FITNESS: The Best Workouts To Lose Belly Fat & Get Abs

The best kind of training for losing belly fat is resistance training, according to "Xtreme Lean" author Jonathan Lawson. Besides burning calories for up to 48 hours or more, weight training also triggers the release of potent fat burning hormones that can directly target your belly fat. As for "getting abs," you have abs right now. If you cannot see them you must reduce your body fat percentage. Proper diet and added cardiovascular training can help to accelerate this process.

Hybrid Circuit Training

This is a form of circuit training with short bursts of cardiovascular activity between your sets. Examples of this cardio might include bench jumps, walking lunges or step-ups. You will complete all sets of a given exercise before moving on to the next. For example, you could do dumbbell bench presses for the chest, completing one set, doing cardio for a short amount of time and then doing the next chest set, until you have finished the total number of prescribed sets.

The weekly breakdown has you train two days on and one off for a total of four workouts. On the first day you do 40 seconds of cardio between each set, with three sets for chest, back and thighs and two sets for shoulders, hamstrings, biceps, triceps and calves. The second day you do only 20 seconds of cardio between sets, with four sets for chest, back and thighs, and three sets for shoulders, hamstrings, biceps, triceps and calves.

According to "Muscle Explosion" author Nick Nilsson, this program works great with a low-carb diet.

Negative-Accentuated Training

Work out five days per week to maximize your fat burning. At workout one do chest, lats, triceps and abs. Workout two would hit legs and lower back. The third workout targets shoulders, mid-back and biceps. On the fourth and fifth days you would simply repeat workout one and two respectively.

For each muscle group, begin with one or two sets of eight to 10 reps on a compound movement like the bench press. Then do a 15 to 20-rep set of an isolation exercise like dumbbell flyes. Go back to the bench press and do one more set of eight to 10 repetitions in the negative-accentuated style, lowering the weight to a slow six-second count on every rep. Head back to the dumbbell flyes and do a double drop-set. To do this you perform one set to exhaustion, immediately reduce the weight, do another set to exhaustion, decrease the weight again and complete one final set. The repetitions usually go down as you decrease the weight, for example, from 10-12 reps, eight and then five to finish.

HIIT Cardiovascular Training

HIIT, or high-intensity cardio, is a great workout for decreasing belly fat and helping your abs to show through, according to "The Abs Diet." Choose a cardiovascular machine such as the elliptical, treadmill, stair-stepper or rowing simulator. For 15 to 30 minutes you go at a medium intensity. Every one to two minutes you do 30 to 60 seconds of near-maximal sprints. Alternate between high and medium or low intensity for the entire duration of the workout session. This workout should not be performed more than three times a week. Use HIIT cardio as a stand alone workout, rather than after your weight training, and take in proper post-workout nutrition for optimal recovery.