I've been riding my bike for the past four months three times a week for 45 to 60 minutes a shot. The problem is this: I can't seem to lose my gut. I hear lots of talk about crunches but don't know a) if they're all they're cracked up to be, and b) how to do them. Can you help? I don't belong to a gym, so I can't use any sort of fancy machines.

Wanda

You're on the right track for attacking that midsection, Wanda. Crunches won't reduce fat around your middle -- remember, there is no such thing as "spot reducing" -- but they will strengthen your abdominal muscles and help make your gut firmer.

To perform a basic crunch, lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. (If you don't have an exercise mat or a carpeted floor, use a couple of towels to pad the floor.)

Place your hands behind your head with your fingers laced together. Curl your trunk forward until you feel the small of your back flatten against the floor. Ease yourself back down maintaining the tension on your stomach muscles until you're lying flat again.

Do as many as you can. Remember to keep breathing: Exhale on the way up, inhale on the way down. And keep your elbows back when curling forward.

Don't use your arms to pull yourself up -- your hands should be cradling your head and keeping the strain off your neck muscles. Be sure to keep your neck relaxed. Work up to 25 to 30 in a set, and then do two or three sets. Try to work your abs four or five times a week. Six would be even better.

Cycling three times a week will cover the minimum recommendation for getting enough cardiovascular exercise. But there are seven days in a week, and presumably you don't take any days off from eating, so you probably need to add one or two more days of biking to help lower your fat stores.

Try increasing the frequency and duration of your bike rides. How about two rides of 45 minutes and two rides of 75 minutes? As you get more fit on the bike, add a fifth day or take a longer ride of anywhere from 90 minutes to two hours on one day on the weekend. You'll burn more calories and be in much better shape to boot.