by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author of best-sellers: The Fat-Burning Kitchen &
The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging
This may sound a little weird to do this in the car, but it actually WORKS
to slowly help to flatten your belly over time if done consistently flat sexy
stomach.With today's short article, I wanted to show you a VERY simple
exercise that you can do anytime, anywhere to help get a flatter stomach
over time.
NOT increase fat burning, but it CAN help to flatten your stomach
by strengthening your deeper transversus abdominis muscles and
hence "pulling in" a lazy stomach (aka beer belly or "pooch belly").
It involves doing an exercise called "ab vacuums"...
I find it a good time to get in the habit of doing daily ab vacuums while driving on your daily commute or another time that would get you in
the habit of doing them regularly.
(please make sure this doesn't distract you from driving safely... I find
that it doesn't distract me at all, since you can keep your eyes on the road
at all times and both hands still on the wheel...it's certainly much safer than
driving while on a cell phone!)
Of course, ab vacuums can be done anywhere and at anytime and don't
have to be just for driving, but I've found that it helps me to remember to
do them if I do them at a specific time when driving regularly.... this could
be while driving home from the gym every time (I do this 3-4x per week
while driving home from the gym), or perhaps during your daily commute
to work. They even help to strengthen your core and support a healthy back!
Ab vacuums are simple (Instructions)
You can do them standing, seated (such as in a car), kneeling in a
four-point position, or even lying flat on the floor. I prefer them seated
or standing. The movement is as simple as pulling your belly button in as
far as you can by imagining you're trying to touch your belly button to
your spine and holding for 10-20 seconds at a time. Start by inhaling deeply.
Then, as you exhale, start pulling the belly button in towards the spine and
hold it there for 10-20 seconds while just taking short breaths.
Repeat for several of these 10-20 second holds, perhaps 5-10x if you have
enough time while in the car. But even just repeating 3-4x every time
you're driving somewhere can really add up over time and give you the
benefit of a flatter belly! Get in the habit of doing this at least 4-5 days
per week while driving somewhere and you may find that this helps to
flatten your stomach more by strengthening the transversus abdominis
muscle (the deep abdominal muscles beneath the rectus abdominis) if you
previously had a "lazy belly".Like I said previously, this "ab vacuums"
exercise does NOT increase fat burning...it only helps to flatten a round
stomach that has lazy deep ab muscles, and it will strengthen your core.
It's worth a place in your weekly belly-flattening repertoire.
Mike Geary Founder of Truth About Abs
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