Doctors recommend 30 minutes of activity daily for overall health and wellness. Luckily, cardio exercise and many different physical activities can help with the regular loss of overall body fat…including your belly! So, regular cardio like running, walking, biking, and elliptical workouts can help with burning calories and burning fat. After starting with physical activity on a regular schedule, some specific toning exercises can help build those beautiful abs that you may be looking for.
5 Easy Ab-Toning Exercises To Do at Home
- Exercise ball crunches – Lie on the ball with your lower back supported and feet planted on the ground. Place hands across the chest or behind the head. Contract abs and lift your torso up and forward. Lower back down. Keep the ball stable throughout. Exhale up and inhale when you lower back down. Do 1-3 sets with 12-16 repetitions.
- Vertical leg crunches – Lie down with hands behind your head and put your legs straight up with knees crossed, and keep your legs in the air, extended the whole time. Flex abs to lift head and shoulders off the floor. Lay back down. Exhale up and inhale when you lay back down. Again, do 1-3 sets with 12-16 repetitions.
- Reverse crunches – Lie flat on the floor with your arms at your sides and cross your feet. Lift your feet off the floor, creating a 90-degree angle with your knees. Contract your ab muscles to lift head and shoulders off the ground. And, still, exhale as you go up, inhale going down, and do 1-3 sets with 12-16 repetitions.
- Burpees – Start with your feet shoulder-distance apart, send your hips back, and lower your body toward the ground in a low squat. Then, place your hands right outside your feet, hop your feet back, and let your chest touch the floor (beginning of a push up). Lift your body up into a plank and pull your feet back in, just outside of your hands. With your weight in your heels, jump explosively into the air with your arms overhead.
- Mountain climbers – Start in a high plank with your wrists under your shoulders. Keep your core tight, draw your belly button in toward your spine, driving one knee at a time toward your chest, and then back to plank position. Continue from side-to-side, sort of like running in place, parallel to the ground. It’s great for the core and as a cardio workout too!
No matter what, it is important to know that there is no one true “trick” to burning belly fat with exercise or diet. It is best to get an overall workout to help burn fat all over your body, and you can always add some exercise to help tone up those abs… and other muscles too!
