what is the best way to get a flat stomach without a lot of work or pain?
339133
There is a pilates excercise that I like because it's the soloution to the "flat stomach + no pain" problem.\n\nYou get a pilates ball, and lay, with your upper body on the ball, and your knees stretched out and holding you up.  Do this while watching TV or a movie or something.  It doesn't make you that tired, and at first it's so unpainful that you can't believe it's working, but it is!
868456
The only way to have flat abs is to burn fat. No amount of situps will ever give you a six-pack. Situps and similar exercises work the muscles *under* the fat. If you want to be able to see the muscles you've got to lose the fat.\n\nThat's all well and good, but how? You have to use more energy than you consume. How do you burn more energy? Aerobic exercise, you've got to get your heartbeat up for extended periods of time. \n\nYou should also look at your diet. Eating multiple small meals throughout the day is a good start (it takes energy to digest food, make your body work for you). When I was kick-boxing all the time, I used to eat 5-7 meals a day at about 6500 calories total and I couldn't keep weight on.\n\nWhat you eat is extremely important. You want to make sure you're getting enough energy to power your motor, without excess getting converted to fat. Fail to eat enough of the right things (protein, carbs), your body will cannibalize muscle. Less muscle means lower metabolism, which means you burn less calories each day.\n\nFinally, you should have realistic goals. You want flat abs by 12/16/06. Even with a good diet and exercise regimen, 1-3 pounds a week of weight loss is excellent. If you think you're going to drop more than 10 pounds in a month, think again. You *can* do it, but it's not a good idea. For one, once you start eating like a normal person you'll rebound MORE weight than  you initially lost. Starvation diets are a bad idea in general. \n\nIf you can't get to your target weight by the scheduled time, adjust your goals. setting impossible goals only makes people feel depressed and less likely to continue. Instead, set several smaller, easier goals - then have a small reward each time you reach one. This will keep you interested, and on the straight and narrow. For instance, I'd have ice-cream on Saturday if I went to the gym like I wanted to the rest of the week. It's a little thing, but it breaks the monotony. You shouldn't have to weight until you lost every ounce of body fat to indulge - just keep it in moderation - and realize a healthy body is an ongoing process, not something you reach and then slack-off forever.\n\nCheers,\nOdd
440696
First and foremost, stay away from any ab machine you see on TV as they are simply a waste of money and barely effective.\n\nIt is also important not to confuse the term sit-ups with crunches which are the effective method to exercise your upper abdominals.  The abdominal muscles work just like any other muscle and have to be challenged as such. If you want muscular abdominals, you have to challenge them with resistance and good form just like you would your chest, your back or any other muscle for that matter. Targeting the correct energy system is imperative. This means you should never enter into the aerobic phase of this exercise, ideally keeping it under 2 minutes at most. \n\nThink of rolling a carpet and contracting fully on the top of the movement and squeeze. If you do them correctly, you shouldn't be able to do more than 30 crunches. Any more than that, and you're probably doing them half-azz, incorrectly or with a partial range of motion.\n\nFor the upper abs, focus on crunches which effectively work the abdominals better than sit-ups or any machine on the market.\n\nFor the lower abs, keep in mind there is very little muscle tissue there so decreasing levels of body fat is the most effective way to bring out the best in this area. Hanging leg raises, v-situps and reverse curls are among some of the best exercise for this region. Always make sure your pelvis curls up to maximize lower abdominal contraction during these exercises.\n\nAs far as fat loss and getting ripped goes, cardio, cardio, cardio. Abdominal exercises alone will never burn fat from your abdominal area.  You must do cardiovascular exercise to accomplish this.  Cardio is best in the morning, on an empty stomach at about 70-80% of your maximum heart rate for about 30-45 minutes. This combined with a common sense diet will quickly shed body fat so you can actually see those abs you've developed. \n\nI would encourage you to seek the advice and guidance of a personal trainer in your area for further education on these principles. Please ensure you start off at a very basic level for crunches and cardio if you are a beginner.\n\nHere's a good list of ab exercises:\nhttp://preventdisease.com/fitness/Strength_Exercises_abdominals.html
753418
No. Try exercise and lay off the fatty foods; sit-ups, crunches, walking, running, stretching, cardio exercise, resistance exercise...all are great for flattening your abdomen. There are tons of evercise programs on line and places for women, who have the same problem as you, to work out at all over the place.\n\nGood luck.
864269
Try doing 150 situps and 10 crunches a day. Also run 1/2 to one mile a day. I did this and have lost 10 pounds in a couple months and my stomach looks flatter.
188029
Sit-ups are good.  Also try doing this sit-up variation—lay on your back, put your hands behind you head, bring you knees up to your chest.  Then stretch one leg out straight (lets say the right one), making sure that it does not touch the floor but remains parallel to it. Leave your left leg bent against your chest.  Take your right elbow across and touch your bent left knee.  Then bring your right leg back up to your chest, stretch out you left leg and take your right elbow across to touch your bent right knee.  This exercises most of the muscles in your chest and abdomen as well as the muscles in your back.
