When it comes to strengthening your muscles to get a great-looking body, "get off the [weight] machines at the gym," says Conrad. If becoming a body builder isn't your goal, these are a waste of time, she says. The key to getting perfectly toned is to do "exercises that engage many muscles at the same time." There are three (yep, only three!) exercises she recommends you do four times a week (after completing your cardio routine) to get great abs. Do each of them until you can't do any more, which means you'll gradually build the number of reps you're able to do. Always remember the goal is to work your muscles to fatigue. That's when you see the best, fastest results.
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Strengthening exercise No. 1: Pull Ups
Mix up your grip from time to time to keep the exercise fresh (palms facing you, facing away, palms facing each other, etc.). These are super tough, so use a machine that allows you to do assisted pull ups to make them bearable.
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Strengthening exercise No. 2: Push Ups
Do standard push ups, or do them off your knees or on an inclined bench. Another personal trainer fave: When you've built up your strength to be able to do a few push-ups off your toes, place your toes on a BOSU ball or another small exercise ball. This will challenge your balance and work more muscles than regular push-ups.
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Strengthening exercise No. 3: Squats
These should be body-weighted squats -- no weighted bars or dumbbells necessary. Simply stand with feet hip-width apart, arms at your sides, and sit back as if you were going to sit in a chair. Engage your hamstrings, glutes, and core as you stand back up. You can also mix these standard lunges up with jumping lunges, to vary your routine.
Surprised that ab specific exercises didn't make this list? These three exercises use the largest muscles of the body in order to get everything in shape and to keep your metabolism up throughout the day, which will help burn fat and flatten your belly, says Conrad.
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Other belly flattening activities
Since you'll do your cardio and strength training moves four days a week, you'll need to find other activities to do on the other two days to really see a difference in your body. Try picking up a new sport. Tennis, kayaking, and swimming are great choices because they'll quickly help slim your middle. And don't think too much about these activities while doing them. The goal is to go out and have fun, so do something you want to do. And no, shopping doesn't count.
Wouldn't it be great if the hundreds of gimmicky ab workouts for women like the Ab Rocket and Belly Burner actually did what they claim? That we could get the flawless tummies we see in infomercials without having to do much of anything? Now that would be heaven on earth.
Well, there's good news: "You don't have to do 500 crunches in order to get a great-looking stomach," says celebrity fitness and lifestyle expert Ashley Conrad. But the bad news is there really is no magic ab trick, she says.
Nutrition and cardio are still the king and queen of the perfect-ab kingdom. You must reduce fat around your midsection and do various ab workouts for women in order to have nice-looking tummy. So if that's the case, how many hours must we spend chained to the treadmill in order to get abs we're proud to flaunt in a bikini? And isn't there anything else we can do to speed up the process?
Read on for the answers. This easy-to-follow belly-flattening program created by Conrad will put you on the path to better abs without making you a slave to the gym. Simply implement this cardio and muscle-strengthening routine along with the key nutrition tips and within days you'll start to notice a difference. After a few weeks you'll actually see true transformation. Keep reading to get started �
