The Best Exercises You Can Do to Get Flat Abs

It's impossible to spot reduce any specific area--including your abs--but with the right combination of exercises and a balanced diet, you can make strides toward a flat stomach. Build muscle mass in your midsection with exercises designed to tone and strengthen your entire core. This along with heart-pumping aerobic exercise will help you burn body fat to trim and tone your waist line.

  1. Standing Ab Exercises

    • Certain standing exercises require the muscles in your core to work together to stabilize your movements, which is especially helpful for toning your stomach area. Target your obliques by standing with your legs shoulder-width apart and keeping your hands behind your head. Bend your waist to one side and then bend to the other side while keeping your hips still. Twisting from side-to-side as you lift one knee toward your chest also provides a challenge for your obliques and abs. You can perform standing exercises while holding small weights, a medicine ball or an exercise ball to increase the intensity.

    Crunches

    • Certified strength and conditioning coach Stew Smith recommends a ten-second crunch for total ab toning. While lying on your back, lift your shoulders off the floor and hold for ten seconds. Repeat at least ten times. To work your lower abs, try reverse crunches. Begin in the same position as a crunch, but bend your knees toward your chest so your feet hover off the floor. Lift your hips off the floor, crunching your knees further toward your chest as you keep your head resting on the ground.

    Pilates Move

    • Pilates workouts work all four major muscles in your abdominals, including the transverse abdominis--the deepest, innermost muscle in your stomach area. Try the single leg stretch, one of the exercises in the Pilates mat stomach series. Begin by lying on your back with your knees bent and your feet hovering off the floor. Bring your head and shoulders off the mat and cast your eyes toward your navel. Extend one leg away from your body, then bend it and bring it back toward you as you extend the other leg. Repeat this switching movement ten to twelve times.

    Aerobic Exercise

    • No matter how strong and toned your abdominal muscles are, stubborn stomach fat keeps the appearance of washboard abs at bay. Aerobic exercise burns calories to support weight management and fat loss. The United States Department of Health and Human Services recommends that adults engage in about two-and-a-half hours of moderately intense aerobic exercise such as walking, jogging, swimming or cycling each week, with each session of aerobic activity lasting at least ten minutes. When paired with abdominal strength training workouts, regular aerobic exercise can help you make gains toward flatter abs.