work at it. If that is your goal, then I am sure you can achieve it; you will just need some help on the way.

Now on tp the exercises:

The Basic Crunch

This exercise works the upper area of your stomach and abs.

1. Start out by lying on your back.

2. Place your hands crossed on your chest and lie flat on the floor with your knees bent. You should always bend your knees because it provides necessary support for your lower back.

3. Slowly raise yourself up using your abs while pressing your lower back to the floor. As you reach the top of the crunch slowly exhale. Then slowly lower your back down to the flow as you inhale.

4. Repeat this process 20 to 25 times and rest for about 90 seconds. Then perform 2-3 more sets of crunches with 90 second rests between each set and you're done for the day!


The Reverse Crunch

This exercises work the lower portion of your abdominals.

1. Start by lying on your back. Bend your knees slightly with your legs in the air and cross your ankles.

2. Place your arms on the floor alongside you.

3. Rest your head on the floor while keeping your back straight.

4. Slowly raise your hips about 2 inches off the floor. Try to keep your hips steady without rolling then backwards.

5. Hold this position for about 2-3 seconds and really squeeze or crunch your abdominal muscles while keeping your head and shoulders on the floor.

6. Slowly lower your hips back to the floor and repeat the process.

Again, you should really feel your lower abs working after about 20 to 25 ab crunches. Take a 90 second rest after your first rep and then do 2 to 3 more.


Breathing

When doing ab crunches, or any type of exercise, it's important to exhale and breathe out as much air as possible on your way up from the floor. This adds more power to the movement and you will be working your abs more effectively. Once you get to the top of the crunch movement, breathe in and out a few times before you lower your body down to the floor.