Best Exercise to Lose Belly Fat
Abdomen, belly, gut, belly… This part of the body presents two problems:
- First of all, it is an area where fat tends to accumulate, both in men and women.
- And secondly, it is a muscle that is little exercised in daily activities, so it weakens over the years (to this, we must add factors that have a significant impact on this area, such as pregnancies in women).
Outcome? It usually accumulates fat and tends to sag. That is why losing a belly is the obsession of many, regardless of sex, and the exercises to achieve it are the most demanded in gyms and what is most requested from a personal trainer.
FIRST OF ALL, GO ON A DIET
But before starting any exercise routine to achieve a flat stomach, you must know, and this is what Martín Giachetta, known as the celebrity coach and owner of Boutique Gym, points out that if you accumulate abdominal fat, the most important thing is to go on a diet to lose weight.
The data that tells you if you have excess visceral fat is the waist circumference :
- More than 102 cm in men and above 88 cm in women is indicative of visceral fat and is related to an increased cardiovascular risk.
That said, and without losing sight of the need to diet (balanced and controlled), exercise can help us burn fat because it involves energy expenditure and, above all, it favors muscle development.
- “Muscles are like a person’s engine, the more muscle you have, the more calories your metabolism will consume even while at rest and, therefore, the less fat you will have,” says Giachetta, personal and superior triathlon trainer and expert in Nutrition and Dietetics.
EXERCISES THAT HELP YOU LOSE YOUR GUT
This is Martín Giachetta’s selection of exercises to strengthen the abdominal muscles and reduce the belly.
- Sit ups
It could be translated as “sit up”, and they are the most well-known abdominal workout and surely the most effective.
- Lie on the floor on your back on a mat and bend your knees with the soles of your feet on the floor.
- From this position, lift your torso off the ground and bring your head closer to your knees with your arms extended forward. In addition to the abdominal muscles, you are working the hip flexors, the lats and the back.
Raised leg crunch
It is another of the simplest and most effective exercises to strengthen the abdomen.
- Lie on the floor on your back and place your palms crossed on your chest.
- Raise your legs bent (thigh and tibia should form roughly a right angle).
- Lift your head and shoulders off the ground and gently bring them to your knees.
Bicycle crunches
With this exercise, you work the oblique, frontal, quadriceps and gluteal abs.
- Lie down with your legs extended and bring your hands behind your head with your elbows bent.
- Bend your right knee and bring your left elbow toward it to try to touch the knee.
- Return to the starting position and do the same with the opposite knee and elbow.
Leg raises
This exercise works the abdomen and legs.
- Stretch on the floor on your back with your arms close to your body.
- Raise both legs together until they form a 90º angle with the trunk and lower.
- If your feet do not touch the ground in each repetition, the muscles will work more. You can also do the same exercise by raising your legs alternately.
Scissor back
An instrumental movement to strengthen the abdominal area.
- Lying on your stomach, lift one leg and the opposite arm.
- Hold your position for a few seconds and repeat with the opposite leg and arm.
Inverted crunch
Strengthens the lower abdomen.
- Stretched out on your back on the floor with your arms close to your body, bend your legs and raise them so that your thighs are perpendicular to the floor and the shin parallel (thigh and shin should form a right angle).
- From this position, raise your pelvis and lower back and bring your knees to your chest to try to touch it. Hold the position by contracting your abdomen and lower.
Iron
The plank or plack in English is a complete exercise because, in addition to helping to have a steel abdomen, it tones many muscle groups in a single gesture.
- The basic plank consists of stretching on the floor face down and supporting yourself on the balls of your feet and forearms with your elbows bent. In that position, you must hold between 30 seconds and 1 minute. It is not easy, but it is a matter of training.
- To complicate it a bit, you can raise one leg slightly and then the other, or one arm and then another. There are several variants.
Iron with fitball
The exercises with a fit ball also work the balance.
- Get on your knees in front of the ball with your torso straight and your hands resting on the fitball or ball.
- From this position, let the ball roll until you rest on it with your forearms. The rest of the body should draw an angle of 45º with the ground.
WORK THE BODY IN A GENERALIZED WAY
Martín Giachetta advises doing 3 or 4 sets of 15 or 20 repetitions of the previous exercises, but it is unnecessary to do all of them.
We can choose 3 or 4 and alternate them with exercises that work other muscle groups.
What is the best exercise to lose weight? Combine strength and cardio
” The ideal is to work the body in a generalized way . It does not make any sense to have a hard abdomen and thin arms. If we dedicate ourselves to working only the abdomen, the muscles that we obtain are probably disproportionate to that of the rest of the body”, clarifies the coach.
And it is essential to be advised by a physical trainer who will know the routine that best suits us based on our physical condition.