Abdominal Exercise Machines – Do They Work As Promised?
We’ve all seen those 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 machines can help if your body fat levels are low. For ab muscles to show, men need to have a body fat percentage around 10%. 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 variety. An ab machine can challenge your muscles in a different way.
2. They can spice up your routine. Doing the same exercises over and over can get boring. Using a machine can help make things interesting.
3. Ab exercise machines isolate your abdominal muscles. They’re normally made to work just your abs. If you have a low body fat percentage and you want to define your abs, isolation is good for that.
The ‘drawback’ about abdominal gadgets such as belts and machines is that they can’t melt fat off your stomach. You can strengthen your abs by using machines, but you won’t drop fat from your abs by using them.
Also, abusing ab machines can cause muscular imbalance, and that’s potentially dangerous! The muscles of your abs and lower back work together whenever you move or pick things up.
Ab machines focus on your ab muscles. If your abs become much stronger than your lower back muscles, it creates a potentially dangerous imbalance.
Hopefully you now have an idea about whether or not you should buy an ab exercise machine!
Terrence Banks has a site about building muscle fast. You can read more about ab exercise machines and the fastest way to build muscle.