Flatten Your Belly!

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by Women's Health Magazine

Flatten Your Belly!

Get a tight stomach in just six weeks without doing a single crunch. This may be the easiest workout we've ever printed.

Get ready to whip off your cover-up: This workout, created exclusively for Women's Health by Rachel Cosgrove, C.S.C.S., owner of Results Fitness in Newhall, California, combines fat-burning cardio with moves that target your entire core rather than individual muscles, so you'll burn more fat while toning up.

Directions

Do these moves three nonconsecutive days a week. Start with the Basic Workout to prime your muscles. After three weeks, you'll be ready to graduate to the Advanced Workout, on the flip side of each card. For maximum fat burning, perform the exercises as a circuit: Do one set of each move in the order shown, resting for 30 seconds between exercises. Then rest for a minute and repeat the circuit from the beginning.

Melt Your Middle

This cardio plan will speed up your slimdown.

Follow this interval-training program to fire up your metabolism and burn off the fat that's hiding your abs. Intervals are short bursts of maximum-intensity effort--you're doing it right if you can't carry on a conversation--separated by periods of easy-pace recovery. In an Australian study, women who cranked out high-intensity interval training three days a week for 15 weeks dropped significantly more weight than those who exercised for the same period of time at a lower intensity.

Max Effort Easy Pace Reps
Week 1 1 minute 2 minutes 5
Week 2 1 minute 90 seconds 6
Week 3 1 minute 1 minute 8
Week 4 1 minute 1 minute 10
Week 5 75 seconds 1 minute 10
Week 6 90 seconds 1 minute 10

Do the above routine three times a week after you work your core--and always remember to include an easy 3- to 5-minute warmup and cooldown. You can run, bike, or use the cardio machine of your choice.


*Mouse over the image for caption.

Check out more workouts from Women's Health:

- Get Lean Legs
- Get a Tight Butt and Legs
- Yoga on the Beach
- Flat Abs Fast--No Crunches!
- Transform Your Tummy
- Yoga for Athletes
- Yoga Poses That Burn Fat
- Get Tone with Yoga
- Stress-Busting Workout
- Look Hot in Jeans
- Fry Fat on the Mat
- Blast Your Body
- Total Body Tightening
- No Gear Here
- The Best Exercises
- Ultimate Do-it-at-Home Workout
- Glute Camp
- Lean and Fit in 7 Minutes

More from Women's Health:

- Stay on top of your game! Subscribe today for Women’s Health magazine
- Get Lean for Life with the Abs Diet for Women!
- Get Yourself Fit, Toned and Slim with the Women’s Health Fitness DVDs!

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