Belly fat.  Tummy pooch.  Mummy tummy.  Ab flab.  Spare tire.  Love handles.  I’ve heard it all when it comes to the names we lovingly call our midsection and abdominal muscles.  No matter what we call them, there’s no doubt our core is the area that I get asked about the most as a trainer; the area that so many of us deem our “trouble spot.”

Whether it’s going through pregnancy and postpartum, changes in hormones or age, or our specific body type, many of us find training our abdominal muscles to be difficult.  We search for “Foods to beat belly fat” and “The Secret to Six Pack Abs” or resort to doing hours of planks and hundreds of crunches.   The reality is, there is no secret formula or magic fix.  In my experience and education as a trainer, as well as going through my own pregnancies and postpartum journeys (including a C-section and diastasis recti/abdominal separation), I’ve found it’s really about these specific things:

Changing your mindset:  We spend too much time thinking about how to “flatten our tummy” or “lose belly fat” or “get rid of the pooch.”  But like in all fitness, when we change our mindset to think less about the aesthetic, and more about we feel and being able to move optimally—magic happens!  Our core is the center of our bodies, where all movement begins and ends, so having a strong, functional core means we move better, have less back pain, lower our risk for injuries, and we feel better overall!  And, changing our brain usually results in changing our bodies!

Thinking about the big picture:  As we’ve talked about before, we can’t “spot train” or just train one area of our bodies and expect to see results.  It takes full body training for strength, function and cardio, as well as fueling our bodies with nutritious foods.

Learning how to engage your deep core muscles and get all your abdominal muscles working together.  While we talk quite a bit in prenatal and postnatal training about your deep core (transverse abdominus) and pelvic floor muscles, it’s still not a common topic in mainstream fitness. Many of us have spent years doing abdominal exercises working our outer layer (rectus abdominus, or “six pack”) muscles without knowing how to connect to our deep core. It’s not that you are doing it wrong or not getting the benefit, it’s that to truly get a functioning core (and, in turn, that flat tummy we all want) learning to engage those deepest layers and get all our muscles working in synergy is key.  Learn more about this here.

Next month in the BodyFit Athletic Club, our challenge is April Absolution:  Core and More. We will spend the month with workouts focused on learning how to engage and strengthen the deep core, as well as talking within the group about nutrition and fitness and stress management as it relates to building a strong, functional core.  Join us!  Use code BODYFIT100 for $100 off the yearly membership, or code SHOWUP for $10 off monthly.