Tummies and hips. For men it’s mostly tummies we’re wanting to flatten and turn into washboard abs. For women it’s often hips with tummies a close second. We’d all like to smooth out those tummy bulges, however.

Here are some tips for exercises that strengthen the muscles of the abdomen and help get rid of that fold-over, “muffin-top” and return to that smooth, sleek abdominal look we all crave.

Breathing
Proper abdominal breathing during your whole exercise routine can help flatten and shape your abdominal wall. Here’s the rule: always exhale during exertion and inhale during the return of the motion. For example, if you are doing an arm curl, you’ll want to exhale while you are pulling the weight up, and inhale on the way down.

Stay in control
You’ll get more out of the time you spend if your abdominal exercise motions are slow and in control rather than short bursts of intense effort. Each repetition of your abdominal crunch should move slowly. If you are doing floor crunches (on your back, knees bent) exhale slowly on the way up.

Focus on abdominals only
Do not rock or bend your neck during crunches. Concentrate on aiming your chin towards the ceiling and pushing your belly button towards the floor (not literally). You don’t need to bring your upper body all the way up to your knees. Simply crunch your abdominals until they are exerted without raising your lower back off the ground.

Work out daily
Abdominals are smaller muscles that recover from a workout more quickly than the large muscles of your body. You can exercise them daily without a day’s rest.

Exercise all areas of your abdomen
Exercise your lower abdomen by doing crunches using a chair or exercise bench. Get rid of your love handles by doing side crunches. Your upper abdominals will respond best to regular floor crunches.

ACTION STEPS:

1. Schedule abdominal exercises every day without fail.

2. Print out the picture from this article as a reminder and post it on the refrigerator or where you need to see it to remind you to work out.