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Best exercises for a flat stomach

[email protected] (HealthMeUp)
December 6, 2013

Best_exercises_stomachDec 6: A bulging stomach is a problem area for most mortals. Even those who are naturally thin tend to develop a paunch as they step into their 30s.

Our stomachs store fat for a number of reasons; these reasons range from the genetic to plain abuse of food and drink, with little to no exercise. Often, those who invest heavily in exercise and diet to banish the bulging stomach, do so with a vague and incorrect idea of what is needed for a flat stomach. Today, we give you a few exercises that will strengthen and create lean abdominal muscles, help you eliminate a flabby belly and give you a flat stomach that helps you fight disease and ill-health.

The key to a flat stomach is combination

To kick that tummy fat, simply belting away crunches or pushups is not enough. A solo act can't lead to a flat tummy or fat loss. Fitness expert, Sophia Yasmin says, "In my opinion spot reduction is not possible, there is no way to target a particular part of the body for fat loss."

Your goal should be to build muscle, and focus on fat loss. Whether you are able to drop weight before attempting muscle toning, or tone muscle and then cut fat, depends entirely on how overweight you are, and how many inches you need to lose.

Follow patterned full body exercises like skipping and running to burn energy at an elevated heartrate. The kind of food you eat also helps to cut down that visible and visceral fat. A balanced healthy diet is essential for stomach fat loss.

Drink plenty of water and stay off from stress and anxiety and limit your salt intake. Besides get enough sleep to kick your belly fat.

Mentioned ahead are exercises that will help get a flat stomach.

Note: These exercises will only help you get rid of stomach fat if you practise them in combination with a healthy lifestyle and balanced diet.

Funky standing abs

This is one of the best and easiest exercises to begin with. Stand with your feet below your shoulders, and then tighten your abs slowly bending your knees.

Tilt your pelvis forward, so that your back is curved. Come back to the centre and tilt pelvis backward. Perform this exercise 15 times on either side, or as your workout permits.

Chair leg lifts

Perform this exercise using any kind of chair.

All you have to do is, sit straight with your back flat against the chair, place your hands on the seat of your chair, then slowly lift your knees towards your chest and slowly restore them back.

Carry out slow breathing while doing this. Perform this 2 set exercise at least 10-15 times.

Crunches

This is a good exercise for upper, lower and oblique abdominal muscles. Begin by lying flat on the ground, with your feet placed firmly on the ground, clasp your hands behind your head.

Raise your upper body by squeezing your abdominal muscles and when you are halfway through, hold on for 3 seconds.

Then bring back your body back to floor, slowly. Do at least 30 crunches per set.

Perpendicular exercise

Lie flat on your back, with your hands behind your back. Breathe out, as you lift your legs over your hips so they are perpendicular to the floor; slightly extend the distance between your legs.

Breathe in as you lower down your legs. Start up with 4 to 5 sets, and then increase it to 10.

Dumbbell bends

This exercise is useful for your oblique muscles. Start with grabbing a dumbbell, holding it in your right hand; see to it that your palm is facing your body.

Your feet should be at a shoulder-width distance. Slowly place your left hand on your hip and bend your upper body towards the right, while keeping your head and body facing forward.

Bring back your body to normal position and then repeat the same movement on the left side. Practice 20 repetitions.

Bicycle exercise

Bicycle is the best exercise for toning your stomach. It helps by keeping your stomach stable, along with movements, which burns fat.

Perform this exercise by lying on the floor, place your hands behind your head and bring your knees off the floor.

Bring your right elbow towards your left knee while performing cycling motion, and then switch your elbow position.

Side exercise

This exercise targets your oblique, core muscles and shoulders. Stand straight, with your feet at approximately the width of your hips. Slowly bend your knees and hold dumbbells in each hand.

Lift your hands up, so that the dumbbells are above your head and relax. Then lean your arms, head and torso to the right till 2 counts, then come back to the original position and then repeat it to the left side.

Carry out at least 10 repetitions.

Planks

Lie on the floor, with your face down, upper body supported on your forearms. Raise your entire body off the floor, with the support of your forearms and toes form a straight line.

Carry out 3 repetitions, with 15 to 20 seconds hold.

Clock exercise

To carry out this exercise, you may need an exercise ball. Rest your back on the ball with your feet aligned with your hips.

