Effective Exercises for a Flat Stomach & Toned Waist | Postpartum Focus

Question
What is the best excercise for shrinking your waist and tightening your stomach (abs), which I have none.

Answer
You need to do a combination of core conditioning and aerobic exercise.

Postpartum core conditioning, with a focus on strengthening the deepest abdominal muscle, your Transverse Abdominis, or TvA is where to start. This muscle is responsible for pulling the abdominal wall closer to the spine, and needs to be reconditioned in order to flatten the abdominal wall after pregnancy. The TvA also provide functional stability for the spine, and is the body's most important core stabilizer.

Aerobic exercise is needed for fat reduction. It takes about 20 minutes of moderate level aerobic exercise to deplete enough stored energy (carbohydrates, stored as muscle glycogen) so that your body will 'go into the pantry' and start to burn fat as fuel. This is critical for weight loss.

Ideally, you should try for at least 40 minutes of aerobic activity on most days of the week to maximize fat loss.

And of course diet is important for getting to and/ore maintaining a healthy body weight. Eat the highest quality diet that you can, and aim for caloric balance on a daily level. If you are currently over your ideal weight, eat the amount of calories that it would take to support your ideal weight.

Never go on a highly restricted/very low calorie diet! These diets will trigger a starvation response in your body that dramatically lowers basal metabolism and can actually result in your gaining weight in the end.