Tighten and tone your abs with these helpful tips! Ab workouts are great, but they aren’t the end all be all when it comes to developing your core.  When getting in better shape, so many people set a goal to tighten and tone.  People ask me all the time how to get a chiseled core. So, I put together a list of my top tips to tighten and tone your core.  It takes hard work and dedication, but if you follow my advice below, you’ll see results!

Top Tips to Tighten and Tone Your Core

1) Eat clean

“Abs are made in the kitchen.”  You hear this all the time, and it’s true!  Only 20% of your physical results come from exercise.  80% is based on your diet.  So if you want abs, you MUST eat clean.  This means eating more whole, unprocessed foods and cutting out the processed junk.

My diet philosophy is that your diet should be catered to YOUR specific needs.  I no longer believe that there is one diet out there for everyone.  Over the last year, I have interview top experts in metabolism, gut health, hormones, fasting, and weight loss… and one things continues to stand true.  Everyone’s body is different and therefore is going to react differently to different diets.  Some do great on a high protein low carb diet, whereas someone else on that diet might GAIN weight.  I truly believe that we have to become slightly obsessed with staying on top of what works best for OUR bodies!

This starts with education! When you know, you do better.  When you’re educated on the effects of certain inflammatory foods, then you understand the benefit to removing them from your diet.  To take all the guess work away, I am creating a “non-diet” diet.  Basically a program that educates you, gives you all the information, and then empowers YOU to determine what the best route is! If you’re interested in knowing when this program is going to release again, head to www.131method.com

2) Use HIIT for cardio

Not all cardio is created equal.  High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is a superior form of cardio that is scientifically proven to burn more fat than your traditional cardio workout.  To see your abs, you have to get rid of the subcutaneous fat on top of your muscles.  Since HIIT burns 9x more fat than your typical cardio workout, you’ve got to mix it into your routine if you want faster results.

3) Strength train 3 times per week

Again, to see your abs, you need to reduce your body fat.  And to reduce your body fat, you need more muscle.  No matter how much you work out now, you won’t see the same results if you aren’t strength training three times per week.  Lifting weights drastically changes your body.  Lift heavy weights to build more muscle and truly change your body composition.

4) Train your core off the floor

Most people think the only way to train your core is to lie down on the floor and do a bazillion crunches.  Not true!  In fact, you’re likely to have stronger, more defined abs by training them standing up!  Just take a look at any boxer, volleyball player, gymnast, or tennis player.  They have great abs – and it’s not from doing crunches. A regular ‘ol crunch on the floor really only tones your outermost layer of your abdominals – your rectus abdominus.  Functional exercises, on the other hand, incorporate all layers. Believe it or not, one of the very best ways to train your abs is by doing push ups!  Or, try a front loaded squat! These target all of your core muscles from the front to the back.

5) Add resistance to your ab workout

If you insist on training on the floor with crunches, at least add some resistance to make your exercises more effective.  Use a stability ball, Bosu, or pick up a weight or band.  Your goal is to get your muscles to fail.  By failing, they break down and build back up even stronger, helping you burn even more calories.

How do you like to tone your core? Are you a slave to crunches? Ready to try a new way? Comment below!

~Chalene