People spend millions, if not billions of dollars, each year in the quest for a flat stomach.   Right now there are dozens of ab exercise devices out there.  There’s the ab do-it, the ab rock-it, the ab roller, the ab dolly, fast abs, 8 minute abs, the ab-lounge and so many more.

You would think that with all of these amazing new products that most people would be walking around with that nice, lean mid-section they’ve always wanted. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Most, if not all of these products, will do little or nothing to flatten your stomach.  And that’s because these exercise contraptions cannot eliminate the layer of fat that lies on top of your abs.

 In order to be successful at thinning your waistline you must have a basic understanding of how the ab muscles function and how your body burns fat.  The first thing that needs to be understood is the difference between fat and muscle. 

Fat is excess calories and is primarily stored in layers on top of muscle tissue. Muscle is made up of fibers that contract or shorten to produce movement. 

Fat cannot turn into muscle and muscle cannot turn into fat!  However, you can lose muscle and you can gain fat.  That’s what happens to most people.

So if your goal is to thin your waist line and have a nice flat stomach, the first thing you need to do is decrease / eliminate the layers of fat that are on top of your abs. We all have a flat stomach; it’s just some of our’s are covered by excess fat.
The most effective way of flattening your stomach is a combination of strength training (with a extra focus on mid-section), cardiovascular exercise (short, hard workouts), and stable blood sugar (keeps you from adding additional fat and makes it easier for the body to use body fat for fuel).

I should also mention that a flat stomach not only looks good but it also prevents muscle imbalances between the hips and abs which cause more than 80% of all lower back pain! So remember, a strong flat stomach means a strong, healthy lower back!
1. You must do some form of progressive strength training
The primary function of the abdominal muscle is to flex your torso forward.  However, there are also muscles that flex your torso to the side and muscles that rotate your torso.  Often times you see people on their ab roller every day doing hundreds of crunches or sit-ups.

If you want to effectively strengthen your stomach you need to incorporate the following types of exercises:

1-2 forward flexion exercises (reverse crunch, knee raises, crunch, sit-up, etc.)
1-2 side flexion exercises (side bends, side crunches, etc.)
1-2 rotational exercises (trunk rotations, standing twists, etc.)
Choose at least 1-2 exercises that target the lower abs , 1-2 for the obliques (love handles), and 1-2 for the upper abs. There are thousands of ab exercises to choose from - way too many for me to list here, however, I will give you a list of some of the better ones.
Great Ab Exercises
Reverse crunch
Ab Pike
Hanging knee raise
Torso rotation (twist)
Leg lowering
Side bends
Exercise ball crunches

Again, there are tons of choices when it comes to ab exercises and while there are some that are better than others, the key is to just make sure you work hard and progressively!

The abs, are muscles just like any other and should be worked on average 3 times per week.  While you can work out daily, base your frequency on how hard you worked them last time. For example, if you worked your core really hard yesterday and are sore, it’s not a good idea to work them hard again today. If you do anything at all, it should be light and just to get them moving.
2. Use short, hard cardio workouts to increase metabolism
Cardio workouts are important because they CAN, if done correctly, increase your metabolism for 4-24 hours or more!  This means you are less likely to store any excess calories as body fat because they are more likely to be used by your elevated metabolism.  Plus, you are more likely to burn off some excess body fat.

Below is a sample interval workout that can be done with just about any activity (walking, bicycling, swimming, stair climbing, etc.).

Warm up at easy pace 2-5 minutes… Perform 30 seconds of hard work (almost as hard as possible)… perform 1 minute of moderate work (recovery time-catch breath)… Repeat this process 6-10 times… Cool down at an easy pace for 2-5 minutes.
3. Stable blood sugar is the key
And most importantly, you must stabilize your blood sugar!  This is by far the most important factor when it comes to burning away that excess body fat and keeping it off!  To effectively stabilize your blood sugar you must feed your body frequently; like every 2-3 hours. The key is to give your body only what it needs at that time. 

Your body burns calories 24 hours a day, so, why would you only feed it once or twice a day? Give your body the fuel it needs: vegetables, fruits, nuts, berries, whole grains, and lean proteins (chicken, fish, lean beef, eggs, etc.).

Many people are too hung up on how much fat is in food, or how healthy of a choice it is.  Calories are calories and it doesn’t matter where they come from. If there’s extra… where’s it going? Yup, you guessed it… body fat!

