Our stomachs store fat for a number of reasons; these reasons range from the genetic to plain abuse of food and drink, with little to no exercise. Often, those who invest heavily in exercise and diet to banish the bulging stomach, do so with a vague and incorrect idea of what is needed for a flat stomach. Today, we give you a few exercises that will strengthen and create lean abdominal muscles, help you eliminate a flabby belly and give you a flat stomach that helps you fight disease and ill-health.

The key to a flat stomach is combination

To kick that tummy fat, simply belting away crunches or pushups is not enough. A solo act can't lead to a flat tummy or fat loss.

Your goal should be to build muscle, and focus on fat loss. Whether you are able to drop weight before attempting muscle toning, or tone muscle and then cut fat, depends entirely on how overweight you are, and how many inches you need to lose.

Follow patterned full body exercises like skipping and running to burn energy at an elevated heartrate. The kind of food you eat also helps to cut down that visible and visceral fat. A balanced healthy diet is essential for stomach fat loss.

Drink plenty of water and stay off from stress and anxiety and limit your salt intake. Besides get enough sleep to kick your belly fat.

Mentioned ahead are exercises that will help get a flat stomach.

Note: These exercises will only help you get rid of stomach fat if you practise them in combination with a healthy lifestyle and balanced diet.

Funky standing abs
This is one of the best and easiest exercises to begin with. Stand with your feet below your shoulders, and then tighten your abs slowly bending your knees.

Tilt your pelvis forward, so that your back is curved. Come back to the centre and tilt pelvis backward. Perform this exercise 15 times on either side, or as your workout permits.

Chair leg lifts

Perform this exercise using any kind of chair.

All you have to do is, sit straight with your back flat against the chair, place your hands on the seat of your chair, then slowly lift your knees towards your chest and slowly restore them back.

Carry out slow breathing while doing this. Perform this 2 set exercise at least 10-15 times.

Crunches
This is a good exercise for upper, lower and oblique abdominal muscles. Begin by lying flat on the ground, with your feet placed firmly on the ground, clasp your hands behind your head.

Raise your upper body by squeezing your abdominal muscles and when you are halfway through, hold on for 3 seconds.

Then bring back your body back to floor, slowly. Do at least 30 crunches per set.

Perpendicular exercise
Lie flat on your back, with your hands behind your back. Breathe out, as you lift your legs over your hips so they are perpendicular to the floor; slightly extend the distance between your legs.

Breathe in as you lower down your legs. Start up with 4 to 5 sets, and then increase it to 10.

Dumbbell bends
This exercise is useful for your oblique muscles. Start with grabbing a dumbbell, holding it in your right hand; see to it that your palm is facing your body.

Your feet should be at a shoulder-width distance. Slowly place your left hand on your hip and bend your upper body towards the right, while keeping your head and body facing forward.

Bring back your body to normal position and then repeat the same movement on the left side. Practice 20 repetitions.

Bicycle exercise
Bicycle is the best exercise for toning your stomach. It helps by keeping your stomach stable, along with movements, which burns fat.

Perform this exercise by lying on the floor, place your hands behind your head and bring your knees off the floor.

Bring your right elbow towards your left knee while performing cycling motion, and then switch your elbow position.

Side exercise
This exercise targets your oblique, core muscles and shoulders. Stand straight, with your feet at approximately the width of your hips. Slowly bend your knees and hold dumbbells in each hand.

Lift your hands up, so that the dumbbells are above your head and relax. Then lean your arms, head and torso to the right till 2 counts, then come back to the original position and then repeat it to the left side.

Carry out at least 10 repetitions.

Planks
Lie on the floor, with your face down, upper body supported on your forearms. Raise your entire body off the floor, with the support of your forearms and toes form a straight line.

Carry out 3 repetitions, with 15 to 20 seconds hold.

Clock exercise
To carry out this exercise, you may need an exercise ball. Rest your back on the ball with your feet aligned with your hips.

