Abdominal exercise equipment - the best for stomach tone

There is a huge range of abdominal exercise equipment that claims to give you a flatter, leaner, more toned stomach in not time at all. Unfortunately most of these gimmicks are either ineffective or no better than standard crunches. Ab exercise equipment is billion dollar industry and so it comes as no surprise that most of these miracle-working devices are no more than money making schemes. While many of these may help to work the abs to some extent they are rarely effective enough to justify the amount of money spent on them.

One of the most misleading abdominal exercise equipment products is the electric ab belt. The apparently innovative device claims to enable people to get flat, toned and well defined abs using small electric shocks to make the muscles contract. The problem with this no sweat, no hard work approach is that it is quite simply impossible to reduce body fat with doing some sort of cardiovascular activity. The electric pulses are not adequate to work the muscles hard enough to burn the calories necessary to lose body fat. In fact, you would probably burn more calories just doing the housework.

There are some devices that do work, or at least help with toning the tummy muscles. The best ab exerciser is the fitness ball. This is cheap, inflatable ball that can be used for a huge variety of exercises. The key to its success is instability. This instability, or wobbliness, means the body constantly has to work to stay balanced. This not only gets the major muscle groups working harder to support the body but it also targets smaller muscles that would not ordinarily get used. This has proved to be a very effective way to tone muscles and burn more calories.

Crunches are still among the most effective ways to tone your tummy. The ab trainer is a curved metal frame that basically mimics the motion of a crunch. They are not necessarily more effective but they may help to make the exercise a little easier. The head rest supports the neck to reduce strain in both the neck and back. The curve of the frame also helps to ensure correct positioning while exercising. Some people find that using an ab trainer motivates them more than having to do crunches without one.

The greatest myth associated with ab exercise equipment is what is known as 'spot reducing'. This is the belief that it is possible to lose weight in one specific area of the body, for example, the abdomen. Weight loss simply doesn't work like that. The only way to lose weight on the abdomen is to reduce overall body fat; and the only to do that is with cardiovascular exercise. The toning exercises offered by many abdominal exercise devices are not sufficient on their own and so should be combined with aerobic and strength training exercises.

Incorporating abdominal exercises in an overall fitness routine is the best way to get a flat stomach and a body to match. It is important to balance your workout with aerobic exercise and resistance or strength training. There are a few aerobic exercise machines that provide a full body workout, including the abdomen. Elliptical cross-trainers are the best of these aerobic machines and they are closely followed by cross-country ski machines and rowing machines.

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