Why, yes, there are plenty of at-home abs workouts to get the six-pack of your dreams. Home is a great place to carve up your coreโafter all, a six-pack is mostly made in the kitchen.
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โThereโs no such thing as spot-reducing fat, and a six-pack is indicative of overall health and whole-body fitness, not just the state of the core muscles,โ says Kendra Coppey Fitzgerald, founder of Barefoot Tiger in-home personal training services in NYC and LA. โIf thereโs too much fat on top of the ab muscles, youโll never see them, no matter how much core work you do.โ That means eating healthily and doing cardio plus heavy weight training to lean down and build muscles to lose weight overall. (Bummer, we know.)
Then, when it comes to sculpting those abs of your dreams, itโs not as simple as doing endless crunches. โDeveloping a six-pack requires more than just working the โprettyโ muscles that you can see,โ Fitzgerald says. โThe deeper, transverse core muscles must be strengthened first to create a strong, solid baseโwithout that, only doing crunches can actually make your belly stick out more. Nobody wants that.โ
Better news: By doing the types of at-home workouts here that strengthen from all angles and focus on function (how your body moves in real life) rather than flexion (crunches), youโll look good and have a stronger core and less risk of lower back injury. โNot only will you see better gains faster, itโs also the quickest way to take inches off your waistline,โ says Fitzgerald.
Directions: Begin each of these at-home workoutsโcreated by Fitzgerald and Alex Diana, aย CITYROW trainer (you can find her virtually on the CITYROW Go app)โwith a five-minute warmup, or go through the moves after youโve done your usual cardio or strength training when youโre already warm. Each should also begin with 20 reps of what Fitzgerald calls โtransverse pullbacksโโwhere you pull your navel toward your spine, as if bracing yourself against a sucker punchโas a way to activate the muscles for the work youโre about to ask of them. Youโll also need dumbbells for some of these moves.
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