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Abdominal Exercise Equipment

There are many different types of abdominal exercise equipment available today.  They range from simple exercise mats to complete home gym exercise equipment.  But don’t worry as you do not need to spend this kind of money to do effective abdominal exercises.

In fact, in one study, the number 1 rated and best abdominal exercise is simply done with an exercise mat.  The bicycle maneuver, also known as the bicycle crunch, was shown to be the most effective abs exercise and does not require any fancy exercise equipment.

However, some abdominal exercises do require ab exercise equipment.  For instance, the captain’s chair, which was rated the second most effective abs exercise, does require abdominal exercise equipment.  For this exercise, you need a vertical knee raise machine.  Most gyms will have this piece of abdominal exercise equipment and more.

abdominal exercise bicycle crunch The third most effective abs exercise is an exercise ball crunch.  Again, the only exercise equipment needed for this is a simple exercise ball.  There are many different exercises that can be done with an exercise ball, including a variety of abs exercises as well as core exercises, upper and lower body exercises.  This small investment is well worth the money for the variety of exercises that can be done with an exercise ball.



Types of Abdominal Exercise Equipment

Ab Machines

Ab machines are a bit pricier than some of these other abdominal exercise equipment, but they offer more of a complete abdominal workout.  These machines give you Serious Ab results! These machines are for anyone who is seriously interested in hitting their abs.  You can find a good ab machine for around $300 U.S with some machines being priced a bit lower and others some what higher in price.  

Ab Straps, Hanging Ab Straps and Hanging Ab Slings

These types of abdominal exercise equipment use gravity and your own body weight to provide maximum resistance to train and strengthen your abdominal muscles.  These straps fit over most bars and exercise gyms and equipment. Using an abdominal strap you can perform many different abdominal exercises targeting all your ab muscles.  Prices range from $40 to $100 USD.

Abdominal Benches/Boards

There are a variety of ab benches and boards to select from.  They range from sit up boards for about $100 to recumbent dual ab bench for about $400 USD. These types of abdominal exercise equipment allow you to adjust the resistance by either increasing or decreasing the incline of the bench and/or adding or removing weight from the bench.

Ab Wheel

The ab wheel helps to train and strengthen your abdominal muscles plus many upper body muscles like triceps, shoulders, chest and more.  These are fairly inexpensive, about $30 USD, and are small and easy to store.

Ab Support Pillows and Mats

There are a variety of abdominal exercise mats available today.  These inflatable mats allow you to support your back and provide an incline to provided added challenge and resistance.  You can find an inflatable ab mat for about $50 USD.  Abdominal pillows also offer support for your back and help you perform the abdominal exercise correctly by ensuring you are in the right position.

Other Equipment

I could go on and on with a list of various ab exercise equipment as there is a lot to choose from.  As stated earlier in this article you can be very effective in your ab exercises with a simple exercise mat and an exercise ball.  


Least Effective Abs Exercise Equipment



Before spending any money on any exercise equipment, you want to make sure that it will be well worth the dollars spent.  So, when watching that next infomercial about the latest and greatest abdominal machine, you may want to know what a recent study showed about some of these different ab machines.

The worst abdominal exercise equipment as far as effectiveness goes was the Ab Rocker.  The study reported that the Ab Roller was approximately 80% less effective than a traditional crunch performed with just an exercise mat.  The crunch itself did not rate very well, making the bottom 3 of the list.

The Ab Roller faired only slightly better than a traditional crunch, coming in at number 9 of the 13 abdominal exercises studied.  The Torso Track did come in at number five, however, subjects reported lower back discomfort while using this piece of abdominal exercise equipment.

Bottom line is, you don’t have to spend lots of money on fancy equipment to strengthen and tone your abdominal muscles.  If you are just starting out, start with a simple exercise mat and perhaps an exercise ball.  You will be able to do a variety of exercises for your entire body with just these two pieces of exercise equipment.  I would also recommend investing in resistance bands.  These too can help you tighten and tone all areas of your body.




Be sure to read this article on the best ab exercises and what abdominal exercise equipment was used.


Back to Abdominal Exercises



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