Even though you believe that a flat stomach is always a result of numerous crunches and running for miles, it doesn’t necessary mean that it is the only way to have a tight and muscular abdominal area!

Namely, there are many effective exercises that will engage all the muscles of the core and will help you shed excess pounds in a faster and easier way.

This is how to perform them:

Abdominal Twist

This exercise is a bit uncommon, as it includes twisting, which will target the abdominal muscles and the obliques. In this way, it tightens the abdominal and the midsection muscles, so it is perfect to help you get rid of the love handles.

You should start in a lying position, with the feet flat on the ground. Your knees should be pointing upwards, just like when you are doing crunches.

Then, elevate your upper body in order to be 45 degrees off of the ground and twist the body to the left, then return to the initial position, and then twist to the right.

In order to elevate the level of the exercise, you can raise the legs off the ground. You can also hold a heavy object or a dumbbell in the hand as well.

Scale Pose

Undoubtedly, this is one of the best poses you can perform when it comes to core resistance training. Namely, it is an isometric exercise, so you should not contact the muscles during it, but you just hold the position. According to researchers, isometric exercises are correlated with less fat, so this exercise will help you burn belly fat and tone the muscles.

You should sit down, cross your legs and place the palms face-down on the floor, beside the hips. Next, breathe out and push the hands against the ground. Flex the belly muscles and try to lift the body off of the ground.

If you find it difficult, push against the floor until you feel the resistance and hold for 10-15 seconds.

The Swan Dive

This exercise is focused on the posterior chain and provides excellent results as well. The posterior chain is, in fact, the muscle group that makes up the back of the body.

Therefore, these muscles should be tight and tones, in order to increase the strength of the core and to prevent injuries. Most of the core exercises use the muscles of the posterior chain, so if they are weak, you may experience some injury, and these exercises may be hard for you to perform.

Hence, you need to line the stomach and stretch the arms in front of you. The legs should be outstretched behind you. Then, elevate the upper body and the arms off of the ground. For even more resistance, you can also lift the legs off of the ground, but make sure they are fully straight. Hold for 10-15 seconds.

V Pose

This pose is also a part of yoga and it provides magnificent results. You should sit down, and stretch the legs in front of your body. Now, grab each of the big toes, or your calves, and hold thus.

Lean backwards at the same time; flex the core muscles in order to create a V-shape with the body. If you feel like you need to add a bit more pressure, you can let go of your legs/toes and hold in that position using the core muscles only, for 10-15 seconds.

Now, as you know how to perform these effective exercises, you should make a routine schedule that will help you obtain best effects:

You should start the workout session with 4 sets of abdominal twists, 5 repetitions for the first set, 8-10 repetitions for the second and third set, and for the last set, try to do as much as possible. Make sure you rest for 30-40 seconds between sets.

As we mentioned, isometric exercises cannot be repeated. Instead, you will prolong the holding while performing the other exercises. Thus, you should hold each pose for 10-15 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds more than the time you held the pose.

For instance, if you hold the position for 15 seconds, you should rest for half a minute. This should be repeated 4 times for each pose.

Source: familylifegoals.com
Other included sources linked in Family Life Goals’s article:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11415690
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1126131
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3716991/