I have gotten back to exercise of late on the recumbent bike and cross trainer. I try to include about 15 minutes of weight lifting in there as well. I know we can't dictate where we'd like weight to go first, but I am wondering if their are certain exercises I can do to start working on the belly area. It's a combo of weight and leftover mama belly from pregnancies more pronounced from bellybutton down to the top of my hips. Not my most attractive look but hey I was making my little ones, but now it's time for that excess to start moving on. So if anyone can direct me to some sort of exercise to focus on this area that works well I am up for ideas.
Spot reducing is a myth, in order to lose any fat you have to do cardio cardio cardio.
Also, try not to view your belly as one small area. Your whole core is important and strengthening it as a whole will improve each component of it. That includes your lower back, obliques, upper abs etc. Planks are great and engage all your ab muscles. The most intense and complete core work can be found is in pilates. Dare!
BigNoMore: thanks for the link! I just hope to incorporate more into my routine and this maybe a good place to start adding things on. My end goal is to move my body in ways that don't make it hurt and if it can help out my problem areas over time, even better.
There are really 5 things that can be going on in the abdominal area, some of them respond to different things:
1. Subcutaneous fat -- This is the fat under the skin and is responsive to diet and exercise. Unfortunately we can't spot reduce this. We have no control over which fat goes down first or last. I've lost 61 pounds and still have excess abdominal fat, more than any other place.
2. Visceral fat -- This is fat that is inside the body around organs. It is considered the unhealthiest fat. The only way you get rid of it is through diet and exercise. I've read that this tends to go down earlier than other fat.
3. Loose skin -- Pregnancy and lots of excess weight can cause loose skin. Some people have elastic skin and it springs back into place as you lose weight. My husband lost 75 pounds and he has no loose skin. I have had one pregnancy and lost 61 pounds and I have lots of abdominal loose skin. Even if I had no excess fat in that area I would still have the loose skin. Nothing but surgery will correct this for me (abdominoplasty)
4. Diastasis recti - Separation of the abdominal muscle. This is very common in pregnancy and sometimes with great weight gain. You can look on the internet for how to identify it. Some places claim to be able to make this better through exercise. But for some people this isn't getting better with surgical muscle repair.
5. Lack of enough muscle -- This is where strength training helps. You can have no excess fat and still not look good if you don't have enough muscle. Strength training helps with this.
I would say to keep working on exercise, both cardio and strength training. As you get to your goal weight you will be able to see if your skin is elastic enough so you don't loose skin and whether you have diastasis recti or not.
Ideas needed to help tone lower belly area
