Getting a flat stomach isn’t the only reason why exercising the stomach muscles is important. Exercises that benefit the stomach also strengthen back muscles, which factor into so many movements – walking, bending, carrying – essential to our daily lives. And strengthening any group of muscles is always a good thing.
That said, many of us work our stomach muscles in hopes of developing flat, defined bellies. If that’s your goal, you may already have discovered not all stomach exercises are alike for this purpose. While most any exertion of stomach muscles contributes to your overall health, not ever exercise will help visibly flatten your belly.
How to find the best stomach exercises
The golden rule with exercise: the best exercise is one you’ll actually do as often as you need to in order to achieve your fitness goals. If someone recommends a particular stomach exercise as the very best one, but you find it uncomfortable, awkward or too difficult to do, you’re not going to do it. Therefore, no matter how good the exercise is for some people, it’s not the best one for you.
Some people will tell you in order to achieve a flat stomach, you must have certain equipment. This isn’t true. Some equipment might make it easier or more convenient for you, or help you perform exercises more safely and correctly. If you like using equipment, by all means, go for it. But you can achieve a flat stomach using nothing but your body, the ground and maybe a chair.
Here are the characteristics of an ideal stomach workout:
- It works different muscles within the stomach. This is the top reason why people fail to achieve the look they’re after. They may be strengthening one group to an admirable degree, but it’s hidden behind or beside another group that’s still mostly soft and flabby. The stomach area includes the transverse abdominals, obliques (side muscles), your lower abdominals, upper abdominals and your mid-section.
- It doesn’t strain your back or neck. Downtime from injury is hardly helpful to achieving your fitness goals. If you can’t perform a particular exercise without feeling strain to your back or neck, stop doing that exercise.
- You can feel it working. You should be able to feel every exertion of your stomach muscles. If you can’t, you’re not performing the exercise correctly. (Sometimes I find I’m off on some movement by just an inch or so, but that’s enough to transfer all the exertion to my back or legs or some other area. By adjusting each movement a little until you feel exertion where you’re supposed to be feeling it, you can learn the exercise properly.)
What about crunches?
Crunches are great. They’re fun (well, I think so) and they’re effective. But one form of crunches alone will never give you a flat stomach (see the link on “transverse abdominals”). Each type of crunch exercise (classic crunches, side crunches, etc.) only works one set of stomach muscles. If you combine enough different forms of crunches, you can work every set of muscles. But you must be sure to do this.
Pilates
Because Pilates focuses so much on strengthening your core – your stomach – every single exercise in a Pilates workout will work stomach muscles. If attending a Pilates class isn’t something you can afford or want to do, get a DVD (you can most likely borrow one from a local library for free) or look up Pilates exercises online. Remember to search for videos so you can see the movements being done properly rather than just reading illustrated text about them.
