Use less than five minutes a day to get a flat stomach: you can do this with 4 exercises
To sculpt a great-looking body, there's no shortcuts, right? The key to staying fit and in shape lies in combining exercise with a balanced diet, drinking lots of fluids and getting right amount of sleep - variables that depend on our age, metabolism, habits, lifestyle etc. But if we want to try to lose excess fat and a sagging belly, we can focus on just doing 4 specific exercises every day - and just a total of four minutes!
So, for those of you who can't find hardly any free time to exercise, these exercises could be for you:
Abdominal lock
This exercise comes from yoga, where it is combined with a breathing technique called Uddiyana Bandha. It helps us not only to tone the belly but also strengthen the pelvic floor, relieve back pain, tone the waist and more.
It's all about activating the abdominal muscles to bring the belly to the center, as if we wanted to push it towards the spine. You can stand, sit or even bent over, as you can see in the video. And you can initially place a hand on the belly to make sure you're really using your abdominal muscles.
Try to inhale and exhale deeply for one minute as you contract and release your belly.
The ideal is to do this for 15 or 20 minutes, and in conjunction with other exercises involving the abs.
Ballet Twist
Sit on a mat, with your legs extended straight out in front of you and together. This movement is a twist, a torsion, which involves the muscles on the sides of the abdomen, and using the movement of the arms (which is reminiscent of that of classical ballet dancers).
Raise your arms like a ballerina would, then bring one of them down to the floor behind you. By moving the raised arm to the opposite side, twist your torso without lifting your butt off the ground. Slowly work your way as far as you can and then switch arms. Continue like this for one minute.
The penguin
Tutorial via Frischman Fitness/YouTube
This is a light exercise and similar to crunches. Lie on your back on the ground, and bend your legs with your feet planted firmly on the ground. Raise your torso as high as you can (but without bending your neck) and try to reach out to the sides so that your right hand's fingertips touch your right ankle, and vice versa. Initially, you can also lie down, but it is good to try to sit up as soon as possible. Do this for one minute.
Planking
An isometric exercise that puts the whole body into operation could not be missing from this list. Lie on your stomach, plant your feet on the ground and lift yourself up on your arms, which will be perfectly aligned under your shoulders. You can stand with your elbows resting on the ground or put your weight on your straight arms, with your palms on the ground. The important thing is to create a straight line from the neck to the heels, without bending over, and particularly involving the abs. Hold this position for one minute.
This sequence of exercises, repeated every day, will gradually tone and sculpt your tummy!
