Get the Most From Your Ab Workout

Who doesn't want flat and perfect abdominal muscles? Well, common crunches are not the way to achieve those results. Basic crunches actually build out your abdominal muscles, which most people do not want. Instead you should focus on full body workouts and toning your overall core. Here are a few ways to make the most out of your abdominally focused exercises.

1. Cardio, cardio, cardio. You cannot spot reduce fat on your body. Therefore you cannot crunch your way to flatter abs. Instead focus on getting intense cardio into your routine in order to shed fat from all over your body. High intensity intervals or circuit training can also be used to up the heart rate and target overall fat on the body.
2. Train the different parts of your abs. When you do train your stomach muscles make sure you incorporate a variety of moves so that the different areas of your stomach are being trained. Moves like scissors, bicycle crunches, russian twists, sit-ups, and oblique crunches will all target the variety of different muscles that make up your abdominal wall. 
3. Focus on your diet. By far the biggest factor in having a flat stomach is honing in on your diet. Making sure that you are eating a clean diet free of chemical that incorporates as much organic vegetables and lean proteins as possible is a surefire way to stop stomach bloat and bring out your abdominal muscles. Cutting down on carbohydrates can also temporarily help you drop water weight. This can be helpful if you have a big event one day. However, this is not sustainable over the long term.

What are your favorite ab moves?