Do Ab Exercisers Work?

by Renee Cloe,
Personal Trainer

Get washboard abs in just 10 minutes a day! Does that line sound familiar? With the avalanche of abdominal trainers on the market, it’s easy to get swept up in all of the hype. Here are a few things to keep in mind when considering an ab exerciser:

These are toning/strengthening devices. They DO NOT burn fat.

The only way to lose the fat that covers your abdominal area is through a healthy low-fat, reduced-calorie diet and regular aerobic exercise. Watch closely, the commercials for ab exercisers usually say this in fine print at some point during the advertisement.

There’s no such thing as spot reducing. Exercising a particular body part will not cause you to lose fat in that area. It will only tone the underlying muscle.

A big selling point of the "roller" type devices is that they prevent neck strain during crunches. However, if they’re done with proper form, crunches shouldn’t cause neck strain.

To perform a basic crunch, lie down with your knees bent and your back flat on the floor. Place your hands behind your head (without lacing your fingers) and keep your elbows back. Gently support your head while raising your chest and shoulders several inches from the ground. Exhale as you come up and inhale as you release. Keep the movement slow and controlled, making sure that you don’t pull on your neck. Your chin should remain at least a fist’s distance from your chest. Keep the abdominals pulled in by visualizing your naval pressing down toward the floor.

ACE, The American Council on Exercise, recently commissioned a study to see if ab training devices lived up to their advertising claims. The researchers were William Whiting, Ph.D., assistant professor of kinesiology at California State University, Northridge, and Stuart Rugg, Ph.D., associate professor of kinesiology at Occidental College in Los Angeles. They compared the Ab Roller Plus, ABSculptor, AB Trainer, and AbWorks against a traditional crunch using no equipment. The results indicate that the devices provide no apparent benefit (or detriment) when compared to a properly performed crunch.

The researchers stress that weight loss and muscle definition is achieved through a combination of aerobic exercise, resistance training, and good nutrition - not by abdominal training alone. Researcher, William Whiting, is quoted as saying, "Although there was no significant difference in the recruitment of the abdominal muscles when comparing the devices to normal crunches, if using any of these devices encourages and motivates an individual to begin and continue an exercise program, then they may be worth purchasing."

The bottom line is that while abdominal devices may help you with proper form or make the exercises more fun, they don’t do anything magical. Any exercise that you can do with an ab gizmo, you can also do without it. If you’re a beginning exerciser or you dislike ab work, one of these devices may make abdominal training more enjoyable. Just keep in mind that it's possible to achieve the same results without making those "3 easy payments of $29.95."

References:
The Abdominal Training FAQ
http://www.dstc.edu.au/TU/staff/timbomb/ab/ab-top.html

ACE Consumer Matters, Ab-Solute Certainty, March/April 1997 (Vol. 3, No. 2) pg. 1.

"Crunch Your Way to a Stronger, Tighter Midsection" ACE FitFacts
http://acefitness.org/fitfacts10.html