Make Stomach Crunches Part of an Overall Workout

If you have extra belly fat that you need to get rid of along with tightening your abs, then the reality is that you’ll need to include a full-body workout in addition to doing stomach crunches. It’s impossible to get tight abs just by stomach exercises alone, but that doesn’t mean you have to commit to boring workouts. Choose activities that exercise the large muscles in your body, and that you’ll enjoy enough to be able to stick with.

Why Stomach Crunches Are So Important

Stomach crunches will always be essential to getting flat abs, because they work on both the lower and upper abdominal muscles. An important set of muscles that they’re effective for is the rectus abdominals, which stretch from your ribs down to your hips. And the obliques, both external and internal, slope down the side of your body through your waist. This muscle set’s job is to rotate your torso in curling and twisting movements.

Besides tightening up your abs to give you a flat stomach, stomach crunches have an added benefit. If you suffer from back pain, toned abdominal muscles will take the pressure off your back and bring you a great deal of pain relief. The muscles in the human body are all connected in some way, and improving one area will always have an effect on an adjacent area.

Stomach Crunches – The Basics

To perform stomach crunches correctly, begin by lying flat on your back. Keep your arms at your sides and slowly bend your knees and point them at your chest. Keep your hips flat on the floor. Then slowly lift your shoulders off of the floor, and imagine that you are trying to point your rib cage toward your hips. If your abdominal muscles are weak you may only be able to move a few inches before you feel you’ve reached your limit. Listen to your body. Remember that your goal is to challenge your abs and slowly improve them, and what that takes will be different for everyone.

Reverse stomach crunches work your lower abs. To perform them correctly you want to be in the same starting position with your knees pointed toward your chest. This time you will keep your shoulders on the floor and slowly contract your abs, as if you are trying to point your knees just a little closer to your chest. The key to both forms of stomach crunches is to perform them slowly. Do not rush, and be sure to breathe deeply during the exercise.

All stomach exercises are helpful for toning your abs, but crunches are the most helpful of all. But remember that if you need to lose belly fat in addition to tightening your abs, you’ll need to make stomach crunches part of an overall workout to help you lose weight.

Any stomach exercise routine aimed at flattening your belly should include the transverse abdominals as a focus. Using the following stomach exercises, you can work on your transverse abdominals and really make progress on that flat tummy. As with any workout routine, be sure to consult a professional before beginning and always warm up properly to avoid injury.

Pelvic Tilts

This stomach exercise requires lying on your back on a flat surface, such as the floor or a bench. Use a mat or towel to cushion your spine. Bend your knees so that your feet are flat on the floor. Raise your pelvis (and only your pelvis) off the floor, hold momentarily, and then lower it back down. Repeat for an entire set. Maintaining a controlled movement is crucial to this exercise. This will allow you to use your abdominal muscles, rather than your body’s momentum, to do the work on the exercise. Also, be sure to keep your upper body on the floor throughout.

Crunch-less Crunch

This stomach exercise is fairly simple, but can also be challenging. Essentially, it involves trying to pull the belly button in towards the spine. This can be tricky, as it involves using muscles which you may not be used to activating. To start, either lie or on your stomach or kneel. You might want to try both ways and see which helps you feel the exercise better. Relax your body as much as possible, then try to use only the lower abdominals to move your belly button toward your spine. Hold for ten seconds. If holding for ten seconds feels easy, hold for a longer period. The goal is to hold the contraction until you either cannot feel it, or you feel other muscles working harder than the transverse abdominus. When you feel this, let the contraction out.

Scissor Kicks

This stomach exercise also requires lying on the floor. Position your hands under your butt, keeping your back pressed against the floor. Slowly raise one leg to a height of about ten inches, then slowly lower it back to the floor. As your lower one leg, raise the other. Repeat this motion for an entire set. Maintaining control throughout is important, not allowing momentum to get the better of you. Your upper body should remain on the floor through the entire move.

These abdominal exercises are key to flattening your tummy, and pregnant and post-partum women will find them particularly effective. There are other stomach exercises that target the transverse abdominals, but the three exercises above are definitely challenging enough to get you started.

By: Nicholas Tan