Stomach weight loss is a challenge for most people because your stomach is designed to store fat well. It is one area, too, that is not very receptive to toning. You could have fat arms and legs, but if you just start toning them, they will firm right up. Not so with the stomach. You must do cardio and lots of it. Toning alone will, indeed, give you great abs but no one will be able to see them without cardio because the fat will remain and hide your muscles.
Start with cardio and a good diet. Nothing else reduces your stomach weight, sadly. All over movement is the only thing that will rid you of it. Thankfully, cardio can mean hundreds of things. Swimming is a great recreational cardio exercise, as is running, biking, dancing, and even gardening. Whatever you do, make sure you are moving around a lot and breaking a sweat. Get your heart racing.
Not everyone can devote a large chunk of time to getting in shape. Changing your lifestyle in small ways can help. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Do not drive anywhere that is close enough to walk. Get in a stationary bike or even just pace around your living room while you watch television. Any sort of movement will be better than sitting idle and can slowly chip away at your fat, though nothing beats excellent diet and regular intense exercise.
Whenever you do something like this, target your abs by holding in your stomach. It will give marginal toning to them while you think you are doing nothing at all. This practice is not only good because it gets you in the habit of 'sucking it in' while in public, but it can help keep your stomach taut.
When the time comes to begin toning, do crunches. These are the most effective--definitely more so than sit ups. Sit ups can hurt your back and neck and there are dozens of ways to do them wrong. Crunches are very simple. Lay on the floor with your hands behind your head and your legs up in the air. Your knees should be bent so your calves run parallel to the floor. At the same time, lift your shoulders slightly up off the ground and bend your legs in toward your elbows.
These force you to suck in your stomach and contract your muscles from both sides. With sit ups, they can build a lot of muscle but that may not be what you want. You are looking for long, lean toning, not bulk. Bulk is very bad if you still have a layer of fat on your stomach because it will push your fat out and make you look bigger than you are.
To make your crunches more challenging, get an exercise ball. These are the large rubber balls that can be found in any gym store. You sit on the ball and lean back with your feet on the floor. You do just the top part of the crunches where you lift up your shoulders. You cannot lift your legs because they are needed on the floor to balance you. It will challenge you in different ways and allow other muscles in your stomach to get use.
You lie back on the ball with your legs straight out to hold you steady on the floor. You then will lift your shoulders back in the same way, only your knees will not come up to meet you. This angle will provide more toning for you.
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