Does Your Stomach Get Tight When You Start to Exercise?

Your stomach will tighten when it is exercised properly. Many different types of exercise give you the opportunity to tighten your stomach muscles. You can perform exercises that focus exclusively on your stomach -- like crunches -- or you can engage the stomach muscles during cardio exercise to tighten your stomach. Try both methods along with a proper diet to see quicker results.

  1. Best Exercises to Tighten Your Stomach Muscles

    • The best way to tighten your stomach muscles is any core exercise that focuses on your stomach muscles like crunches, standing knee lifts or situps. "Prevention Magazine" also cites belly dancing, hula hooping and sitting on an exercise ball as great ways to flatten your stomach. To hula hoop: move your hips from side to side or from front to back. Moving your hips in a circle will cause the hoop to fall.

    Isometric Core Exercises

    • The prone plank helps tighten stomach muscles.

      Another great way to tighten your stomach muscles is isometric exercises. Isometric means that you hold a position with your muscles engaged. This type of exercise is especially useful for stomach muscles. "Fitness Magazine" lists the prone plank as one of the best stomach-toning exercises. The prone plank position is like the start of a pushup: place your hands under your shoulders, with your back and legs straight while on your toes. Hold this position for 30 seconds to one minute.

    Other Exercises That Work

    • Cardio exercise is always great for losing weight. Even though you cannot dictate where on your body the weight will come off first, cardio will affect your stomach too. If you engage your stomach muscles while you workout, you will begin to tighten your stomach. When you walk, run, use an elliptical or ride a bike, engage your stomach muscles during the exercise. This constant tightening will strengthen the muscles and tighten your stomach.

    Don't Forget Nutrition

    • Any time you want to tighten an area of your body, you need to consider what you eat as well as how you exercise. An important part of losing weight is consuming fewer calories than you use during daily activities. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention determined that in order to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week, you need to reduce your calories by 500 to 1,000 calories per day. This calorie deficit can be accomplished by eating less and exercising more.