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As a practicing exercise physiologist and fitness expert, I’ve taught my fair share of flat-ab workouts, tested every new DVD on the market, and created over 30 different core training routines for publication. Here are my favorite exercises and belly-taming tips to manage your middle and create a strong, firm, de-flabby midsection. Do these moves back-to-back for the ultimate belly-blasting workout, or try just a few different moves daily tighten your tummy.

Stability Ball Corkscrew
This large gym staple is one of the most effective tools on the market because your core has to fire and contract just to keep you seated on top of the ball without tottering off during basic ball crunches. To make it more intense, lie on your back, on the floor or mat, and place the ball between your calves. “Keep your arms at your sides and press the head, shoulders and upper back into the floor to keep the lower-back safe,” said fitness instructor Elizabeth Gillies, author of “101 Ways to Work out on the Ball.” Begin moving your legs and hips in a figure-8 pattern and squeezing the ball between your legs. Repeat for one minute, bending your knees if you feel twinges in the lower back!

Martial Arts side Kick
While you might think these kicking actions target your butt and legs more than your abs, it actually works all of them synergistically, and zeroes in on those flab-prone oblique muscles, your side-lying waistline muscles. Stand tall and bring both hands up to chest or chin as if to protect from the blows of an imaginary opponent. Lean body weight into right hip and lift left knee up to hip-height. Snap a fast kick out to the left, barely touch your toes to the floor to recover, and repeat kicking on this side for 10-15 reps. Switch sides to repeat and feel your middle working.

Yoga Boat Pose
Sit tall and balance on your tailbone with both knees bent and toes barely touching the floor. Reach straight arms out past your toes, straighten your back, and begin breathing very deeply in and out only through the nose as you balance on your tailbone. Contract your belly muscles and try to extend first right leg, and then left leg up and out until your body forms a V-position; hold for 30 to 60 seconds.

Coffee Table Crunch
Lie on the floor but lift both legs into 90 degrees and rest the back of your calves on top of a coffee table. Variety is more important than total number of crunches here, said fitness instructor LaReine Chabut, author of “Lose That Baby fat!: Bouncing back the First Year after having a Baby — a Mom Friendly Fitness Program.” “Keep your heels on the table, place your hands underneath your head for support and lift your shoulders off the floor toward the ceiling, up and down, 20 times,” she said. after that, crunch right elbow to left knee, drop down, and repeat left elbow to right knee, alternating another 10 to 20 times.

Sports Drill
Grab a basketball or small weighted ball to work your belly muscles like professional athletes do. Stand with feet together and heels and toes touching. Hold the ball in both hands overhead, reaching out and back contracting your belly. Stretch up as tall as you can, pressing hips forward and reach farther in back of you with the ball. Tighten your belly and come back to start, repeating for three sets of 20 repetitions.

Prone Pillar Bridge
The best at-home exercise is what AOL’s own personal trainer Joe Dowdell calls a modification of an Elbow Plank. “The intermediate-advanced exercise targets the abs very efficiently as long as you keep elbows under your shoulders during the exercise and use correct form,” said Dowdell, author of “Ultimate you: a 4-Phase Total Body Makeover.” Lie belly-down and support your weight in your forearms as you slowly lift up into an elbow plank. “Slightly arch torso over the mat to really zero in on this area,” said Dowdell. Hold up for 30 seconds, then slowly sink your ribs and belly back onto the mat, and repeat as needed.

Pool Punching
While boxers need abs of steel to jab and punch out their opponents, taking shadow boxing underwater places even greater demands on the body and hones the belly in record time, said Scott Cole, co-author of “Athletic Abs.” come into chest-deep water and begin alternating quick punches as if you’re shadowboxing an opponent. Feel your waistline muscles working as you fight against the resistance of water. “Certain exercises commonly performed on land can be even more efficient in the pool,” said Cole, “and it’s a great way to add diversity to any ab-training routine.”

Rolling like a Ball
Sit on a mat with knees bent and feet close to your groin, curl torso over the knees and lift your feet off the mat so you balance on your tailbone. “Initiate any rolling movement from your navel as you begin to fall back, bringing your knees with you,” said Brooke Siler, veteran Pilates instructor and author of “The Pilates Body.” “Imagine you’re in a rocking chair that’s about to tip over and quickly bring yourself back to using your belly,” said Siler. “Try it six times and be sure your heels stay glued to your bottom throughout the rolling movement. Don’t allow feet to touch the mat and avoid rolling back onto your neck.”

Fitness expert Nicole Dorsey Straff is a Los Angeles-based exercise physiologist and author, and frequently writes about diet, health and wellness.