Abdominal Exercise

If you are doing abdominal exercises in the hopes of getting a strong core and a flat stomach, you aren’t alone. Ab exercises are some of the most popular exercises for both novice and elite athletes. However to get a flat belly and defined abs takes more than just crunches. You also need to reduce the layer of body fat covering up your well-defined abs.

Abdominal Exercise
To develop your abs you will perform specific abdominal exercises that work all the abdominal muscles. There are many exercises you can do to work the abs. There are also some great products that you can use at home, such as a large exercise ball. Using the ball for crunches requires that you stabilize your torso while balanced on the ball and you end up using more muscles than when performing standard crunches.

Nutrition
In order to decrease body fat and gain muscle requires proper nutrition. You'll need a balanced diet of carbohydrate, protein and fat. Eating several small meals throughout the day helps many people stay more satisfied and reduces hunger. Other tips for avoiding fat gain include: getting calcium, eating breakfast and eating high fiber foods. Make sure you stay well-hydrated by drinking water throughout the day and be sure not to cut calories too drastically or you could inadvertently lower your metabolism.

Aerobic Exercise
Aerobic exercise is the best way to burn calories and manage (or lose) weight. Reducing your calories without exercise will lead to initial weight loss, but you'll likely reach a plateau and you may also lose muscle. A personal exercise plan will get you past plateaus and can help you maintain muscle.

Core Training
You can also perform core stability exercises to improve your torso strength, balance and stability. Your core is made up of the abdominals, lower back and hips and creates a foundation for all other movement. These muscles stabilize the spine and create a strong center around which the extremities can move. A strong core is important in every aspect of movement; especially power movements.

Core Muscle Strength and Stability Testing
The Plank exercise can be used as the basis for assessing your core strength. Sports coach, Brian Mackenzie, created this test as a way to determine an individual's current core strength and stability and then to monitor progress over time.

Combining a bit of each – good nutrition, aerobic exercise and core specific strengthening – will go a long way to give you those strong, flat and functional abs.