Abdominal Exercise Equipment
March 7, 2008
Looking for ribbed hard abs? Instead of sharing the latest information on the abdominal exercise equipments, I am going to let you in on a secret. There isn’t any new way of getting those cut abs.
Let me explain. By God’s design or by evolutionary process we received this wonderful muscle called rectus abdominis. It is designed to curl the spine and tilt your hips forward. To visualize this, curl your fingers into a fist. When you duplicate the same motion in your spine, you are flexing your abs. Well designed abdominal exercise equipment guide and help your abs to flex your spine and tilt your hips forward.
The best place understanding abdominal exercise equipment is with good old fashioned crunches. The rule of thumb is, if light can travel between your lower back and the flat surface you are using, it isn’t right. Have a partner try to push his/her hand between your lower back and the surface you are using. When you press your lower back against the flat surface that your partner has hard time pressing his/her hand through, you have got it down. This insures that you do not arch your back.
Next your roll up instead of sitting up. Remember you are trying to curl (flex) your spine and not keep it flat. Many lead with their chin, their head, their arm and some other parts we should probably not mention. Keep your fingertips lightly touching the side of your head and elbows pointing to the sides. This prevents your hands pulling your head forward and stressing your neck. Keep your head in a neutral position. You are trying to curl your spine not your head.
The simplest abdominal exercise equipment design was to help you do all of the above. An example is the original Ab Roller - A simple bent bar with a head rest. The curve to the bar forces you to curl the abs and keep your hands in the right place and the head rest keeps your head positioned correctly in relationship with your torso.
Other designs improved on this. For example Original Ab Trainer adds a pad for your elbows and a handles for to hold.
How about ab chairs like Ab Rocket Abdominal Trainer. They help you do crunches beginning from a sitting position. The contoured chair, the pads and the handles do the same thing as the Ab Trainer but from the sitting position. The drawback is that in a sitting position you remove the main resistance, the weight of your upper torso from the equation and less resistance generally means less impact.
Me? I am strictly a roman chair and ab board guy.
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