How can I tone my midsection by summer?
As a personal trainer and weight-loss coach, I am constantly answering health and fitness questions from my clients, on social media and in our Start TODAY Facebook group. In this column, I address some of the most common questions and roadblocks that trip people up on their journey to establish a health and fitness routine.
How do I get abs quickly?
All year, my clients ask me what is the best way to tone their abdominals? In the spring in particular, with summer right around the corner, people want to know how to lose belly fat quickly.
Although I’m a weight-loss coach and personal trainer, I’ve never tried to get a six pack because I like having a curvy shape. I also don’t want to follow a strict diet since I prefer to have a healthy — but easygoing — approach to food. So my attitude towards toning up your abs for summer is also more well-rounded. I focus on reducing inflammation and bloating, overall fat loss and strengthening the core.
Unfortunately, those six-pack abs aren’t easy to obtain and maintain for the average person. But building core strength and losing excess weight in the midsection is worthwhile and important for good health, even if you don’t end up looking like Thor. Here’s my best fitness and diet recommendations for slimming and toning your abs.
Double check your food choices
What you eat is the biggest factor in bloating and weight loss. Meals loaded with sugar, refined starches and saturated fats should be replaced by those with whole grains, lean protein and lots of healthy veggies. This change will help you feel lighter in a couple of weeks. It’s also important to watch portion sizes, drink lots of water, and pay attention to how certain foods make you feel.
I had a client who ate a plant-based diet and lean protein, but she always felt bloated. When we cut out her daily servings of Greek yogurt and whole milk for five days, she shrunk two pants sizes! She obviously had a reaction to dairy. She didn’t need to cut it out completely, but her increased awareness helped her make better food choices.
So take inventory: Are you consuming certain foods on a regular basis that your body has a hard time digesting? Inflammatory foods can be anything (even healthy foods like cruciferous vegetables and beans can cause people trouble!) and everybody is different — but the most common culprits are dairy, gluten and corn. (For me, it’s pizza!) If you suspect a food may be causing you uncomfortable symptoms like bloat or indigestion, eliminate it for five days and take stock of how you feel. If you identify a food that causes you bloat, it doesn’t mean you can never eat it again. But you’ll have the knowledge to avoid those foods when you want to look and feel your best.
Adjust your exercise routine for fat loss
After you evaluate your diet, it’s time to rethink your exercise routine. If your current routine is cardio heavy, it’s time to add some strength training. Building and maintaining muscle is important for everyone to be doing. But if you are overweight, the combination of full-body strength training and cardio is the best plan of attack for total body fat loss — and since you can’t target belly fat specifically, losing body fat overall is the goal here. This could look like a long walk, jog or bike ride three to four times a week, with a full-body strength routine three times a week.
Remember: You can work your core every day!
While the large muscles in our arms and legs need at least one day of rest in between strength training, the smaller muscles of our core can be worked daily.
Committing to a five-minute ab routine every day can help build muscle and bring definition to your midsection. I recommend a core routine where you focus on ab exercises that work your core from all angles: on the ground on your back (like when doing a Pilates ab crunch), on your stomach (like when pushing up into a plank), and standing up (like when doing standing side crunches). Working all of these angles will make for a well-rounded routine that help targets every muscle in the core.
More of your questions, answered!
This article was originally published on TODAY.com