While the mantra may be “‘C’ is for crunches, not cookies,” it is important to remember that you cannot site-reduce areas of your body. With this in mind when you want to lose the stomach, doing a bunch of abdominal exercises will probably cause the stomach muscles to grow which, you guessed it, will lead to a bigger stomach.
It is therefore best to focus on your core muscles – the area all the way from underneath your arm pits through your hips. It is important to do a variety of exercises to try and work as much of that area as possible to build core strength.
To get you started, here is a great exercise for your total core:
- Lie face down on the floor.
- Press your palms to the ground on the side of your chest.
- Engage your core and get up as fast as possible, then get back down.
The first time you do this exercise, time yourself doing 10 repetitions in order to get a baseline. Every week afterwards, try to improve your time while still maintaining good technique.
Good luck!
Garret Jones
Founder & CEO G-Fit
www.thegfit.com