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Too often, people try to flatten their bellies the wrong way. They do just one of the ab exercises–often an abdominal crunch–over and over and over again. This is not an efficient way to tone your belly! Read on for more details.

First, abdominal crunches work only one area of your abdomen–the part along the front of your belly above the belly button. Unfortunately, this happens to be the one area of the belly that’s often strongest for most people. So, as ab exercises, crunches simply make an already strong area of the abdomen even stronger, ignoring important weak spots that are the true source of your problem.


Second, I’ve never met a person who enjoys doing abdominal crunches. My clients have complained to me over and over about how crunches feel awkward and make their necks hurt. I don’t believe in forcing yourself to do ab exercises that you don’t like. To truly create a slender waist and flat belly, you must strengthen your entire abdomen. That means doing moves that address the four core muscles:


The Upper Rectus Abdominus This large muscle forms the much-sought-after “six-pack” along the front of your abdomen. Though it appears to be made up of four to six smaller muscles, it’s really one large muscle broken up with striations of connective tissue. The rectus abdominus (upper and lower) starts at your sternum in your chest and runs all the way down to your pubic bone. The upper portion of this muscle ends at your navel. This is often the strongest muscle in the abdomen.

The Lower Rectus Abdominus Even though your rectus abdominus is actually one sheet of muscle, not two, we trainers often refer to the lower and upper areas as separate units because you must do different ab exercises to address them. Your lower area is on the front of your belly below the navel. This area is often particularly weak in women after childbirth.