The look of a lean midsection is what inspires countless people to take up fitness training. But it can be one of the most elusive things to achieve, not because it’s more difficult than developing any other part of the body, but because people just go about it the wrong way. Here are the some the basic essentials of working your midsection to keep in mind as you start your journey towards amazing abs.

1. Lose Fat

Despite what ab crunch machine ads on late night television might have you believe, there is no way to lose the fat off your belly by doing crunches. The human body just doesn’t work that way. In reality, when you lose fat, you lose it all over. To lose fat, you have to just stick to the basics: reduce your calorie intake and do cardio. Really, you already have nice looking abs. The trick is shedding enough fat to make them visible.

2. When Working Your Abs, Make Sure you Actually Work Your Abs

A lot of the exercises that people do to strengthen their ab muscles actually just work their hips. Instead of doing full sit ups or leg raises, consider doing bicycles or negative crunches. And don’t just do them endlessly, treat them like any resistance exercise. Do three to four sets of fifteen to twenty repetitions, remembering to give those muscles time to rest so that they can grow.

3. Train Your Shoulders and Lower Back

If you want to have a nice midsection, you have to have good posture. It will just naturally make those middle muscles stick out more. But this can be challenging for a lot of people who have to sit in an uncomfortable chair all day at work staring at a computer screen. To make good posture easier for you, make sure to include some exercises that work your shoulders and lower back into your routine.

4. Stretch

Making sure to stretch often will do a number of things. Firstly, it will make your ab muscles more evenly spaced out, for that nice clean cut look. But it will also increase your flexibility, which will also help you with posture. Try to develop a stretching routine you can do before and after workouts. It will also make your training time safer.

5. Work every Muscle in your Midsection

Most who want nice abs focus on the rectus abdominis, because that is what gives you the “six pack.” But you should also make sure to work the oblique and Transverse Abdominis. These muscles will draw in your waistline, which will make your abs “pop” even more once they become visible.

6. Work Your Entire Body

When you grow larger muscles all over, your metabolism shoots up. And when your metabolism increases, you burn fat faster. And when you burn fat faster, your abs show up sooner. So don’t just work your upper body. Work all over. You’ll thank yourself once your\ are sporting your band new six pack at the beach.