Stretch your arms over your head, contracting your abdominal muscles, and then rotate your body like a clock. Carry out 10 rotations in each side.

However, even though it is difficult to improve concentration, it is not entirely impossible. Perseverance is important in improving your concentration power. Here are the top 20 ways with which you can improve your concentration. 

Select your environment

The environment in which you work plays an important role in improving your concentration.

Comfortable and appealing environments are more conducive to attaining full concentration while working.

Usually, while selecting the environment, keep in mind, the lesser the distractions, the better the chances of working with full concentration.

Control your thoughts

The key to concentration is to not allow your mind to distract you with casual thoughts.

When unrelated thoughts emerge in the mind, pay no attention to them and actively focus on the task you are trying to accomplish.

Make a time plan

Make a schedule for the jobs to be done. In order to balance, allocate time appropriately to serious tasks, and to leisure as well.

This will help you feel more fulfilled and less weak toward playful distractions.

Never be negative

Do not tell yourself that you cannot concentrate; this will make it more difficult to focus, because you will force your mind to be short of concentration and attention.

Avoid Multi-tasking

Multi-tasking ensures that we cannot concentrate on one single task at hand when we have a horde of tasks lying in front of us.

Focus on completing each task before moving on to the next.

Cut off the Noise

Cutting off noise is very important, as it is obvious that distractions won't help you focus.

Though it can be tempting to put the e-mail alerts on, reply to the BBM or whatsapp messenger and answer every request sent your way, eventually it will only prevent you from concentrating.

Diet and Exercise

Focus depends, to a great deal, on a balanced diet and exercise plan.

Lack of essential nutrients can cause fatigue and lethargy. Ensure concentration by eating a diet rich in nuts and fruits containing Vitamin E, and follow through with a healthy workout routine.

Understand the task

Concentration is particularly difficult if you have doubts about what you are doing or if you find the task confusing.

When work is difficult, the mind looks for easier things to do. Hence, try to get a general overview and develop a basic concept and framework before you start each task.

Conquer Procrastination

Don't feel like concentrating? Are you putting off a task? This is procrastination.

Do not postpone, in fact simply decide to not leave your seat till the burdensome task is over.

Spot your peak times

All of us have our times of peak alertness in the 24-hours cycle. However, it is not the same for all.

Find out yours and use it for more tricky or less interesting tasks.

Be positive

Whenever you need to focus, tell yourself over and over again that you can concentrate, and this will easily help you to develop this ability.

Divide tasks

Tasks that have no clear start or end point will destroy your focus. If you have a large project that needs work, clearly identify a path that you will use to get started working on it.

Concentration Exercises

Exercise restores the loss in focus by improving mind and body coordination.

Focus is closely related to memory preservation exercises like coin trick, chair trick. This will improve your concentration.

Meditation

Meditation is not a cure; but, if you can practice sincerely and learn to control the mind you will notice a difference, and slowly improve your concentration power.

Go slow

It is important to discipline yourself as well as put in more time to effective use.

So start small, but stick to it if you are not able to concentrate easily.

Train your brain

In order to improve your concentration you need to train your brain.

If you are unable to focus on a subject for more than a few seconds, but if you preserve, you will be able to fix the mind on anything for a longer duration.

Set a Deadline

Deadlines work well when trying to strengthen concentration.

A deadline can make it easier to forget the non-essential and speed up your working time.

Get enough sleep

Impose a regular bedtime.

Tiredness, fatigue and lack of a good night's sleep is one of the leading causes of poor concentration.

Steady progress

If you feel you are horrible at concentration, try to make small improvements each week.

If you get distracted for say half of the time, make an effort to get distracted for less time each week.

Manage requirements

Make sure that you have arranged all your requirements before you start with each task.

This may avoid unnecessary distractions, and you will work serenely.

Unite your heart with mind

Applying your mind to the work is a requirement in any case; adding positive attitude makes the real difference.

When you start enjoying the work, your understanding of it and desire to concentrate on it is much faster and better.