When you’re looking to get fit, one of the first places guys targets is the belly.

That’s smart. Sure, people can get hung up on their appearance when they carry weight in their gut — but the fat you carry in your belly is more insidious than other types, making your focus on the stomach well-founded. Belly fat, aka visceral fat, has been linked to conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer.

Once you shed those pounds and flatten your belly, you’ll be able to move better, too. Strengthening those core muscles will only help you with everything else you’re trying to do in the gym, and outside of it, too.

Start honing your stomach with the following 12 exercises to hammer the dozens of muscles between your shoulders and hips and rev your metabolism at the same time.

1. Hollow Body Hold

Lay down, pressing your lower back into the ground. Hinge at the hips to tuck your knees into your chest while also raising your shoulders off the ground, reaching forward with your arms.

Extend your legs straight out and hold in position, stretching your arms back behind your head and squeezing your core to maintain your posture. For beginners, keep your arms pointed forward to make the move less difficult. Hold for 30 seconds to start, then ramp up to a minute or more once you develop the core strength.

2. Bird Dog

Put your weight on your hands and toes, bending your knees to take a tabletop position, squeezing your core to keep your spine straight.

Raise your left arm to reach straight forward, while simultaneously raising your right leg and stretching it straight out. Hold for a count, squeezing your core, before returning to the original position. Repeat the movement with your right arm and left leg to count 1 rep.

3. Burpee

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Lower your body until your palms rest on the floor about shoulder-width apart.

Kick your legs backward into a pushup position, perform a pushup, and then quickly reverse the movement and perform a jump when you stand. That’s 1 rep.

4. Mountain climber

Assume a pushup position with your hands below your shoulders and your body forming a straight line from your head to your heels. This is the starting position.

Lifting your right foot off of the floor, drive your right knee towards your chest. Tap the floor with your right foot and then return to the starting position. Alternate legs with each repetition.

5. Archer row

Grab one dumbbell. Get into a pushup position with your hands under your shoulders and your body forming a straight line from your head to your heels. Separate your feet so they’re slightly wider than hip-width and turn them so they both point to your left.

With your right palm on the floor, hold the dumbbell in your left hand and perform a row. Be careful not to let your torso rotate with the weight of the dumbbell.

6. Half Turkish getup

Lie faceup with your right leg bent and your left leg flat on the floor. Holding a dumbbell or kettlebell, raise your right arm straight overhead. Roll onto your left side and prop yourself up onto your elbow or hand, keeping your right arm overhead and your eyes on the weight.

Pause, and then reverse the movement to return to the starting position. Perform all prescribed reps on one side before switching.

7. Dumbbell hot-potato squat

Grab a medium- to light-weight dumbbell and hold it in the racked position with your elbow bent and the end resting near your shoulder.

Squat down so your quads are parallel to the floor, and then quickly pop up to standing, tossing the dumbbell from one hand to the other in front of your face.

8. Valslide leg curl

Lie on your back with your knees bent and your heels on a pair of Valslides. Lift your hips so your body forms a straight line from your knees to your shoulders.

Keeping your core tight, extend your legs as far as you can without allowing your back to curve. Pause, and then using your glutes and hamstring, pull your heels back toward your body until you return to the starting position.