708691
there is no easy way...unfortunately. If there was everyone would have a nice stomach.   You have to diet and exercise. Depending on how much weight you have to lose, diet at first will work great. for the last 10 pounds you have to lose, exercise is critical, as your stomach will stay flabby no matter how much weight you lose if you don't add exercise.
810589
To get a six pack abs, you need two things :\n1. Strong ab muscles\n2. Little or no fat on your belly. \n\nYou can tone your ab muscles without any equipment. You need to focus on 3 aspects - upper abs, lower abs and obliques. \n Do lots of crunches, sit ups etc. Also, do plank holds ( 10th in the provided link). You can add twist to the plank holds by lifting one arm at a time and exercise your obliques. \n\nYou can't have toned belly without overall fitness. So make sure you eat healthy and incorporate some kind of cardiovascular exercise in your regimen. For a total body exercise that does not require any equipment, try Sun Salutations or Surya Namaskara from yoga. \n\nGood luck
199966
You will certainly need more than 10 days to flatten your belly.  Multiply that by about 10 at that may be a more reasonable time range to see modest results.\n\nFirst and foremost, stay away from any ab machine as they are simply a waste of money and barely effective.\n\nFor the upper abs, focus on crunches which effectively work the abdominals better than sit-ups or any machine on the market.\n\nFor the lower abs, keep in mind there is very little muscle tissue there so decreasing levels of body fat is the most effective way to bring out the best in this area. Hanging leg raises, v-situps and reverse curls are among some of the best exercise for this region. Always make sure your pelvis curls up to maximize lower abdominal contraction during these exercises.\n\nAs far as fat loss and getting ripped goes, cardio, cardio, cardio. In the morning, on an empty stomach at about 70-80% of your maximum heart rate for about 30-45 minutes. This combined with a common sense diet will quickly shed body fat so you can actually see those abs you've developed. \n\nI would encourage you to seek the advice and guidance of a personal trainer in your area for further education on these principles. Please ensure you start off at a very basic level for crunches and cardio if you are a beginner.\n\nHere's a list of ab exercises to help you get started:\nhttp://www.preventdisease.com/fitness/Strength_Exercises_abdominals.html
416467
nothing is going to get the tummy flat but diet and exercise.  Don't believe crunches alone will do it.  Crunches will strengthen the abdominal muscles but will not get rid of the fat.  It is fat on top of the muscles that makes the tummy protrude.  I would suggest removing crabs from your diet and increase the proteins.  Breads would include, pasta, breads, rice, and potatoes. you will get enough carb intakes from fruits...but stay away from bananas.
486045
You don't need to do full sit-ups. Do crunches instead and only go up to where you start to feel the pull of your abs then hold it there for a couple seconds. But make sure you are keeping your back and neck straight so that you don't injure yourself in the process.\n\nIf you HAVE to do full sit-ups make sure you are doing them correctly. Back and neck straight. You might want to consult a personal trainer to show you the proper technique.
205713
Try laying flat on your back and raise your legs until your heels are about 2-3 inches off the floor, and hold them there for as long as you can.  Do it as often as you like but be prepared for sore muscles in you stomach.
440718
sit-ups are the old fashioned way of getting your stomach in shape. these are when you go all the way from the floor to your knees. crunches are a newer concept and are much better for you. put your hands behind your head and stare at the ceiling. bend your knees just like you were going to do sit-ups. now try to get your face as close to the ceiling as possible. you'll only go a few inches, but that's the idea. isolate your stomach muscles and try to use them only. do not use your hands to pull on your head or neck. at 14, you should see results in a few weeks.
394303
exercise ... if you want to flatten stomach you need to loose fat.  You can't necessarily loose fat on one focused area of body. \n\nSitups are pretty good at TONING the muscles that are there; but you won't see any of that with fat overtop the muscles.  \n\nWalk and moderate your meals/snacks.  Establish a healthy life style ... you'll see a flatter tummy eventually.
178858
start doing crunches.  And do them different ways, i.e., lay on your side and have your head looking up at the ceiling, the normal way, and don't forget to work on your lower abdomen by laying flat and lifting your legs up.  You need to start with an amount that you can handle, until your stomach muscles are screaming, then roll over and lay on your stomach and lift your upper body off the floor arching your back to stretch them out for a smidge.  Work your way up to about 100-200 a day.  You'll be looking good in no time.
790048
You're not going to build muscles on top of the fat.  What you will be doing is replacing the fat with muscle, which will flatten your stomach.  And if you add a low-cal diet to all that excercise, you are bound to lose weight in the process.  Start easy though.  Zero sit-ups to suddenly 200 sit-ups in a day can make you pretty sore, and might also make you give up on your new resolution because you are in too much pain!  Start at 15 sit-ups and work your way up.  Hope this helps.
1178084
For your stomach you should try the backwards situps.  Lie down on the floor with arms down and legsstraight down.  Keep your legs straight as you bring them in the air.  Take them back down straight and continue this on a daily basis.  For your butt, try deep lunges.  Just stand up straight and put one leg in front of the other.  Lean into the leg in the front ten times.  (Put all of your weight on that leg.)  And then switch to the other leg and do the same.