The Core Back-and-Belly Challenge

Say goodbye to the same old ab work. These 8 moves will target your core muscles and help strengthen your back.

By Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., for MSN Health & Fitness

For decades, people worked their abs by doing traditional ab moves such as the crunch or ab curl, sit-ups, or extended-leg exercises like the bicycle or Pilates V-sit (such as for the "Teaser"). But these moves tend to flex (or bend) the spine and concentrate on the abs. Not only is this a potentially unbalanced way to strengthen muscles in the torso, but bending the spine repeatedly, or putting great load on it (as when lifting straight legs away from the body) can over-stress the spine.

Instead of hammering away at the belly by bending the spine up and down or back and forth, the new, more functional approach is training muscles to stabilize the spine. By engaging muscles both in the front and back of the torso, abdominal workouts rise to a whole new level. Think of it as a 360-degree approach that targets core muscles all around the spine.

This workout targets the ab and back muscles. By training in this way you'll develop more support for your back. But if you also want to flatten your belly, you'll need to do workouts that reduce body fat. The recipe for fat loss is to do more cardio so that you'll burn more calories: Aim for 30 to 90 minutes of aerobic activities such as walking, running, dancing, cycling or swimming on most days of the week. Eating or drinking fewer calories will help reduce belly fat, too.

How to do it:

• For moves with weights, choose a weight that is heavy enough to challenge your target muscles, but not so heavy that your joints feel strained. Start with dumbbells that are at least two to three pounds and gradually work up to heavier weights as the exercise gets easier.

• Core moves are more about building endurance, rather than strength. Each exercise varies. In moves 1, 2 and 8, you'll start by perform 1 set of 8 to 12 repetitions of each exercise, and work up to doing 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps. In moves 3 through 7, you'll simply hold the position or repeat the movement for longer periods.

• Do this workout two to three times a week.

• Modify this workout to match your fitness level. Adapt each move as needed to make it easier.

• What you need: Weights and a resistance band.

from msn health