Stretch your arms over your head, contracting your abdominal muscles, and then rotate your body like a clock. Carry out 10 rotations in each side.

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Agencies
May 20,2020

Washington D.C., May 20: While a dairy-rich diet is helpful in meeting the body's calcium requirement, outcomes of a large international study links eating at least two daily servings of dairy with lower risks of diabetes and high blood pressure.

The dairy-rich diet also proved to lower the cluster of factors that heighten cardiovascular disease risk (metabolic syndrome). The study was published online in journal BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care.

The observed associations were strongest for full-fat dairy products, the findings indicated.

Previously published research has suggested that higher dairy intake is associated with a lower risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, and metabolic syndrome. But these studies have tended to focus on North America and Europe to the exclusion of other regions of the world.

To see whether these associations might also be found in a broader range of countries, the researchers drew on people taking part in the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study.

Participants were all aged between 35 and 70 and came from 21 countries: Argentina; Bangladesh; Brazil; Canada; Chile; China; Colombia; India; Iran; Malaysia; Palestine; Pakistan; Philippines, Poland; South Africa; Saudi Arabia; Sweden; Tanzania; Turkey; United Arab Emirates; and Zimbabwe.

Usual dietary intake over the previous 12 months was assessed by means of Food Frequency Questionnaires. Dairy products included milk, yogurt, yogurt drinks, cheese and dishes prepared with dairy products, and were classified as full or low fat (1-2 percent).

Butter and cream were assessed separately as these are not commonly eaten in some of the countries studied.

Information on personal medical history, use of prescription medicines, educational attainment, smoking and measurements of weight, height, waist circumference, blood pressure and fasting blood glucose were also collected.

Data on all five components of the metabolic syndrome were available for nearly 113,000 people: blood pressure above 130/85 mm Hg; waist circumference above 80 cm; low levels of (beneficial) high-density cholesterol (less than 1-1.3 mmol/l); blood fats (triglycerides) of more than 1.7 mmol/dl; and fasting blood glucose of 5.5 mmol/l or more.

Average daily total dairy consumption was 179 g, with full-fat accounting for around double the amount of low fat: 124.5+ vs 65 g.

Some 46, 667 people had metabolic syndrome--defined as having at least 3 of the 5 components.

Total dairy and full-fat dairy, but not low-fat dairy, was associated with a lower prevalence of most components of metabolic syndrome, with the size of the association greatest in those countries with normally low dairy intakes.

At least 2 servings a day of total dairy were associated with a 24 percent lower risk of metabolic syndrome, rising to 28 percent for full-fat dairy alone, compared with no daily dairy intake.

The health of nearly 190,000 participants was tracked for an average of nine years, during which time 13,640 people developed high blood pressure and 5351 developed diabetes.

At least 2 servings a day of total dairy was associated with a 11-12 percent lower risk of both conditions, rising to a 13-14 percent lower risk for 3 daily servings. The associations were stronger for full fat than they were for low-fat dairy.

This is an observational study, and as such can't establish the cause. Food frequency questionnaires are also subject to recall, and changes in metabolic syndrome weren't measured over time, all of which may have influenced the findings.

Nevertheless, the researchers suggest: "If our findings are confirmed in sufficiently large and long term trials, then increasing dairy consumption may represent a feasible and low-cost approach to reducing [metabolic syndrome], hypertension, diabetes, and ultimately cardiovascular disease events worldwide."

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Agencies
March 16,2020

New Delhi, Mar 16: A recent survey across 140 districts of the country shows that about 54 per cent of Indians are finding travelling to be unsafe as the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic sweeps globally.

The big worry that people have is community transmission, something that researchers from around the world have approximated at 10 per cent of total infections and more common in places like Wuhan in China, South Korea, Iran and Italy.

The months of March to June have historically been high travel season for most Indians, largely due to the summer vacations in schools. "But it seems that Indians do not want to take a chance with this rather scary virus and are either cancelling or postponing their travel plans," concluded the survey by LocalCircles.

The survey gathered more than 22,000 responses from participants in tier one, two and three cities. It said 48 per cent Indians plan to cancel their international business travel for the next four months.

Besides, nearly 38 per cent of respondents said they had to pay cancellation fee to the website, travel agent, airline or railways.

"These are testing times for the entire travel and tourism industry -- airlines, hotels, travel agents as well as small tour and taxi operators. The best solution at this point is to adjust cost structures, stay flexible and work with a collective approach to minimise the period of impact to both citizens and business," said LocalCircles.