This is not to say that what you eat is not important because it is, it just doesn’t have that much of an affect when it comes to fat loss.  Try to make healthy choices whenever possible, but don’t feel like if you eat a cheeseburger it is guaranteed to be stored as fat. You can learn more metabolism boosting tricks here

4. Get the help of a professional
Unfortunately, most people don’t know enough about the human body, nutrition, or effective exercise to meet their health and fitness goals.  Ask yourself this one question, “Am I happy with my current progress or condition?”   If you’re not, you should consider getting the help of a qualified personal fitness professional.

Don’t depend on the information you get from magazines or from your local gym/ health club.  A qualified fitness professional can help you achieve your health and fitness goals, and in less time than you would imagine.
If you are serious about your health and fitness goals, and you are ready for that flat stomach, I recommend you start implementing the 4 strategies listed in this article. These 4 strategies can help you take control of your metabolism and burn off that excess body fat and having you looking and feeling great!
Well, I hope you found this article helpful.

Feel free to forward it to anyone you know who can benefit from it and keep your eyes peeled for some more great articles.

For more information on flat abs please click here: 
Talk to you again soon…
Jesse Cannone, CFT, CPRS, MFT

Many of the injuries that bodybuilders suffer from could be easily prevented just by allowing the body enough time to rest…

While most bodybuilders dread hearing the word “rest”, many fail to realize that there is far more to rest than just avoiding overtraining. When you perform a tough workout you not only stress that muscle or muscle group, you also place stress on the cardiovascular, neuromuscular and components of the immune system…

For example, many bodybuilders will train their chest 2-3 times a week and spend an hour or more performing dozens of exercises just for the pecs…

While this may sound ok to some, when you add in the stress of other workouts it can quickly add up to too much stress in one or more ways. I hear bodybuilders all the time say “I let my body rest by splitting up my workouts” and “I worked chest yesterday so today I’ll train my back”… that’s NOT rest!

Click here to read more about propper workout recovery:

Anyone looking to achieve optimal health has to consider nutrition as the single most important ingredient for success. In a perfect world, all of our nutrition should come from the food we eat. Supplementation should not even be an issue.

In the real world, however, most of the foods we eat are riddled with fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and hormones - not to mention that they are often hydrated with polluted water. In addition, an ever-growing percentage of our food comes from other countries, which don’t always have the best inspection track record.

And if all that weren’t bad enough, the natural nutrient value of the soil that produces these foods has also been diminishing over the years, a trend that will only continue. This is why it’s necessary for us to take a hard look at our diets and make a decision about whether we may need supplements.

As you can see, proper nutrition nowadays is not that easy; it does take some time to educate yourself. By proper nutrition, I mean eating clean and safe foods that have the nutrients your body requires to get and stay healthy.

Recipe for relief

Your two main purposes for eating a healthy diet and taking supplements are to give your body what it needs to heal itself and to minimize the level of inflammation that is in your body. The inflammation is what is causing your pain.

Click here to read more about proper nutrition and supplementation for back pain:

Why do we call mind-body techniques such as massage, meditation, hypnosis, or acupuncture “alternative” treatments when they’ve been around since the dawn of Man? If these techniques have been around and used for that long, surely there must be something to them.

Truth is, you’re already a bit of an expert in some of these techniques. Let me explain. Say you stub your toe. You know full well you’re going to grab that toe and rub it (massage). Next, your breathing is going to change, you’re going to belt out a few choice words, then you’re going to find a place to sit down and relax for a minute (meditation). And don’t forget your need to show everyone where it hurts by pointing to it and pressing on the most painful spot (acupressure).

I know what you’re thinking right now: How would any of these techniques help heal my herniated disc or Spinal Stenosis or Sciatica? First of all, none of these techniques can change the physical aspect of your condition. But when you examine the goals of each of them, they all make sense. And, if used together, they can deliver better and faster results.

Here’s a quick look at the benefits of a more extensive list of alternative treatments to help you understand how you might incorporate one or all of these techniques into your life. Study this list and then find practitioners to teach you or work with you one-on-one.

Massage: There are literally hundreds of styles of massage. Which one is best for you will depend on your comfort level. I would recommend finding some one skilled in Deep Tissue combined with Trigger Point as well as Myofascial Release the combination offers calming of the muscles and manual removal of inflammation by getting rid of the source of the irritant and pain.

Click here to read about more Mind Body Techniques: