Toning Abdominal Muscles

Toning abdominal muscles requires dedication and regular exercise, not the abdominal machines advertised on late-night infomercials. Abdominal muscles are notoriously stubborn and require frequent toning exercises that target the stomach.

Basics of Toning Abdominal Muscles
The biggest problem people have with toning exercises for the abdomen is that they do them wrong. Abdominal exercises should use your stomach muscles to move your body. They should never use your back, shoulder or neck muscles to lurch the body around.

Never attempt an abdominal toning exercise if you have a stomach full of food or drink. You need your stomach to be no more than half full to leave enough room for your muscles to contract.

Bicycle
Doing a bicycle toning exercise requires you to lie on your upper back and stick your remaining body into the air to make bicycling motions with your legs. The exercise is very effective for toning abdominal muscles, but is not recommended for people with neck or back problems.

Start the bicycle stomach exercise by lying flat on your back. Flatten your upper arms to the ground and place your hands on your waist to slowly raise your lower body until your legs stick vertically up in the air. Move your legs as if you are riding on a bicycle. Lower your body and take mini-breaks between reps. When your stomach gets stronger, place your hands flat on the ground to force your stomach and back muscles to keep your body upright.

Captain's Chair
To do a Captain's Chair stomach toning exercise, you need a stable object you lift your body off the ground while still maintaining enough room to move your legs in the air. Captain's Chair bars and chin-up bars work best. The exercise works the entire stomach, but is especially good for lower abdominal muscles.

Perform the Captain's Chair exercise by dangling your body off the ground and using your abdominal muscles only to lift and bend your knees to your stomach. Keep your legs together as you lift and bend them. Lower your legs until they dangle straight again and repeat process to do as many reps as possible. When your stomach gets strong enough, you can stop bending your legs and just raise them straight up.

Crunches
There are many different ways to do stomach crunches. A crunch is basically half a sit-up that isolates your abdominal muscles. To do a basic crunch, lie with your back against the floor, your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground. Place your arms across your chest, behind your head or straight forward. Use your stomach muscles only to pull your upper torso off the floor and toward your knees, leaving your lower back against the floor. Repeat process to do as many crunches as possible.

The exact positioning of your legs and the angle of your upward pull can help change the exact muscles a stomach crunch targets. Stick your legs straight up in the air while doing crunches to keep lower stomach muscles flexed and working harder. Crunches that pull up and to one side help target abdominal muscles on that side of your body.