There’s much more to your belly than meets the eye. Most people target the six-pack surface muscles but neglect the deep abdominal ones, namely the transversus abdominis, iliopsoas, and diaphragm. Not only do these key players cinch your waist, they enhance crucial functions of your body — breathing, digestion, and relaxation — and help you stand up straighter.

They are the source of your center of gravity. “When you engage and strengthen this internal support system, it’s like accessing an additional power source,” says Jill Miller, a Los Angeles-based yoga teacher and creator of the Core Integration fitness DVD. But you improve oxygen flow, increase your energy levels, and feel more grounded. You still need to work the outer muscles, too. “In real life, the core muscles never work alone. They interconnect with all the muscles of the body to provide mobility and balance,” says Eva Pelegrin, founder of Attune Holistic Fitness in New York City. Try this routine for a week and you could start to see a toned tummy that functions as well on the inside as it looks on the outside.

Strengthen the Insides

Start with these exercises from Jill Miller that stretch the diaphragm , massage the digestive organs, and provide a strong foundation. Do the six moves as a routine two to three times per week, with a day off in between.

1. Revolved Ab Pose

What It Does: Helps you use your abs in concert (unlike crunches, which isolate one muscle group)

How to Do It: Lie on your back with your arms in the shape of a T and legs lifted so they’re perpendicular to the floor. Shift hips a few inches to the left, then exhale and drop both legs slowly to the right, stopping before they touch the floor. Hold for a deep breath, exhale, and return to the starting position. Repeat on the other side. Alternate for 20 reps, 10 on each side.

2. Abdominal Vacuum

What It Does: Stretches the diaphragm and other deep core muscles; massages the colon, stomach, and other digestive organs to improve functioning

How to Do It: Lie on your back, knees bent, feet on the floor. Inhale and raise arms overhead behind you. Lift your spine one vertebra at a time until your hips are high. Exhale as you relax your abs, lowering your spine down. A natural vacuum will draw your belly in. When your hips are on the floor, lower hands to start position. Repeat 7 to 10 times.

3. Elevated Leg Lift

What It Does: Works the diaphragm and the iliopsoas muscles; improves your posture

How to Do It: Lie on the floor with your pelvis resting on a cushion or towels. Reach arms overhead, palms face up. Engaging your core, raise the left leg and lift the right an inch off the floor. Hold and breathe deeply for 30 seconds. Repeat with the other leg, alternating 15 times on each side.

Tone the Outsides

Eva Pelegrin designed these moves, which primarily work your outer abdominals and upper body, to improve your posture, take pressure off your lower back, and support you all day long.

1. Basket Twist

What It Does: Improves spinal flexibility while toning core, back, and arms

How to Do It: Sit on the floor and hold a weighted ball or any heavy object (even a basket of magazines); bend knees slightly. Lean torso back and draw navel in while keeping the spine straight. Contract your abs and move ball or weight from side to side, keeping abs tight. Do 2 to 3 sets of 10 on each side.

2. Leg Thread

What It Does: Improves agility, cardiovascular health, hip flexibility, and stamina

How to Do It: Crouch on toes with feet shoulder distance apart, palms on floor, navel drawn in. Pivot on ball of right foot, rotate hips right, and extend your left leg out to the side , keeping it parallel to floor. Repeat with right leg. Alternate legs quickly. Do 3 to 5 sets of 10 on each side.

3. Superwoman

What It Does: Strengthens the core while toning arms and upper body

How to Do It: Start in a push-up position, knees on the floor, palms resting on a small towel. Draw shoulders down, navel in. Without arching your lower back, slowly move your hands forward until your chest touches the floor. Release and return to start. For more of a challenge, use upper body to slide hands back to starting position. Do 2 to 3 sets of 10 reps each.

Get even more healthy ideas at Martha Stewart Living

Paddle boarding, an ancient form of surfing, is gaining popularity as a high-intensity, low-impact platform for group fitness classes from calisthenics to yoga.  Experts say it may feel like walking on water because paddle boarding works on the flat water of a lake or pond and doesn’t involve waves. 

