If your goal is to get flat abs, you need to structure your workout and nutrition plan for lean fitness. Flat abs aren’t just about doing sit-ups, you need to tackle your efforts from a 3-dimensional approach to achieve an impressive result. Let’s explore the foundations of how to get a flat stomach.
How to Get Flat Abs
To get flat abs you need to combine cardio output with a structured routine of ab exercises. In this way, you will achieve an incredible fat-burning effect from raising your heart rate, but you will also be building muscle tone in your midsection so your ab muscles become exposed.
Start your workout with 10-15 minutes of cardio, so you can get your heart pumping right away. A lot of people head straight into weights when they start working out, and this is incorrect, especially if you’re looking to follow a flat abs workout. It’s a must for burning the most possible calories during your workout.
Once you’ve finished your cardio, you can head straight into a routine of 6-8 ab and strength exercises, which you will perform in a row and without rest. You will complete 3 sets of these 6-8 moves, the only rest time being the 2 minutes break you take between sets.
The Mission Lean app provides many highly effective fat-burning routines, which is why a lean body app is a useful resource if you’re truly committed to getting a flat stomach. Within the app you can choose between a series of flat stomach exercises for women and six-pack abs workouts for men.However, if you have a routine of core and strength exercises that have worked for you, you can stick to these – but make sure you limit the rest time as you transition from one exercise to the next.
Altering Your Basal Metabolic Rate: The Flat Stomach Secret
Starting your workout with cardio output is crucial to getting the maximum calorie-burning effect from your workout and torching fat off your midsection. If you start your workout with jogging or the bike, your body temperature will increase right away. This, in turn, will raise your basal metabolic rate and ultimately how many calories you can burn in your workout.
“Basal metabolic rate” is just a complicated term that means your calorie-burning potential, or, how many calories you will burn in a given minute. Put simply, if your body temperature is more highly elevated during your workout, you will burn more calories than you otherwise would have. The ultimate goal is to facilitate a caloric deficit so that the fat on your midsection melts away, and this is the reason you can’t skip the aerobic output at the beginning of your workout.
Once you get in a great cardio burn, head into a circuit of ab moves that combine both dynamic exercises and isometric exercises. Finding the perfect combination of both is the key to a powerful flat abs workout.
Complete this Powerful Workout That Incorporates the Back and Front of Your Core
If you want to create a highly effective flat abs workout, combining dynamic abs exercises with isometric exercises is a must. Your core strength doesn’t just stem from the muscles on the front of your body – your abdominals – but also includes your back, butt, and hamstrings. Therefore, you must create a routine that strengthens both the front and back of your body if your goal is to truly benefit from toned and flat abs.
After you complete 10-15 minutes of cardio, either on the treadmill, bike, or jogging outside, head into this flat abs workout, which incorporates both dynamic exercises and isometric exercises. You will also be working your core muscles from a 360-degree angle as you benefit from great burn in the upper and lower abs, obliques, back and glutes, and hamstrings.
- Crunches
- Supermans
- Plank
- Glute Bridges
- Side Plank
- Scissors
Complete the exercises in the order given and move from one exercise to the next without rest. You should complete each move for 30 seconds, and follow the instructional voice-over in the video to gain the maximum out of each exercise. If you can, complete 4 sets of these 6 moves. As with all of your Mission Lean workouts, you should aim to complete a thorough stretching after the workout.
Find Variation in Your Workout
To create a strong and toned stomach you need to make sure you are incorporating a variety of abs exercises that strengthen all areas of your core. The goal is for you to achieve a flat stomach and ideally stay there for the long run, and the only way to do this is to strengthen your whole mid-section. The workout above aims to do exactly that, as do all of the abs routines offered on the Mission Lean app.
The crunches target your upper abdominals and the supermans strengthen your back muscles, especially the lower back. The plank is a great isometric exercise that will work your entire abdomen, and the glute bridges are a dynamic exercise that builds up your backside: your gluteus maximus muscles, hamstrings, and lower back.
