dolcegirl

Just curious if cycling is an activity that flattens or strengthens the abs or not.

gascostalot

Exercise and dieting flattens your stomach.

As for strengthening the abs, it can. But there's better ways to work your abs.

c0urt

more so than watching tv, but it depends on the type of cycling.

mountain biking can if there is lots of out of the saddle time I think.
road bike can if there is lots of climbing. because you are supporting your body as you are out of the saddle to climb
cycle-cross can because you are hoisting the bike I suppose and running with it

but you see the pattern. you are getting out of the saddle.

so as noted. there are much better ways.

goldfishin

seems not to in my case.

wabbit

it will burn off fat which can reduce your waistline but it doesn't firm your abs like exercise

JanMM

Yes, and it makes you smarter.

Wordbiker

Not if you ride to the bakery or brewery.

mark9950

Sometimes if you are too fat for too long your stomach does not get flat,you need body sculpting cosmetic surgery and some liposuction.

Velo Dog

Aerobic exercise, which cycling is if you ride briskly, will flatten your abdomen eventually as you lose fat. So will walking, jogging and any other exercise that causes you to burn more calories than you ingest. As another post said, if you ride to the bakery, it won't work. The bulge around your middle is fat, and it will stay there until you lose the fat. A billion situps or crunches won't help--unless you get rid of the fat, you'll just have fat over a layer of muscle. All those ads that promise to reduce your belly or hips or thighs or whatever are bogus. You can't "spot reduce," you have to lose the fat all over.

ShadowGray

Ab building is basically mantaining the muscle under that fat and getting rid of that fat.

It does get rid of that fat, since we're talking about cardio here.

However, as for the muscle building part... if you don't feel the burn there...

geo8rge

If you are looking to 'burn fat' a bicycle might not work well unless you do allot if hill climbing. You may even consume (Gatorade, energy bars) more calories than you burn.

Pat

There is no way of "spot reducing". That is losing weight at a certain desired part of your body except surgical intervention of some sort or other. Cycling burns calories and if you limit your caloric intake and burn the requisite surplus number of calories, you will lose fat. If you lose enough fat, your body will get around to getting rid of the fat on the stomach. However, I have been told by people who body build competitively that losing that last little bit of fat to reveal the "6 pack" is the last thing that happens. It sounds as if it is more trouble than it is worth.

jens5

No

SonataInFSharp

I would say "No." At least not in my case.

My legs are great and my upper body is great (arms, shoulders, etc), but not my stomach. It has been the same for a very long time.

deanp

Not for me it hasn't yet. I've lost about 60 lbs but still have a spare tire, but it is much smaller. I bought a pair of shorts this weekend that are 10 inches smaller than the pants I was wearing three years ago. That's a big change, but I'm still fat in the middle. I also have been doing sit ups to help the middle by firming the muscles underneath. Some people can experience an increase in gut bulge because the muscle will push the fat out. It takes lots of cycling to burn the gut off, but it's the most enjoyable way I've found.

Torrilin

Due to the way female skeletons and muscles are set up, our abdomens tend to protrude slightly. Mine would stick out slightly even when I had a case of drug induced anorexia and was otherwise a walking skeleton. Since I'm a trained vocalist (which is serious core exercise) and was singing at a high level while that was going on, *and* was doing lifeguard training (look, more core exercise!), if exercise could have changed my shape, it would have. My stomach was as flat as it would get. Make sure you're being realistic with your expectations for your body. Women tend to not develop "six pack" type abdomen muscles without using drugs, so even if you're doing a lot of core work your body will not respond the way a man's might. It also won't look like a fitness model's body.

Biking is not particularly good for core strength. You *need* core strength to do it well, but it doesn't build core strength very well. Swimming, yoga, singing, wind instruments, free weights and body weight exercises are all much better for your core strength. Take up something good for core strength and have fun with it.

rebornroadster

Not in my case.I still have bit of flab around the middle but my waist and ass are smaller,my thighs are huge and solid and I feel great.

girljen

I have a kid. Nothing short of a Tom & Jerry style steamroller accident will flatten my stomach!

Kimmitt 

It's great with the straight weight loss, but if you're going for tone, you should do some situps to support it.

Longfemur

No. If all you do is cycle a lot and eat little, you may lose weight, but you will lose it everywhere else. You will end up looking like a toothpick with a big belly.

mlts22 

I'm guessing because mountain biking requires a lot more upper body movement, it should help more than riding on glass-smooth roads.

Perhaps combine biking with something more upper body oriented? I'm not sure what the best belly buster workout is though. :/

plodderslusk

I believe it does, at least if the flabby belly is a fairly new thing. I stopped smoking at 37 and gained maybe 20 pounds of fat, a lot of it around the middle. I just trained it off by doing more and more until it disappeared. I believe in very long rides to loose weight.

bbattle

Long rides at a pace that keeps the heartrate up. Just cruising around the neighborhood won't help much.

One good thing about exercise is it limits the amount of time you can spend eating.

Rex G

Bicycling does not exercise muscles in a balanced way, as the lower back muscles are exercised more than the abs, and the oblique muscles, which are the abs that twist the torso, get almost no exercise. So, to have flat ab muscles, do ab exercises.

Then, there is the fat factor. The argument about spot reducing can go on all day, but I don't buy it. Keep in mind that one can have a beautifully toned six pack of ab muscles under a thick pad of fat. Consuming more calories that one uses will cause fat to be deposited; those deposits will occur where one's genetics have predisposed it will occur, and the first place one tends to gain fat is the last place from which it will depart. For many of us, that is the belly.

SourDieseL

All good stuff here but just wanted to touch upon some things noted above.

Biking is not a core-related exercise and as I see it, should be a great cross-training low impact cardio exercise to compliment a vigorous cardio regiment. The top 3 are Running, Biking, and Swimming. Personally I'm a runner and I bike to crosstrain once a week.

Core-related strengthening is stamina building forms of definition through exercises like yoga and pilates. Both offer very nice group of core exercises. I wouldn't immediately go to the mat to start doing situps and all variations of crunches. If you are adamant about the situp/crunch routine, try doing them with a balance ball. Start there then proceed to the mat, after a good month or two of balance ball exercises. The key to a strong core is to have an equally strong lower back.