“Paddle boarding is a form of surfing. A paddle board is basically a surfboard that’s thicker, more buoyant, so it can hold you standing up in flat water,” said Scott Bumbalough, founder of Maui B’s Stand Up Paddle Boarding, which is based in Florida.

“For fitness classes we take a one-hour lap around the lake,” he said, which in this case is Lake Ivanhoe in Orlando, Florida. “Buoys are placed at intervals and at each buoy we do an exercise such as squats, push-ups, squat thrusts on the board.”Bumbalough encountered paddle boarding, which probably dates back to ancient Polynesia, while living in Hawaii, where it was a popular way for surfers to train when the surf was down. 

“It’s a high-intensity, low-impact workout,” said Bumbalough. “The class probably works about 85 percent of the muscles in body.”Bumbalough said he brought paddle boarding to Florida in 2007. Since then it’s spread throughout the nation as a hugely popular sport that can be done anywhere there’s safe water. 

Peace, serenity, and six-pack abs are among the many benefits that have accrued to Nani Sadowski, a healthcare consultant, since she started exercising on the paddle board two years ago.”I have a very stressful job, so it’s very relaxing to be on the water,” said Sadowski.

She also does paddleboard yoga, which she explained is a complete practice from sun salutations to the final resting pose done on the water.  “I prefer yoga on paddle board because you have to focus that much more on your balance,” said Sadowski. “You look down and see the water below you. Any fear is more a question of mind over matter.” 

Shirley Archer, a Florida-based fitness expert and spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise, has tried paddle boarding and finds it is a very effective core workout that requires balance. 

“You can’t fake it in the water … It provides you with immediate feedback,” Archer, who is a certified yoga and Pilates instructor, explained. “Yoga on the paddle board simply expands on this concept because many yoga postures require good balance.” 

She said that paddle boarding, while ideal for those seeking a new challenge, would likely work out only for people who enjoy the outdoors and who don’t mind getting wet.Sadowski said she has only fallen off once, perhaps because there is one instructor for each five students in her class.

“They watch us like hawks the whole time,” she added.Her devotion to paddle boarding has transformed her body. 

“People always comment on how toned my arms are, how great my posture has become,” she explained. “When I was off work for a couple of weeks I went out every day for two hours,” she said. 

The result? I’m 38 years old and I actually got a six-pack.”

Imagine your spine is a credit card. In the same way that repeatedly flexing and extending a credit card will eventually lead to wearing out of the plastic, repeatedly doing crunches can put damaging strain on your back.

Here’s why:

Each of your spinal discs is only able to support a limited number of bending motions over the course of your lifetime before you get low back pain, a disc bulge or a disc herniation.

And since crunches involve lying on your back and repeatedly bending and extending your spinal credit card, they place excessive strain on the part of your low back that has the most nerves and is most prone to wear and tear.

Perhaps you’ve heard that if you pick a heavy object off the ground, and you don’t want to hurt your spine, you should “Bend at the knees, and not at the back.” But think about crunches this way: Anytime you do a crunch, you’re bending at the back — over and over and over again!

And that’s not all: A crunch simply doesn’t burn as many calories as necessary for you to get rid of any fat that is obscuring your stomach muscles — so it’s an inefficient way to get your gut looking good.

Ultimately, there are better ways to get a flat stomach. Here are my top 10 crunch alternatives that will avoid back pain and burn many more calories than crunches. For each exercise, choose a weight that allows you to do 10-15 repetitions and click on the exercise name for a demonstration.

Crunch Alternative #10 — Cable Torso Twists
In a standing position with your feet firmly planted and knees slightly bent, hold a cable or elastic band at arm’s length (keep your arms straight) and twist your body. To do this exercise properly, imagine your bellybutton pointing straight forward, then rotate your bellybutton approximately 30 degrees.