Don’t forget to tone your obliques, and this is where the side plank fits in. Be sure to complete the side plank on both sides. Lastly, the scissors exercise is an amazing exercise for your lower abs, and if you complete scissors regularly you will begin to achieve flat, toned abs relatively quickly. Again, all of these abs moves are increased in their fat-burning effect when you undertake 10-15 minutes of cardio beforehand, which will raise your basal metabolic rate for a top result.
Flat Abs Nutrition: An Introduction
To reap the full benefit of your flat abs workout, you need to make sure your nutrition is the best it can be. The first step to getting a flat stomach with your diet is to begin cutting out junk food. The best way to have full control over your diet is to prepare your own food at home by shopping for healthy ingredients in the supermarket and cooking them yourself.
When you start preparing your own food and eating at home as much as you can, you will begin to see huge effects in how you are looking and feeling. There is a popular expression: “abs are made in the kitchen.”
While a focused workout routine is definitely a must for getting a flat stomach, this phrase is definitely true in that you can’t neglect a proper diet for top results. You must take your diet seriously if you’re committed to experiencing a serious transformation – now and for the long run.
Tips for Preparing Lean Recipes for a Toned Stomach
The next time you head to the supermarket, aim to buy whole, single-ingredient foods like fruit, veggies, wild fish, lean meat, nuts, and whole grains. These single-ingredient foods are usually located on the periphery of the supermarket, so try to stay on the edges whenever possible. If you find yourself venturing into the middle aisles, oftentimes you will see yourself throwing processed, unhealthy ingredients into your cart.
Perfecting your shopping cart is the first piece of the puzzle. Second, you need to be sure you have healthy, lean recipes on hand to guide you in the preparation process. This is where a lean body app like Mission Lean can prove to be a huge asset.
Not only does the Mission Lean app provide many healthy recipes, but it also gives you a 3-month meal plan and workout calendar so you know exactly what to eat and what exercise routines to do on a given day. Whether you choose to commit to Mission Lean or you aim to do it on your own, always remember that consistency is key.
You need to be diligent with your food preparation and also motivated about your lean eating plan. However, if the food doesn’t taste good, it’s unlikely you will be able to stick to your program. That’s why a professional program with tried-and-true recipes is ideal.
Combine Your Flat Abs Workout with Peak Nutrition
It’s not just what you eat and what workout you do, but also how you do them – in terms of combining the two for reaching an optimal result.
Ideally, you should be completing your flat abs workout on an empty stomach, first thing in the morning. Working out in a fasted state has one of the most powerful fat-burning effects on your body, so the next time you wake up head straight into your workout.
Also, most people who get in their workout first thing in the morning are able to achieve better consistency with their fitness plan. With these two benefits, it’s a no-brainer that you should aim to get in your abs workout routine to start your day.
If you’re cooking your own healthy food, prepare multiple storage containers that you can bring with you on the go. Usually, hunger doesn’t come on right after a workout. It usually takes about 30-45 minutes to regain your appetite after a great workout. Therefore, if you have your food in a Pyrex container you can bring it with you and eat it at the optimal time – when that first wave of hunger strikes.
If you can manage your appetite with your workouts, finding the optimal time to work out and also eat, you will begin to get an incredible gauge of your body. The more in tune you can get with your body, the better your workouts and eating will become, and the fitter you will get. If you can master the signs your body is giving you and pay close attention to what’s working for you, you will be able to achieve impressive results now and maintain them for the future.
Start today by getting in a flat abs workout, as outlined above, and perfecting your eating habits. Your flat stomach is within reach. Let’s do this! Mission: Lean!
Jon Pearlman is a former standout tennis player at Harvard, ATP-ranked touring pro, and author of The Lean Body Manual. He founded Mission Lean to share his unique formula for lean body fitness and nutrition, an approach that took over a decade to develop and perfect. He is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Nutrition Specialist.