Muffin Top Exercises: Banish the Muffin Top With Effective Workouts

Nov 30 by Joanna

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What is muffin top? It’s that overhanging belly fat that spills over the waistband. It can make you feel self-conscious to expose your mid section. Definitely not a great look by anyone’s standards. No wonder many people are searching for muffin top exercises and workouts to help them get rid of that embarrassing problem.

The thing that you need to keep in mind that spot reducing the muffin top with targeted exercises alone will not work. If you are overweight, you need to reduce your overall body fat to be able to get rid of that excessive abdominal flesh. Shedding excess fat from your body with cardio exercise and whole body exercises is one of the best ways to do it.

The Muffin-top Workout

Intense physical activity, such as fast walking, running, riding a bike, aerobics, swimming, tennis – anything that gets your heart rate and metabolic rate up – will burn fat. Women tap into fat stores for energy much more slowly than men, usually after 40 minutes from the start, so plan your workouts accordingly, but ideally increasing the time up to an hour, three times a week.

“The fastest way to get rid of it is by doing cardio intervals,” says Los Angeles trainer Valerie Waters, who works with celebs, including the notably “bloop”-less Jennifer Garner. By mixing intense bursts with slower periods, intervals torch calories faster than exercising at a steady pace. (Even better, a study found that after two weeks of interval training, women burned 36 percent more fat during moderate exercise.) Do Waters’ interval plan and sculpting moves, below, three times a week to make long T-shirts an option, not a necessity.

The muffin-busting plan

These intervals work with any cardio exercise you like—such as walking, biking or jogging.

Start off with a five-minute warm-up at a low-to-moderate intensity to get your blood flowing.

Pick up the pace for one minute; the effort required should be about a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10—1 being effortless and 10 being extremely tough. Speed isn’t the only way to boost intensity; try increasing the treadmill incline, running stairs or hopping onto a tough cardio machine like a stair-stepper.

Recover for one to two minutes at an easier pace—about a 5 on your toughness scale.

Repeat those hard and easy intervals for a total of 20 minutes. Once you get the interval rhythm down, throw in some spurts in which you’re working at an 8 or 9 on your intensity scale to challenge your body and burn even more fat.

Cool down for five minutes at a light pace.

The Muffin-Top Exercises

Muffin-Top Exercise #1: PLANK

Begin lying face down with your forearms and toes on the ground. Supported with your forearms and toes, lift your body off the ground. Keeping your body as straight and rigid as possible, tighten your core to keep your midsection from sagging toward the ground.

Time: 20-30 seconds

Muffin-Top Exercise #2: SIDE PLANK

Lay on your side, with your forearm propping up your upper body and the outside of your bottom foot on the floor. With weight on your forearm and the outside of your foot, lift your body off of the floor to form a straight line. Similar to the standard plank, except you are on your side. Tighten your core to prevent your hip from sagging toward the floor. Be sure your hips do not sway forward or back.

Time: 20-30 seconds. Then repeat on the opposite side.

Muffin-Top Exercise #3: The Back Extension

Start by lying face down on a comfortable surface with your arms by your sides; palms up to the ceiling, and your feet together; toes pointed straight behind you.

Take a deep breath in, then, as you slowly release it, raise your upper chest and lower legs off the floor. Hold your stomach and glutes tight and stretch forward and up through the top of your head, and backwards and up through your fingertips and toes. Hold this position as you inhale; concentrating on keeping your muscles tight, then exhale and slowly lower yourself back to the start position.

Repeat several times until you can feel your muscles tiring and keep a note of how many repetitions you managed to build on this number in the future.

Muffin-Top Exercise #4: Bicycle Crunches

Lie flat on the floor with your lower back pressed to the ground and contract your core muscles. With your hands gently holding your head, lift your knees to about a 45-degree angle.

Slowly go through a bicycle pedal motion. Alternately touching your elbows to the opposite knees as you twist back and forth. Breath evenly throughout the exercise.

Muffin-Top Exercise #5:Crunch on an Fitness Ball

Sit on the fitness ball with your feet flat on the floor. Let the ball roll back slowly and lie back until your thighs and torso are parallel with the floor. Contract your abdominals raising your torso to no more than 45 degrees.
To work the oblique muscles, make the exercise less stable by moving your feet closer together.

Muffin-Top Exercise #6: Oblique Crunches

Oblique crunches work the muscles which run down the sides of your stomach (the obliques).

Concentrating on this area gives your body stability and creates definition around your waist.

Start by lying flat on your back with your arms by your sides and knees bent and together, but over to your left hand side. In this position your shoulder blades should be flat on the floor but your waist will be twisted slightly as your left leg rests flat on the floor at a right angle to your torso and your right leg rests on top of the left.

Cross your arms across your chest to avoid using them to pull yourself up.

Take a deep breath in, then slowly exhale and raise your head and shoulders off the ground slightly and back down in a steady, controlled movement. This is essentially a sit up movement, but by turning your legs to one side you allow the body to utilize the oblique muscles rather than the abdominals.

Repeat as many times as you can on each side. It’s a pretty tough workout, but it is more important to feel your muscles working than to do loads of reps – work at the right pace for you.

Muffin-Top Exercise #7: The Bridge

The bridge is pretty much the ultimate muffin top exercise – it works on your stomach, lower back and glutes all in one go!

To do this exercise start by lying on your back, arms by your sides and knees bent.

Stabilize your body on the floor by bringing your shoulder blades back and down and firmly placing your palms and feet flat against the ground (your feet should be about hip width apart).

Inhale deeply then release this breath as you slowly roll your spine, one vertebra at a time, away from the floor, starting at your tailbone.

When you reach the bridge position only your head, shoulder blades, arms and feet should be anchored to the ground, while your abs and glutes should be nice and tight; holding your hips suspended in the air.

Hold this position for another deep inhale, then slowly exhale and roll your spine back onto the mat, starting from the top.

Repeat to fatigue and note down the number of reps you managed.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4240883

Dynamite Muffin Top Busting Workout: KICK BOXING

This is one of the best ways to get rid of excess fat around the mid-section. Kick boxing provides a great combination of high intensity with side-kick combinations, punch work across the body and movements that involve twisting and jumping side-to-side. It requires whole body balancing and core work out with pretty much every sort of movement, means you really can’t beat this as a muffin-top-blasting workout.

Video: Get Rid of Muffin Tops / Hip Fat

Video: Banish Your Muffin Top Whole Body Workout

Brushing and scrubbing your muffin top

Brushing and scrubbing your muffin top with a good exfoliator and gentle massage will also help stimulate cells and improve circulation, getting nutrients in and toxins out. Scrub as vigorously with a brush as you can for at least five minutes.

Questions? Comments? Weight Loss Tips?

Why not add to the conversation in the comment section below! Are you trying to lose weight? What type of diet are you following? What are you struggling with? Have you tried green smoothies for weight loss?

Want to share some weight loss tips with fellow readers? I’ll be looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks!