Personal trainer Jenna Collins, who has 179,000 subscribers on YouTube, said the one exercise has nothing to do with diet and working out, but it’s “guaranteed” to tighten your stomach.
Addressing viewers on her channel, Jenna first wanted to make clear the difference between tightening your stomach and flattening your stomach. She explained in a video that’s had more than 2.5 million views: “Tightening is to do with your abdominal muscles, most importantly your transverse abdominal muscle.
“So if you’re weak in this area and have a dysfunction with this muscle, it not only makes it harder to do daily things and moving around and certain types of exercises and movements, but it can also give it a more loose and bigger appearance in your lower abdomen.”
Jenna noted other possible causes of a bigger lower belly – bloating, which can be fixed with diet, and excess fat caused by poor diet or consuming more than your burning on a daily basis.
To get a defined abdomen it’s essential that you get your body fat percentage down, said Jenna. She added: “Because excess fat is the only reason why you cannot see your abdominals or why you have that lower belly pooch. You must consume less calories than you burn on a daily basis to lose fat.”
While this can be achieved through eating less than your total daily energy expenditure or increasing your exercise, you have to be in a calorie deficit, said Jenna – there’s no other way to lose fat.
But according to the PT and neutron coach, regardless of your fat percentage, there’s one exercise that will work to tighten your abdomen and give you a tighter and flatter appearance.
She said the reason this works is because we are talking about muscle dysfunction rather than excess body fat: “If you do hold a high level of body fat it will be harder to see these differences. However you will still be training your muscles in the way that they should be trained, and tightening that area of your stomach.
“You can work a healthier diet into your lifestyle which will burn that fat off, and then reveal the toned muscles underneath.”
How to do the exercise
The exercise is simple and doesn’t require you to get into any exercise gear. You can also do it any time of the day, although Jenna recommends doing it first thing in the morning when you get out of bed.
1. Take a deep breath in, then let it out
2. Once you let it out you need to suck your lower belly in like a vacuum
3. Hold for as long as you can and then relax
4. Try to do 10 to 12 repetitions – no more than that
Jenna recommended doing this daily for faster results but also because it’s good to be constantly working those muscles as regularly as possible.
Additionally, once you’ve sucked in, Jenna said you can do some gradual twists.
She said: “If you do this regularly and on a daily basis you will definitely tighten these muscles.”