There have been countless infomercials for ab exercise machines. Do they work as promised?
If you’re considering buying one, you want to read this first…
Infomercials advertising abdominal machines are made to make you believe that a gadget can give you lean, hard abs.
The truth is that a machine can be helpful if your overall body fat is low. For men, body fat levels need to be around 10% for ab muscles to be visible. For women, the magic number is around 14 – 18%.
If you have fat covering your abs, you need to lose the fat with a sound exercise and nutrition program before you buy any equipment.
Ab Exercise Machines Pros and Cons
Some of the benefits of ab machines are…
1. They add variation. Using an ab machine can challenge your muscles a little differently than what they’re used to.
2. They can spice up your routine. Doing the same exercises over and over can get boring. Using some new equipment can help keep things interesting.
3. Abdominal exercise machines isolate your ab muscles. They’re usually made to target just your abs. If you have low body fat but you want more definition, isolation is great.
The downside about ab gadgets like belts and machines is that they can’t take the fat off your stomach. You can harden and strengthen your abs by using machines and equipment, but you can’t lose fat from your abs by using them.
Also, abusing ab machines can cause muscular imbalance, and that can be potentially dangerous! The muscles of your abs and lower back work together whenever you move or pick things up.
Ab machines focus on your abdominal muscles. If your abdominal muscle strength is way superior to your lower back muscles, this imbalance can eventually lead to injury.
Hopefully now you know whether or not you should buy one of those ab exercise machines!
Terrence Banks has a site about building muscle fast. You can read more about ab exercise machines and the fastest way to build muscle.
