Abs: Workouts for Buff Brides

Find the Perfect Workout for Your Dress

We'll start with the facts: You'll only be holding that bouquet in front of you during photo sessions and for the short time it takes to say your I Sure Will's. The rest of the day (and night) promises full-on gut exposure. Scared? Don't be. We're going style-by-style to match your dress with the best ab-trimming, flab-busting, waist-cinching workouts so you can keep your mind on more important things on your big day.

Disclaimer: Talking about waists and wedding dresses can get confusing. Typically, you'd consider the "waist" of a gown to mean, well, where your waist is: Below your bustline and above your hips. On dresses, that translates to the area where the bodice (the material that wraps fully around the midsection) typically ends and the skirt (the fuller, lower part of the dress) begins. Of course, the wedding dress industry has a few different ideas. Some dresses begin to billow right under your bust line (referred to as an "empire waist"), while others begin to flare out as low as at the knee (the "mermaid" style). Some dresses don't flare out at all. So when we here at FITNESS talk of waists, we mean, literally, the core muscular area from the top of your ribcage down to just above your hips, regardless of where the skirt fullness begins.

So which workout is right for you? The following pages will give you the right shaping and sculpting moves for every silhouette.