Having a healthy, regular exercise schedule should be part of everybody’s lifestyle. We need to keep our body moving to keep our joints supple, keep extra weight away, and burn off the calories we consume during our day to day lives. Keeping fit helps us stay stronger for longer, and should hopefully mean we don’t creak like old doors when we bend down to play with our grandchildren in the future!
If there’s one area of exercise that more people want advice on than any other, though, it’s how to lose stomach fat. For whatever reason, people become particularly upset and frustrated about carrying fat around their stomachs – far more so than they do about carrying fat anywhere else on their bodies. Perhaps it’s a reflection on the shallow society we live in, or perhaps we just hate wasting money on clothes we can no longer fit into. Either way, it’s not something you have to live with if you don’t want to!
We know some great exercises for burning stomach fat quickly, and we’re happy to share them with you here. Just remember that the key to success with any or all of them is repetition. Think of it like playing new slots on an online slots website. You don’t just spin the reels of an online slots game once and expect money to come out of it immediately. Nine times out of ten, you’ll only get anything out of online slots games by playing them over and over again until they finally give up their jackpot. In this case, your jackpot is a trim stomach, and you’ll have to put in more effort than just clicking to spin again in order to achieve it, but the principle is the same!
Method One: Elliptical Trainer Sessions
We realize that some of you won’t know what an elliptical trainer is, so let’s start with the basics. You can think of an elliptical trainer as a type of exercise bike, with a few attachments to work your body harder than a regular exercise bike would. You also stand up to use it rather than sitting down. It isn’t a million miles away from the sort of thing you might use for cross-fit training. The purpose of an elliptical trainer is to replicate the experience of running or jogging, but without the wear and tear on your knees. Jogging is a great way of getting rid of belly fat, but it can be bad for your joints. A good elliptical trainer session can burn as many as six hundred calories in an hour for a person of average height and weight. That’s the same as what you’d burn off with a good run, but without leaving your house and getting wet!
Method Two: Exercise Balls
This is another method you can try at home without having to pay for a gym membership. You will have to buy an exercise ball, though, and you need to ensure that you have adequate space at home to stretch out on the floor and perform exercises without colliding with anything valuable. The key to getting the most out of training with an exercise ball is, somewhat surprisingly, keeping most of your body as still as possible. Exercise ball training is about stability, and because you’re balancing the weight of the ball, keeping it steady engages several of your muscles, including all of your stomach muscles. The most effective exercise ball method is the crunch, which involves actually lying on top of the ball with your feet on the ground, putting your hands behind your head, and performing sit-ups. Don’t let the ball move, breathe out when you sit up, and breathe out as you lower yourself back down again. Fifteen of these three times a day will burn your stomach fat in no time.
Method Three: Bike Rides
Some people will tell you that the best type of exercise doesn’t even feel like exercise. You can put riding bikes into that category. Many people enjoy riding bikes recreationally, and there’s no reason that you wouldn’t enjoy it either. If you do, you probably won’t even notice that you’re exercising anymore, and so it’ll be a pleasant surprise when you suddenly realize that your belly fat is disappearing! There’s no right way or wrong way to go about bike training – although obviously, you’ll need a solid, dependable bike. The average person burns approximately five hundred calories while riding a bike for thirty minutes (assuming they spend all thirty of those minutes using the pedals), so if you’re able to keep going for an hour, you’ll burn one thousand.
Method Four: Bicycle Stretches
If you’re comfortable with riding a bike, you should be comfortable with this as well. It’s similar to the technique of riding a bike, but more focused on burning stomach fat. You’ll be pleased to know that this is an exercise that you can do anywhere – you won’t need to visit a gym. Start off flat on your back, and put your hands behind your head. Hold your head as if it were a ball – don’t pull on it to help yourself sit up. Bring your knees up to your chest, and raise your shoulders, neck, and head off the ground like you’re curling into a ball. Now touch your right elbow with your left knee, and stretch your right leg out. Now swap. Touch your left elbow with your right knee, and stretch your left leg out. This should feel like a little like pushing the pedals on a bike – which is how the exercise got its name! Fifteen of these three times a day should be enough for you to start noticing measurable results quickly.
Method Five: Captain’s Chair Leg Raises
You’ll need a piece of gym equipment called a “captain’s chair” for this, so you can either visit your local gym or buy one for your home. Why it’s called a captain’s chair is beyond us – most chairs have a seat, but this one doesn’t! Imagine a firm, padded chair with armrests but nowhere to sit down, and you have a captain’s chair. To perform this exercise successfully, you need to stand up, grab the armrests, and raise yourself off the ground. While holding yourself in position with your back pressed flat against the chair, pull your knees up to your chest and then lower them back down again. If you want to push yourself harder, try keeping your legs straight and raising them to a horizontal position instead of bringing them to your knees. This is a ‘deep impact’ exercise, so just ten of these in a single session is fine, but try to go back and do another ten after your first set once you’ve had a short rest.
There are no shortcuts and no tricks – if you repeat any or all of the above exercises regularly, we guarantee you that your belly fat will disappear, but it’s down to you to put the work in. Good luck!
