Abs

“Abs, unlike other muscles, can be worked every day,” Blakely (blakelyfit.com, 773-680-6824) says. She recommends these progressive exercises daily, plus at least three weekly sessions of 20 minutes of cardio (at an intensity that’s challenging, but still enables you to have a conversation with the guy next to you). Why does this routine work? “Instead of just engaging the rectus abdominus [the top layer of your six-pack, which crunches target], you’re engaging all of the different muscle layers—and most important, the transverse abdominus, the muscle that wraps around your core and pulls you in like a girdle,” Blakely says. As long as you don’t reward yourself for the extra exercise with diet splurges (like dessert, vending-machine fare and cocktails), within a month, you can expect a visibly firmer stomach.