What is the best exercise for the lower tummy?

I’d say pilates. Or standing knee lifts (with your abs engaged)

Since time immemorial, sit-ups, inclined sit-ups better, and sit-ups hanging from a bar with your knees best..

Crunches…and dietary changes.

Yeah, I’d say losing weight overall would help out that hard to slim area.

Laying down and doing leg lifts….

agreed but sometimes if you lose weight overall there still might be that area that stays with ya, it’s just hard to work on that little area but thanks!

Leg lifts will do it.

@davidbetterman and @jfos i do leg lifts but it feels like i’m not getting anything from it =/ and i do the leg lift things with a partner where they throw down your feet and you have to stop them from touching the ground and pull them back up

tamkli3, I hope you realize that ‘spot reducing’ is a myth. You can work on any chosen muscle group, such lower abs, to tighten & firm. But you*cannot* make fat go away from any chosen area—fat is deposited & removed again in a specific pattern of body distribution that depends on individual genetics & especially gender—not on which muscles you exercise. I

What I mean is there is no credible scientific or medical validation of this concept. Despite the fact that a large consumer industry surrounds the belief.

If you want to lose tummy fat you’ll have to undergo general weight loss by exercise & diet in the usual way. Or get liposuction.

@tamkli3 I would suggest laying flat on your back with your hands at your sides (if you can’t keep them at your sides, try putting them under your butt at first). Then, keeping your feet and legs together and straight, lift up your feet until the bottoms of them are about 6 inches from the ground. Hold for a few seconds, then keeping your legs straight still, spread your feet apart a few feet. Hold for a few seconds, bring them back together. Apart. Together. Apart. Together….hold it…. down. Then repeat.

It’s easier to have someone calling out “apart” and “together” and making you wait every once in a while. As you progress, move your arms out from under your butt and leave them at your sides.

Also, if you want to lose fat, you have to burn calories!

Reverse crunches! Here is a video on how to do it right
Although I think it’s funny that they had a Pillsbury cinnamon roll commercial before the video!

Burning more calories than you eat is a good spot exercise for that area. . . The only one that works that I’m aware of.

Leg lifts and reverse crunches are okay, but I prefer the plank, 6 inches, and sit ups on a decline bench (with added weight as you can handle it) like this, and to add weight you hold a plate close to your chest instead of putting your arms behind your head.

Burning more calories than you eat will help you shed fat all around your body, including your middle, but it will do nothing to build muscle in the area. The exercises I list above will help you shed fat more efficiently and build muscle, but it is important that you burn more calories than you intake otherwise you’ll just be going in circles.

Traditional sit-ups will target your upper abdomen, especially if you are new to exercising.

I feel like leg lifts and reverse crunches are not as intense as 6 inches and especially the decline bench. If you are not feeling it, either you’ve built enough muscle that it became too easy or you are not using correct form.

I built an 8-pack doing the decline bench w/ weights every other day (for months, and I had a flat stomach to begin with), and then I’d do other exercises less frequently with friends like the plank, regular sit ups, all the other ab exercises on the wordpress blog I linked to above, and tons of cardio (running, hiking, swimming, paddling, walking, biking – all several times a week for an hour or more).

Oh yeah, I was thinking about losing fat, not about muscle. Comes from being overweight.

I’m with @tamkli3.. no matter how much weight I lose, my body shape stays pretty much the same. I can get rid of the muffin top (the sides) but never, ever the paunch, even at my most thin and athletic (I was a size 8). Sometimes diet is not enough to overcome genetics..

I think you’re having trouble with what @AstroChuck refers to as the special Tummy For Dessert. Those are almost impossible to control as they serve a specific function unrelated to our intentions.

@gasman, & @zophu i was talking about buliding muscle in that area not really spot reducing fat in that area… i understand you have to burn more than you put in but it’s the fact that trying to gain muscle in that area is difficult for me…

and @lilikoi i swim a lot, run, and walk every single day.. this summer i’m going to be biking a lot. I think you’re right about the part with the think that I’ve built muscle there that those exercises don’t effect me anymore, i think i need to up the intensity. I will take your suggestions to heart… thanks!

@MissAnthrope haha… i feel your pain :D lol

sit ups and leg lifts

leg raises and knee lifts are great.

Liposuction works well too.

yea… but it’s not liposuction that i was asking for, it was an exercise… thanks anyway @Judi

I was just being silly. The people who said that spot reduction doesn’t work were right. Lipo is the only way to really get reduction in specific areas short of a lower calorie diet.

I have limited myself to 5%-10% of my daily suggested saturated fat level and the 10lbs I wanted to lose came off fast.

Is it just loose skin? Have you had children?

@ Judi…No, it’s just buliding muscle… The workouts that I do don’t work anymore and I think that @lilikoi was right and that I’m not feeling it because I’ve gotten used to the exersizes. I think i just need to up the intensity. I’m not overweight, but i’ve got a little pudge that will never go away on my lower tummy. When I swam on the swim team it was barely noticeable but i’ve got it back and I think I need to return to my old ways and find something that will get me back into the shape I was before.