How to Tone Your Lower Abs by Riding a Bicycle

You might imagine you have to do endless crunches or situps to tone the abdominals and cut down on the amount of fat around your midsection, but in truth there's no such thing as "spot reduction." Sure, crunches can help you build muscle in your rectus abdominis and oblique muscles, but they may still be hiding under a layer of fat. To show some definition in the lower or upper abdominals, you have to do calorie-burning exercise that helps you burn overall body fat. If bicycling is your exercise of choice, a few simple additions to your cycling routine can help you focus on the midsection.

Instructions

    • 1

      Warm up before every workout by walking, jogging or cycling slowly for five to 10 minutes. Then do a few dynamic stretches such as leg kicks, arm circles and torso rotations. Doing a warmup before your workouts will help you improve your overall performance and speed your recovery time, says sports coach Brian Mac.

    • 2

      Carve out time in your schedule to bicycle for about 45 to 60 minutes a day, five or six days a week. Go for long, moderately intense rides on your bike during three or four of your exercise days. Push yourself to maintain a speed that has you sweating and your heart beating fast, making it difficult to carry on a conversation. Do high-intensity interval training two days a week -- on the days you're not doing the longer rides. Find a long stretch of road or bike path and cycle at your maximum speed for 30 seconds, and then "recover" by cycling slowly for about 90 seconds. Continue this pattern of fast and then slow for a total of eight rounds. According to the American Council on Exercise, such high-intensity interval training not only helps you increase your metabolism but also targets stubborn abdominal fat.

    • 3

      Check your position. If you're riding your bike with a curved back, you're letting your back muscles do all of the work. Every time you think of it, contract your abdominal muscles -- all the way down to those "lower" abdominals -- and maintain a flat back. When you're maintaining a flat back, try a few "pushups" with your hands on the handlebars to work the rectus abdominis.

    • 4

      Sit tall in the saddle and take one arm off the handlebars, raising it to just above your head as you brace your abdominal muscles. Hold it there for about 30 seconds, and then lower that hand back to the handlebars and raise the opposite arm, holding it there for 30 seconds. Keep doing this exercise until you feel fatigued in your lower and side abdominals.

    • 5

      Perform saddle-raise exercises. Keep both hands firmly on the handlebars, lean forward slightly, keeping your back flat, and lift your butt off the saddle -- also known as the seat of your bike. Lift upward, hold for a second, and then lower your butt back down. Continue doing this exercise until your abs and thighs tire out.

    • 6

      Do "switchback" exercises that target the obliques -- a band of muscles that reach all the way into the lower pelvis. Hold out one arm and lean your body in the same direction as the arm. Place the other arm closer toward the center of the handlebars and feel the burn in your sides and lower abs as you work on staying upright on the bike. Since your bike will be leaning, you might choose to do this on a flat stretch of open blacktop, or try it on a spinning cycle.