You want to get your abs into shape and you don't have a lot of time, so the last thing you want to do is to attempt to strengthen your abs with ineffective exercises. Knowing the worst ab exercises saves you time and also money so you don't waste cash on machines that don't work. It also helps you avoid potentially dangerous exercises.
Ab Rocker
The American Council on Exercise sponsored a study conducted at the Biomechanics
Lab at San Diego State University. This study, published in "ACE FitnessMatters" reported which ab exercises were better than, as good as and worse than floor crunches. Crunches with the Ab Rocker machine scored the worst ranking of the study. You might be tempted because the Ab Rocker has a back pad to relieve potential neck strain during crunches, but the machine works the rectus abdominus and oblique ab muscles significantly less than crunches. As an alternative, try the Ab Roller. This is a similar machine but it is slightly more effective than a floor crunch and it offers neck and back support, too. Of course, if the machine supports your neck, then the neck muscles don't have the chance to get stronger.
Exercise Tubing Pull
Exercise tubing pull is another exercise studied by ACE and found lacking. ACE FitnessMatters ranks this as the second least effective ab exercise and certainly less effective than crunches. Exercise tubing is cheap and portable, making it an appealing choice for abdominal workouts, except when the exercise fails to challenge the muscles. Exercise tubing does have a place in ab training, however. ACE lists standing cable rotations and standing single-leg cable rotations in their exercise library for ab-targeting exercises.
Electronic Ab Stimulation
Electronic ab stimulation allegedly works as a passive ab exercise. You wear an electronic stimulation machine around your waist and it zaps your ab muscles so they they will contract, which hurts. Unfortunately, this doesn't actually result in abdominal strengthening. Save time, save money and do crunches instead.
Bent Over Twist
The bent over twist exercise has you holding a broomstick or bar across your shoulders as you bend over to a 90-degree angle with your back and twist side to side. The bent over twist is not completely useless as an exercise for the oblique muscles of the abs. However, bending over places stress on the lower back and creates the possibility of injury. The erector spinae muscles of the lower back have to work overtime to stabilize your torso in a bent-over position. As an alternative, try crunches with rotation or standing cable rotations.
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