It seems that every time you turn on the television, there's a commercial for a strange new piece of abdominal exercise equipment. They promise you six-pack abs--but for a hefty price. What these manufacturers don't want you to know is that building core strength at home can be done very effectively with minimal equipment. This is great news because numerous studies have shown that increasing core strength is essential for preventing injuries.
Exercise Mat
The American Council on Exercise commissioned a study on the effectiveness of some of the most popular abdominal exercises, including those utilizing equipment such as the Ab Roller, Ab Rocker and the Torso Track. Despite not requiring any equipment, the bicycle crunch activated twice as much abdominal muscle as almost every other exercise on the list. To make this ab exercise more comfortable, buy an inexpensive yoga, pilates or exercise mat. You'll find yourself using it for most of your stretching and abdominal exercises.
Fitness Ball
The fitness ball is an incredibly versatile and affordable piece of exercise equipment. With hundreds of possible exercises, you'll have enough options to always keep your abdominal routine fresh. One of the best things about the fitness ball is that it can turn almost any exercise that requires the use of a bench or chair into a core-strength building exercise by providing you with a comfortable--but slightly unstable--base. Use it as your support while you do bench press, shoulder press, and rows to work multiple muscle groups at the same time.
Medicine Ball
You see them in photographs of old-fashioned gyms, but there's been a huge resurgence in the popularity of medicine balls in the past decade. They're easy to hold to add extra resistance to many abdominal exercises, such as fitness ball crunches, but they can do so much more. Hurling one at a solid floor hard enough for it to bounce back to your hands is intense, and you'll quickly feel the burn. Tossing one back and forth with a partner doing sit-ups across from you adds difficulty and fun to a traditional ab exercise.
Ab Wheel
Once you've developed some serious core strength and are ready to increase the difficulty of your ab routine, you might want to try out an ab wheel. The ab wheel is simply a wheel with a handle coming out of each side. Depending on how far you roll out, and whether you kneel or stand, the exercise becomes more easy or difficult.
References
- "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research"; The Effects of Preseason Trunk Muscle Training on Low-Back Pain Occurrence in Women Collegiate Gymnasts"; C.J. Durall; January 2009
- "Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology"; Core Strength: A New Model for Injury Prediction and Prevention; W.F. Peate; April 2007
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