Exercising Your Way to a Trimmer Stomach

By on 1-26-2012 in Weight Loss Tips

Exercising Your Way to a Trimmer Stomach

Let’s face it, you probably knew that we’d be getting to this sooner or later, and perhaps you even dreaded it. For many people, especially those that have led a relatively sedentary lifestyle, getting started with exercise is a real chore. But do you know what the bright side is? Once you get a good exercise routine going, it will slowly become easier and easier to carry out, and soon, you’ll feel so good exercising that you’ll actually want to do it! If you can achieve that, then your fight to trim down your stomach is pretty much won already. Of course, to do so, you’re going to need to start somewhere. Borrowing the same philosophy as when we discussed habit-forming earlier on, it is best to start slow and work your way up with exercise to. In other words, don’t try to run for an hour straight when you first start out. Give yourself, and much more importantly, your body, time to ease into any type of exercise. Knowing all of this is going to help ensure that your approach to exercise is spot on. Bear in mind that the reason for the exercise is simple: You want to burn calories. More calories than your regular intake of food provides, so that your body is forced to tap into its stores of energy, in the form of fat, and start burning them too! If you’ve been measuring your calorie intake, this part is easier. But even if you haven’t, so long as you followed the advice that we outlined in the previous sections, your intake should be low enough that the exercises we recommend will more than suffice to give you the balance you desire. Before we look at the types of exercises that you’re going to want to carry out though, here’s something that you should always remember: Just because you’re trying to lose that belly of yours, it does not mean that all your exercises should concentrate on that area. Really, this is a common mistake that many people make. Truth is, most focused exercises that target a specific muscle group, in this case, the abdomen, do not burn fat in that area literally. Instead, they build muscle tone. So if your plan is to achieve dashboard abs, then this is great. But for someone seeking more to combat a bulging stomach, it can even be counterproductive – at least as far as appearances go. Consider it this way: If you’re building muscles in your abdomen before the fat is burned off, it’s going to add further bulk to that area. Admittedly, this bulk will be in the form of muscles, but it will still cause an even bigger bulge than before. As we go over some of the exercises that you’re going to want to carry out, you’ll see this in greater depth. Let’s get started with that right now!
Engaging in Cardiovascular Exercises! Heard the term ‘cardiovascular exercises’ before? Don’t panic, they aren’t anything complicated. In reality, cardiovascular exercises are simply exercises that get your heart rate up. Granted, lots of types of exercises do this, but some of the more common cardiovascular exercises are things such as brisk walks, jogging, running, or even swimming. No, you don’t need to do many cardiovascular exercises, unless you want to, and as you progress, you’ll find that you probably take a liking to one form of exercise as opposed to others. Assuming you haven’t been exercising regularly, it is probably best that you start out with something that is a ‘low impact’ exercise. In other words, something that won’t tax your body too much, but will still help you burn those pesky calories. Try brisk walks, swimming, skating, or even cycling to begin with. These types of exercises should be pretty easy for you to carry out, no matter what your fitness level is. Eventually, you may even find that you want to take things up a notch, and move on to jogging, running, skipping rope, or even rowing. When you do take things up a notch, you’ll find that you need to spend less time exercising to burn the same amount of calories as previously. This means that with whatever free time you have, you’ll be able to get more results out of it! Ideally, you should try to make time for about 20 to 30 minutes of such exercises at least 3 to 5 times a week. Yes, that’s right, you don’t need hours, just 30 minutes or so should be enough to really get you off to a great start! Of course, as the feel-good factor comes into play, you may even find that you want to do more, which is perfectly alright so long as you don’t push yourself too far. Naturally, there is more that you can do than just cardiovascular exercises, and in fact, you could really complement the results that you obtain by spending a little bit of time carrying out…
Simple Strength-Building Exercises

No one is asking you to become a professional weight lifter or bodybuilder, but that said, strengthening and toning your muscles is not a bad thing. For one, the stronger and more toned your muscles are, the higher your metabolism rate is bound to be, simply due to the energy that those muscles spend (and calories that they burn, in other words!). Although we did mention previously that some of these exercises could be initially counter-productive in appearance, in the long run, they’re going to help out. By strengthening your abdomen muscles, you could eventually attain a much flatter stomach as they hold whatever excess fat is there in place. Basically, timing is everything. When you first start out exercising, you may not want to include these exercises in your routine, and instead focus more on the cardiovascular exercises that we’d just mentioned. However, as you move on, it would be a wise move to slowly start incorporating these strength-building exercises into your workouts. Most of them take little time to carry out, so you’re not going to find that they interfere too much in your daily routine. Let’s go over some places that you could start: 1. Abdomen Crunches Definitely the most common type of abdomen-related strength-building exercise, crunches have long been used to tone and strengthen abs into the dashboard variety. Now, there are many types of crunches, and it would do you well to remember that your abdomen area is more than just the six-pack that many people seek. In reality, there are also muscles bordering the center six, and you should vary your crunches to take these into account. Over time, you’ll notice a vast improvement in the general ‘flatness’ of your stomach! 2. Full Body Workouts Although you’re mostly concerned with your abs, there’s no reason why strengthening your other muscles wouldn’t be a good idea too. Needless to say, they’re going to contribute to your overall metabolism rate, and help establish definition throughout your body, as opposed to just around the stomach area, which will look a lot better in the long run. Starting out a full body workout isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do however, and you may need some guidance to start out with. One method that is particularly effective is to work on the upper body muscles, and then move down to the lower body muscles. By breaking up the muscle groups into these two categories, you’re less likely to miss any out! Also, when you start out, go for the gym machines if you have access to them. Free-weights will eventually provide you with greater options, but it wouldn’t be a good idea to start using them until you’re sure of what you’re doing. Using available machines can help you to learn and understand the types of exercises that work specific muscle groups. 3. Stretching Before and after any exercise routine it is vital that you stretch. But, even at other times, stretching your muscles isn’t going to hurt, and could really help with their growth as well as burn some calories too. Even something that seems simple, such as tensing your abdomen muscles here and there throughout the day, has been shown to provide decent results. Try it out, and you’ll see just how quickly your muscles adapt to all the exercise that you’re doing! Start on these muscle strengthening exercises slowly. Do not ever try to go for weights that are heavier than what you can easily manage to lift. Pushing yourself too far, too fast, can result in some pretty serious injuries. In the long run, unless you’re really trying to bulk up on muscle, using lighter weights but with more repetitions of the exercise itself can really provide you with the ‘toned’ look that you’re probably going for. Of course, some bulk might not hurt, especially once you’re the lean, mean, fighting machine that all our recommended exercises are going to turn you into, so once you’re comfortable at a certain weight, it wouldn’t hurt to up it a little, and see how you do. Move slowly, and gradually, and never jerk your movements. In time, you’ll get to be exactly in the place that you want to be – with the trim, lean, and flat belly that you want to achieve!

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