Best way to get flattish stomach.

[kayzr]

Please tell me the best way to get a flat stomach. My exercise machines just work on my legs. I've got a mini stepper and I'm getting a cross trainer.

Help please. I have 5 stone to lose and I want to get a relatively flat stomach.

Bumping for you.

Thanks

Am watching with interest as mine needs a helping hand too!

Anyone?

From looking at your pictures would I be right in thinking this is baby weight and you are naturally slimmer than you are now?
When you do the mini stepper and cross trainer make sure that you keep your upper body as still as possible (or on the corss trainer just forward and back morement at the arms, no swaying from side to side). Use your core abdominal muscles constantly to keep that solid middle structure.

Clean your teeth while standing on one leg. Change legs ahlf way through. Ditto washing your hands after the toilet etc. Anything to create some minor instability so that your core muscles have to kick in to stop you falling over.

Dont try to do any full sit ups etc yet. Conentrate on small fully controlled contractions. Cough and you will feel what a stomach muscle contraction feels like. So cough, hold that contraction until you can't hold it any longer, relax and start again. When you contract resist the temptation to hold your breathe or raise your shoulders. Keep talking to yourself while you are holding the contraction (then you won't be holding your breath). To start with it might be that you can only hold for about 2 seconds even. It doesn't matter at all as long as you can feel that you are contracting and holding. You'll soon be able to build it up.

And don't forget to do some resistance work with weights. It's just as important as the CV work for weightloss.

Good luck.

Yeah it is baby weight. I was a size 10 before my 2 boys and never put on any weight no matter what I ate.

Will try everything you have suggested. Thanks.

be careful about your diet though (are you dieting?). If you are doing quite a lot of exercise you must make sure you feed your body enough carbs etc to cope with the exercise. If not it will start to go into starvation mode and hoard calories because it will worry that you are going to ask it to burn off calories again without replacing them.

Hi,

I work as a Personal Trainer, and deal with quite a few pre-post natal mums.

Kayzr - I cant seem to see the initial post, so sorry if I have missed the initial chat!
How far post natal are you?

Dropping weight is 20% exercise, and 80% nutrition. So getting that sorted first is paramount.

Let me know some more info if you would like me to help.
Cheers

I was planning on starting to diet tomorrow. But only really cutting out crap!!

Mark, DS2 is 6 weeks on Friday, so I would really like to get going soon.

Right am off to bed but will check back in the morning.

I do hope that it will work this time as I had no willpower with DS1 and didn't lose any weight.

mark pt can i ask

i have just started gym and have been going for 2 weeks solid missed maybe 3 days, doing about 45/1hr cardio, and have done some exercise classes, my weight doesnt seem to be dropping even though my diet is better

is it likely to take a while

ps sorry for hyjacking this thread

while I would agree (fwiw) with Mark about how important diet is I also think it's important to look at what motivates the individual. As you have a cross trainer and a stepper Kayzr I'm assuming it would be fair to say that you have exercised regularly in the past and you see exercise as being helpful to your weightloss. If that is the case then the exercise should be your starting point as it will inspire you to eat more healthily and look carefully at using your diet to lose weight. i speak from experience when i say that some people need their efforts to be more tangible. You can write in your diary/tell your DH/etc that you did 45 mins on the cross trainer and it will mean something to you. You can write in your diary/tell you DH/etc that you used portion control at dinner time and also skipped the dessert but it might not have the same effect on you mentally. For some people it works the other way and they can get great highs from having resisted the cream cake etc. But some of us get our highs from exercise and those highs carry us through to cooking the children's tea and give us the will power to resist the nibbling etc. Does that make sense? Or am I waffling?

Also, s your youngest is still very young you need to be very careful to let your abdominals close up properly (I hadn't realised you were so newly post natal). How much exercise I you doing already?

Not doing any yet, I have been doing some walking but nothing more. I was planning on either starting at the weekend once I'm passed the 6 week point or asking GP at my 6 week check next Thursday.

I would advice that walking at this stage in your post natal is fantastic. While you are walking have a think about your posture, drop your shoulders and pull them back slightly, contract your tummy muscles gently, head held high. And smile . Hold off until your GP has checked you over before using your machines.

I agree with your points on motivation Mckenzie, but I've also trained ladies who say I exercise 5 times a week (sounds similar to hunnybun!) and I'm still not losing weight. The simple fact is, if you're consuming more calories than your body is burning, you will stay the same, or put on weight.
It then goes in a viscious circle, they stop exercise because they thought that would be the key, and nothing further happens.
Fact is you will HAVE to change/clean up your daily food to get weight loss.
KAYZR - I would get ur checkup, but I don't generally train ladies til around 10 weeks post.
Hunnybun, are you earlier post natal?
If not, I would ditch the X-trainer. It's one of my professional peeves - a waste of time machine, controversial maybe, but exercise should be about getting results in a quick time. Who wants to be in the gym for 90 mins, when you should be able to get better/more results in 30-45? Seek out a good instructor / PT, and get them to show you some dumbell exercises. Also, start using the rower, this machine will burn more kcals than the x-trainer. Lifting weights WILL NOT make you big, but it will burn calories and shape your body - trust me.
Check my blog at;
www.MarkRaynsfordPersonalTraining.blogspot.com where I talk about why steady state cardio is a waste of your time. There is also nutrition info on there. I'm not advertising, as the info is free!!

If you are breastfeeding, ensure that you are having enough calories though!

I got a totally inappropriate exercise program which didn't take into account I was breastfeeding and my weight crashed.

Now have a good program by personal trainer who knows about post natal issues

Correct about the calories, but don't confuse healthy calories with junk calories. Some people use breastfeeding as an excuse for having cakes etc.
That isn't what you would feed your baby, so why eat it yourself?!!

Um, thanks -- I wasn't.

My point was that I was given a totally inappropriate exercise program that affected my son who was exclusively breastfeeding and he ended up in hospital due to sudden weight loss.

Wanted to ensure this didn't happen to other women.

Nothing to do with an 'excuse to eat cakes..'

Ok, don't stress, it was a general comment, on what I've heard people say before!! Apologise if it looked like it was directed to you! :-)

I completely agree Mark that the calories consumed needs to be appropriate. My point is that some people find it easier to keep to the calorie control if they are already in a good exercise routine because the exercise will have given them the 'feel good' factor and made them feel better about themselves emotionally so that they have the extra umph to stick to the calorie controls. If you are only going to do one thing for weight loss then calorie control is the way forward but luckily kayzr is showing all the signs of being keen to exercise and I would want to hold on to that and have the calorie cotrol follow. Especially as she has two young children and so will be coping with some stress and tension one would imagine, the exercise will help will that side of things too.

thanks mark pt.

when i go i use the rower for 5 mins
upright bike 10 mins
step 10 mins
treadmill for 10 mins
stepper for 10
cross for 10
recumberent bike for 10

so actually 65 mins.

no i am not post natal, no excuse kids r 5 and 3.

and i am defo not eating more cals than what i would have, i have lost a few pound and noticed shape has changed so i suppose i am getting somewhere.

guess i looked at that list wrong its 55 mins

Kayzr, I'm surprised no-one has said this already, but I think the first thing you should do is assess whether you have a diastasis (stomach separation). There are certain exercises you should avoid if you have a separation - and sit-ups, etc can actually make it worse. I don't think you can get a flat stomach back until the separation is "fixed".

I'd suggest looking on the internet for exercises and info on diastasis (the befitmom.com website has some good info).