Can You Get Abs From Running? Runners Guide to A Flat Stomach

In this day and age, looking good and living a healthy life is important for most people.

One of the most important aspects of looking good is having a flat stomach. That is often the reason people start running in the first place. They are wanting to get a flat stomach from running and lose some extra weight they may be carrying.

However, there has been debate about whether running can give you a flat stomach, or even abs. So in this article, we are going to discuss some of the topics below.

– Can running give you a flat stomach
– Can you get abs from running
– How long does it take to get abs from running
– Can you get abs from running on a treadmill?

Although most people relate a flat stomach or abs with doing sit-ups, sit-ups are not the only exercise to improve the look of your stomach. Running is a great way to tone your stomach. However, there are some things you should know if you are wanting to develop a flat stomach or abs. So keep reading to find out more.

Can Running Give You a Flat Stomach? What You Should Know!

Since many people take up running to lose weight, they often believe that running will give them a flat stomach. However, this is not always the case. So, can running give you a flat stomach or is it a myth?
When running is paired with clean healthy eating, you are more likely to lose weight. That means not only introducing running into your exercise routine but changing your eating patterns too. Otherwise, the running you do won’t affect the toning of your stomach.

If you want to flatten your stomach through running, you need to vary your workouts as well as change your eating habits. Some of the workouts you should include in your training are:

– Long runs
– Tempo runs
– Interval sessions

Mixing the above workouts each week will help to increase your metabolism and strength your stomach muscles. So, when you start to lose body fat from the stomach, your abs will start to shine through.

However, if you just started running to flatten your stomach, your body may not be able to complete these types of workouts. In this case, you should mix walking and running together. Then increase the duration of the workout or by add in faster walking segments. Doing so will help to increase the number of calories you burn, while you build up the body’s ability to complete intervals, longer runs, and other harder workouts.

Can You Get Abs From Running on a Treadmill?

Just like running outside, you can get abs from running on a treadmill. However, as we have already discussed in this article, running outside or on a treadmill isn’t likely going to give you a six-pack quickly.

Treadmills are a great way to get in workouts when the weather is bad or winter is upon us. However, because we are somewhat controlled by the moving belt, we activate the core muscles less than we do outside running on the road.

So, can you get abs from running on the treadmill? Or is it just a myth?

The short answer is yes. However, a lot depends on numerous factors, such as:

– How much you run
– How long you run
– How clean your diet is
– If you are restricting calories or not
– Your current weight

First, weight plays a massive role in whether running can help you to get abs. While everyone has stomach muscles, to see the definition of abs you must flatten the stomach first and lose those extra pounds.

To do this requires many hours of running. So, pairing running with another form of exercise will help you tone and flatten your stomach much quicker. Exercising with weights or doing sports like rowing, cycling and tennis can all help you strengthen and tighten your stomach much faster than just running alone.

How Long Does it Take to Get Abs From Running?

There is no right answer when it comes to answering the question – How long does it take to get abs from running?

Everyone starts running in different shape. This includes their current fitness and weight. Their diet will also play a large part in how fast they will develop abs from running.

However, for most overweight people that start running, you can expect it to take 6-18 months to see visible signs of abdominal muscles from the running you have been doing.

While this might sound like a long time, this is based on 2-3 runs per week. However, if you increase the amount of running you do and vary your workouts, you will reduce the time dramatically. Also if you add in healthy and clean eating you may be able to reduce the time down to 3-12 months.

Some of the things you can do to speed up the time it takes to get abs is to:

– Increase your running volume
– Increase the intensity of some of your runs
– Reduce calorie intake
– Do core and strength workouts on your non-running days
– Pair running with another form of aerobic activity

By following some of the above tips, you should be able to reduce the time it takes to get a flat stomach.

Conclusion

As discussed in this article, running alone won’t help flatten your stomach and tone your abs super quickly. It takes time a dedication to develop a flat, toned stomach.  However, when you pair running, with clean eating and another for of aerobic exercise, you are more likely to see faster results.

Clean and healthy eating is probably the most important of all. This is important for the novice runner when the volume of running is low. As most of the weight loss will come from healthy eating, rather than the running in the beginning.

If you have hit a plateau in your training, and are not losing any weight anymore, check out our 18-week weight loss running training plan. It can help you, improve your fitness and lose weight at the same time.