Types Of Abdominal Machines

Working your core abdominal muscles can improve your balance and posture, relieve back pain while reducing your risk of lower back injury and improve your performance in other physical activities. With all the ab equipment options available, choosing the most effective exercises can be a daunting task. Whatever exercises you choose to perform, the American Council on Exercise, or ACE, recommends one to three sets of 10 to 25 repetitions, allowing a full day to recover between workouts.

Ab Crunch Machine

The ab crunch machine mimics a crunching motion while allowing you to add weight to the exercise. The movable handlebars and footpads attach to a weight stack via a pulley system. As you draw your elbows and knees together, your abs fight the resistance of the selected weight. Always select a weight light enough for you to handle easily. Attempting to crunch with too much weight on the machine may lead to injury.

Captain's Chair

An ACE-sponsored study led by Peter Francis, Ph.D, monitored the muscle activity of 30 healthy participants as they performed 13 different ab exercises. The study found the captain's chair to be most effective in working the obliques and second best for targeting the rectus abdominus. The captain's chair consists of a back pad with an arm rest and handle bar on either side. As you lift your knees toward your chest, your abdomen must work to stabilize your body. Wear ankle weights to add resistance to the exercise.

Ab Roller

The ab roller is a simple device made from two handlebars attached to a wheel. From a kneeling position, you hold each handlebar and roll your torso forward, engaging your abdominal muscles using your own body weight as resistance. Target your obliques by rolling out to either side of your body. When tested alongside 12 other exercises in the ACE-sponsored study, the ab roller came in ninth for rectus abdominus activity and tenth for obliques. Individuals with lower back problems should not use the ab roller.

Ab Rocker

Coming in last place for muscle activity generated in both the rectus abdominus and obliques is the ab rocker, reports ACE. The ab rocker allows you to perform a crunch on the floor with your head and shoulders resting on a pad and your hands gripping handlebars on either side of your head. Researchers with ACE found the ab rocker to be 80 percent less effective than a traditional crunch for working your abdominal muscles.