Crunch Alternative #9 — Woodchopper
In a standing position, hold a dumbbell, medicine ball, elastic band or cable above your body and to the side of your shoulder, and diagonally rotate with extended arms from above your shoulder, down and across your body to the outside of your hips — just as if you were holding an axe and chopping a block of wood. Also, try “reverse woodchoppers,” which is the same motion in the opposite direction.

Crunch Alternative #8 – Front Planks
Get into a belly-down position with your elbows bent and your body supported by just your forearms and your toes. This is a popular position that you’ll see in yoga and Pilates. From here, you can simply hold this plank position, or you can tap your feet or alternate between reaching with each arm.

Crunch Alternative #7 — Side Planks
Get into a similar position as a front plank but support yourself on one arm, so that your bellybutton is turned to the side. You can simply hold this position, or you can also do more advanced exercises like raising a dumbbell with your non-supporting arm or rotations.

Crunch Alternative #6 — Stability Ball Plank
If your forearms don’t like the front plank position, the stability ball plank is a great option. Simply put your shins or toes up on a stability ball and support the rest of your body in a pushup position with your hands.

Crunch Alternative #5 – Stability Ball Knee to Chest
After you’ve mastered the stability ball plank position, try pulling the ball closer to you by bending your knees to your chest, then extending your legs back into the starting position.

Crunch Alternative #4 — Stability Ball Pike
For an even harder stability ball move, try pikes, in which you start in a stability ball plank position and then point your butt up towards the sky in a capital letter A position while keeping your legs as straight as possible.

Crunch Alternative #3 — Bridges
As I wrote in “How to Get a Flat Stomach,” when you exercise your abs, you also need to maintain your low back strength. You can do a low back strengthening bridge by lying on your back, then pushing your hips up towards the sky while keeping your feet flat on the ground. For more advanced variations, try a single leg bridge or a stability ball bridge.

Crunch Alternative #2 — Medicine Ball Side Throws
These last two exercises are a bit more ballistic and athletic, but great for building abdominal strength. Grab a medicine ball, which is one of those small but very heavy balls you can find at the gym, and then find an area of the gym where you have a solid wall. Twist your body to one side and then twist back and throw the ball against the wall. Catch, then repeat. Once you’ve completed a series of throws for one side, face the other direction and complete another set of throws for the opposite side. These are very similar to cable torso twists, except you’re throwing an object.

Crunch Alternative #1 — Medicine Ball Slams
I’ve saved the best exercise for last. Hold the medicine ball overhead, then slam it into the ground as hard as you can, while keeping your abs tight and breathing out. This exercise is also a fantastic stress-reliever.

Now that you know 10 ways to avoid crunches, you’ll never have to strain your credit card again — and that’s good advice for the one in your wallet, too.

Ben Greenfield is a fitness and triathlon expert and host of the Get-Fit Guy podcast on the Quick and Dirty Tips network. His book, “Get-Fit Guy’s Guide to Achieving Your Ideal Body — A Workout Plan for Your Unique Shape,” will be published by St. Martin’s Press in May 2012.

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Who says you don’t have time to workout? Here are some super quick weight workouts to get you started. Beginners start with no weights and each time you do this workout, add slowly. I would call myself an intermediate and used 10 – 12 lbs when weights were involved. You be the judge and remember proper form is key.  Stretch and warm up before lifting weights.

Home Workout – no equipment required!

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As always, check with your doctor before starting any workout routine.

Stop making these exercise mistakes when you’re on the elliptical machine and maximize your calorie burn:

Click each for even more information from Prevention…

• 1. You’re too lazy to enter your information.
• 2. Your resistance is zero.
• 3. You’re a sloucher.
• 4. Your machine sounds like it’s going to take off.
• 5. You don’t change directions.
• 6. You haven’t changed your workout in months.
• 7. You spin until you can’t feel your feet.
• 8. You don’t work your upper half.
• 9. You spin your way up a hill.
• 10. You’re an elliptical junkie.

And my personal number 11 is don’t hang on to the machine EVER!

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