The conventional floor crunch remains the gold standard of abdominal exercises. Although some exercises -- with or without specially designed equipment -- offer more benefit than standard crunches, this basic exercise is hard to beat in terms of ease and simplicity. However, if you decide to use specialized ab exercisers, be warned: Not all of them deliver the promised benefits.
Purpose
Most heavily advertised ab machines promise to alleviate the discomfort of doing crunches on the floor. But you can alleviate your own discomfort, at no charge, by simply practicing proper technique. Place both arms across your chest instead of tugging on your head and neck. Stare up at the ceiling, or at a spot above your knees, throughout the motion. Restrict your movement to spinal flexion -- think of bringing your ribs down to your hips -- instead of doing an old-fashioned sit-up from the hips.
Misconceptions
Beware of ab exercisers that promise to make the exercise easier for you. Quality matters more than quantity: You'll get more benefit from doing 12 difficult crunches with appropriate modifications -- such as holding a weight plate against your chest for extra resistance -- than doing 500 easy crunches with a spring-loaded exerciser that does most of the work for you. Just going through the motion isn't enough. If you want full benefits, you have to put in the effort.
Best Ab Exercisers
According to a 2001 study commissioned by the American Council on Exercise, the captain's chair, bicycle crunches and stability ball crunches are the most effective exercises for working your abs and obliques. Of these three "best" exercises, only the captain's chair and stability ball crunches use any equipment. Stability balls are large, inflated rubber balls. The captain's chair, also called a Roman chair, resembles a padded chair back and arms, no seat, mounted at torso height on metal supports. For all three exercises, your body weight provides the resistance. The captain's chair is one-size-fits-all, but for best results on a stability ball, you need the right-size equipment. Your knees should bend at a right angle when you sit on the ball with both feet flat on the floor.
Worst Ab Exercisers
The ACE-commissioned study also tested several ab exercisers you might recognize from infomercials: Ab Rocker, Torso Track and Ab Roller. Of these exercisers, only the Torso Track showed a statistically significant amount of increased activity in the rectus abdominus and obliques compared with a conventional floor crunch. The Ab Roller showed almost exactly the same amount of muscle activity as regular crunches, and the Ab Rocker measured in at a dismal 21 percent of rectus abdominus activity and 74 percent of oblique activity, compared with a floor crunch.
Considerations
Although many ab exerciser manufacturers promise that the right piece of equipment will alleviate discomfort from improper form, the wrong piece of equipment -- or simple poor technique with any ab exerciser -- can make your workout more painful or even cause an injury. Participants in the ACE-commissioned study reported lower-back discomfort while using the Torso Track. But you can experience discomfort with any kind of exercise equipment if you use too great a range of motion, jerk on your head or neck, use too much resistance, or neglect to make sure the equipment fits you properly.
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