This is some text prior to the author information. You can change this text from the admin section of WP-Gravatar  Shane Doll is a certified personal trainer, fat loss expert, author, and founder of Shaping Concepts Fitness Training Studios. Shane specializes in helping people achieve amazing body and health transformations with his unique personal training programs. Read more from this author

Alright ladies, so you’re looking to flatten your stomach. I’ve got some very important news you´ll want to hear. I´m going to share a secret with you that will save you a lot of time and a lot of frustration. The ab machines you´ll find at most health clubs are NOT effective at reducing your waistline. In fact, many of these machines can make the appearance of that dreaded “pooch belly” every woman hates worse!

The reason is these machines work by isolating one or two abdominal muscles while neglecting the deep core muscles (the ones that actually hold your stomach in). This is the same reason why crunches and sit-ups are so ineffective and are pretty much a waste of your time.

I see the “pooch belly” problem a lot with women even after they’ve lost weight and really toned up from doing resistance training. It´s like there´s just that one problem area around the stomach that won´t go away. One of the biggest reasons why women struggle with losing the “pooch belly” is misinformation. Nobody told them that they´ll need to target this area with specific changes in their diet, cardio workouts and different core training exercises. Yes, it takes a specialized approach.

The best ab exercises for bringing in your stomach will work the deep core muscles like the transverse abdominis, which gets neglected with machines and crunches/sit-ups. You need to do exercises that integrate all the core muscles if you want to naturally draw in your stomach. These include chops, planks, single leg reaches, vacuums and others.

In general you want to avoid any ab machine where you do the exercise while sitting down. A lot of female clients I see have some degree of lower crossed syndrome where the low back muscles and hip flexors are tight and the glutes and core muscles are inhibited. Any idea on what is a common cause for this muscle imbalance? You guessed it sitting too much!

It´s not too hard to figure out that an activity that helped to create the problem in the first place won´t likely be part of the solution. The best exercises to naturally draw in your stomach will also help to improve your posture, eliminate low back pain and give you better flexibility. Best of all, most of these exercises require very little or no equipment and can be completed even in the privacy of your own home.