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Dr G K Sudhakar Reddy
August 4,2020

Being overweight or obese is now recognised as a serious cause of ill health and disability. There is a significant positive association between orthopaedic disorders and the level of obesity causing pain, deformity and difficulty in walking.

Excess body weight accumulation increases pressure on joints, particularly the hips, knees and ankles.

Here are a few type of  arthritis:

Osteoarthritis

It is a condition of damage/ wear and tear of the joint lining or cartilage. Obesity triggers this by loading excessive weight on the weight bearing joints like the knee and the hip. 

Knee Osteoarthritis

This is the most common arthritis especially in the Indian subcontinent.

While walking, an individual exerts 3 to 6 times pressure that of the body weight on the weight-bearing knee joint, which means in an obese with excess body weight, larger forces are exerted, which lead to higher risk of deterioration of cartilage.

In addition, there are excessive fat tissues that produce hormones and other factors that affect the joint cartilage metabolism and cause inflammation of the joints giving rise to joint pathology.  Leptin is one of the hormones causing knee osteoarthritis. 

Hip osteoarthritis

The force exerted across the hip is 3 times that of body weight. Hip osteoarthritis is caused by factors such as joint injury, increasing age and being overweight.    

Hand osteoarthritis

The observation that obese individual has a higher risk in having hand osteoarthritis has led to a hypothesis that the metabolic effect produced by fat tissue is the underlying factor. 

Osteoporosis

It is a progressive bone condition of decrease in bone mass and density (Bone Mineral Density or BMD) which can lead to an increased risk of fracture. Recent research suggests that obesity may accelerate bone loss. It is the amount of muscle mass which is seen in an active person, which accounts for bone strengthening effects and not due to the fat seen in a heavy person.

Low back pain

Low back pain from degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine is one of the most disabling conditions in the community and overweight and obesity have the strongest association with seeking care for low back pain.

Managing Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis

Life style changes

If one is overweight, try to lose weight by doing more physical activity and eating a healthier diet. Regular exercise keeps you active and mobile and builds up muscle, thereby strengthening the joints and can improve symptoms. 

Pain Killers

Painkillers help with pain and stiffness for short term. They don’t affect the arthritis itself and won’t repair the damage to your joint. Creams and gels can be applied directly onto painful joints.

Nutritional Supplements

Glucosamine and chondroitin are nutritional supplements. Animal studies have found that glucosamine can both delay the breakdown of and repair damaged cartilage. However, there is insufficient evidence to support the use of glucosamine in humans and one can expect only a mild-to-moderate reduction in pain

Joint injections

If pain from osteoarthritis is severe joint steroid injections are injected into the joints that can reduces swelling and pain. The injections can start working within a day or so and may improve pain for several weeks or months. 

Hyaluronic acid injections, which help to lubricate your knee joint also give short term relief. In early stages. Stem cell treatment or cartilage regeneration procedures are being tried in young people with small defects, however it is still experimental and lacks long term evidence.

Surgery

May be recommended if you have severe pain or mobility problems.

Arthroscopy

If one has frequent painful locking/stiffening episodes especially in the knee joint, an operation to wash out loose fragments of bone and other tissue as joint can be performed by a minimally invasive key hole procedure called Arthroscopy.

Arthrodesis

If hip or knee replacement is not suitable, especially in young people who do heavy manual work, one can consider an operation known as an arthrodesis, which fuses your joint in a permanent position. This means that your joint will be stronger and much less painful, although you will no longer be able to move it.

Osteotomy

In young, active people in whom a knee joint replacement would fail due to excessive use one can consider an operation called an osteotomy. This involves adding or removing a small section of bone either above or below your knee joint.  This helps realign your knee so your weight is no longer focused on the damaged part of your knee. An osteotomy can relieve your symptoms of osteoarthritis, although you may still need knee replacement surgery eventually as you grow old

Joint replacement surgery

Joint replacement therapy is most commonly carried out to replace hip and knee joints. It involves replacing a damaged, worn or diseased joint with an artificial joint made of special plastics and metal.

For most people, a replacement hip or knee will last for at least 20 years, especially if it is cared for properly and not put under too much strain.

Dr G K Sudhakar Reddy is a Sr Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Citizens Speciality Hospitals, Hyderabad

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