Hidden Benefits of Flatter Abs

The Hidden Benefits of Flatter Abs, This article came from a very good source ( http://www.prevention.com) that I highly recommend to my client and friends at http://www.fitnesswithjeff.com
Toned abs do more than just look fabulous in body-skimming clothes. A drum-tight midsection protects your back from injury and pain, helps you maintain proper posture (which slims your silhouette even more), and lets you effortlessly perform daily activities, such as hoisting mulch for the garden. "Your trunk muscles form the core through which all forces are transferred, whether that's absorbing the ground's impact while walking or jogging, gathering power to throw a ball or swing a racket, or resisting gravity, so you can stand tall," says Prevention fitness advisor Wayne L. Westcott, PhD. Stronger core muscles also rev up your metabolism, so you lose fat faster. That's important, because the fat that hides those sexy ab muscles, especially if it squeezes around your internal organs rather than hangs off your hips, is associated with an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer, and other health problems. So there are big health benefits to belly flattening too.
To come up with the very best tummy toning moves, researchers at San Diego State University asked 31 people, both occasional and daily exercisers ages 20 to 45, to perform 13 exercises that target the mid-section while the researchers measured the work of the abdominals (the rectus abdominus, which runs the length of your torso and is the "workhorse" of the group, and the obliques, or side-lying muscles that rotate your body and stabilize the pelvis). They then compared how each exercise stacked up against the traditional crunch.


The two top-ranking exercises, the bicycle maneuver and the captain's chair, were up to two-and-a-half times more effective at working the obliques and at least 50 percent better at strengthening the rectus abdominus compared with the traditional crunch. Other winning moves included the long arm crunch and the crunch on an exercise ball (also known as a Swiss ball). Unlike many ab exercises, these two crunches isolate the ab muscles specifically, rather than relying on the hip flexors on the front of the hip to help out with the move, says lead researcher Peter Francis, PhD, director of the biomechanics lab at San Diego State University. Crunches on an exercise ball also force your abs to work overtime just to stabilize you atop the ball and enable you to train in a greater, more natural range of motion. Based on these findings, we picked the top six exercises for our belly
flattening plan, arranging them in three programs from beginner to advanced.

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http://www.prevention.com/cda/article/goodbye-belly-fat!/e3cd88dc78803110VgnVCM10000013281eac____/fitness/belly.abs/ab.exercises/