Should I do cardio or sit-ups to get a flat stomach?
Asked by crazyperson01 on Dec 19, 2009
in Fitness
I'm trying to lose weight and get a flatter stomach. I've been told that the way to lose fat is to do cardio and so I've just been doing cardio and not sit-ups or ab exercises. Should I add ab exercises to achieve a smaller stomach or should I wait until I lose weight to do the ab exercises?
Answer
To get flatter abs, you must first lose the layer of fat that covers the muscles of the core, and then build up all of the core muscles. To lose fat, eat fewer calories than you expend and expend more calories via cardio-type exercise. To build up your core, strength-train the entire body because so many different muscles are involved. (Sit-ups don't target enough muscles.) And so, for a flat stomach, it doesn't matter if you strength-train now or later; however, it is good to strength-train twice a week while losing weight to build up muscles that being broken down. Muscle burns calories and makes you look trim. Pilates and advanced yoga strength-train the entire body as well.
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