The purpose of this buying guide is to help you find which one of the best ab machines for home is for you
Here are links to the complete guide:
- How To Buy An Ab Machine Part 1:
An Introduction To Ab Machines - How To Buy An Ab Machine Part 2
Types Of Ab Machines (that’s this page!) - How To Buy An Ab Machine Part 3
Careful How You Research Ab Machines - How To Buy An Ab Machine Part 4
Ab Machines Recommendations
Abdominal exercises have come a long way from doing uncomfortable situps on the floor. It was very easy to hurt your neck and your back. Of course advancements are always being made in ergonomics, comfort, and making them effective and “fun”. Our buying guide will help you figure out which ab machine is best for you.
In Part 1 we gave a brief introduction to ab machines.
Here in Part 2 we will talk some specifics about ab exercises and ab machines.
Types Of Ab Exercises
When it comes down to it, there are four main types of ab exercises
Crunches (Upper Abs)
This is what most people thing of as a “sit-up”. Pretty much any upper-ab exercise will be a crunch or variation on the crunch. Body is oriented face-upwards and then the upper abs are “crunched” towards the knees.
Leg Lifts a.k.a. (Lower Abs)
While this primarily targets the lower abs, the upper abs usually get in the mix here – and some leg lifts can be modified to get a pretty intense upper ab workout at the same time. Body is usually oriented face-upwards (or can be done hanging from a pull up bar) and the legs are lifted upwards towards the chest.
Side-Bends (Sides a.k.a. External Obliques)
So while you have pictured “crunch” type motions now for upper abs and lower abs, the Side-Bend is a crunch type motion for the sides, or “External Obliques”. These can be done a number of ways. And most of the time these can also be included in lower and upper ab exercises with some sort of slight twisting motion, such as the bicycle situps.
Twists (Sides a.k.a. External Obliques primarily)
The one “ab exercise” that is not “crunch” based. Twists are meant more for providing core strength for athletes or to help prevent or recover from torso injuries. They are not as effective at reducing fat as the crunch-style exercises.
Orientation Of Ab Machines
Now that you know the basic exercises, ab machines are built in many different ways – sometimes to work the abs at different angles, sometimes designed to isolate the abs as much as possible, and sometimes just to make the workout different and interesting.
You’ll find most of the variations deal with
- level of incline/decline offered
- if the ab machine positions you in a “face-up” type position (on the back) or “face-down” type position (like a dog-tilt)
- if the body is elevated or not
The variations all have strengths and weaknesses.
In our personal experience we have found that for most upper-ab and lower-ab work we prefer the face-down position, like a dog-tilt. Most ab machines that work in this orientation will have the upper body stabilized while the loewr body will crunch up or crunch to the side
To give you an idea, the most basic exercise of this type is called an “Ab Roller” where you hold on to some sort of rolling device and extend out
We would call this a “face-down” ab machine that is styled after an upper-body crunch (since the upper body is doing most of the moving, though in reality you will feel it in both upper and lower abs)
The harder versions are where the legs move more than the upper body and the upper body provides more of the stabilization
Types Of Ab Machines Examples
Crunch Style (upper abs), Placed On the Floor
The most popular example of this is the Ab Rocket which continues to be one of the top sellers on Amazon as well as its sibling the Ab Rocket Twister which adds the torso twist exercises.
While very popular, we personally do not prefer these. However they are fairly cheap and pretty comfortable, not bad for someone starting out in ab exercises
Crunch Style (upper abs), Elevated
You’ll see different inclines with the elevated machines. A big upside is simply that we are not placed on the floor anymore. Whether this is a good ol’fashioned sit-up bench or a new-fangled ab board machine, these offer some easier times on the back and neck in case you do things improperly.
Usually these are the traditional sit up benches like the Powerline PAB139x or the APEX Roma Hyper-Extension Bench.
APEX Roma Hyper Extension Bench
Leg Lifts, Elevated
We haven’t seen a lot of leg-lift exercises where you are flat on your back as far as ab machines go. Most people (including us) would then just do regular leg lifts.
The most popular machine in this category is the Ab Lounge 2 as it also “hyper-extends” to give your back a nice little stretch too.
Elevated Leg Lifts
These machines are our favorite – intense and effective, easy on the neck and back AND while it is a leg lift, you definitely will feel it all over the place all up and down your abs when you use these ab machines *CORRECTLY*. A lot of favorites here including the Proform Ab Glider Ab Machines, the Ab Circle Pro Ab Machines, and the Ab Coaster Ab Machines
CAUTION AS YOU BUY THE AB MACHINE
And we re-iterate this from the previous Part 1 of this guide: the more complex the machine OR the more different it is from traditional crunches, the more likely you will read negative reviews from people who just could not get the proper form right and blaming the resulting downfall (not sturdy, kept falling off, not stable, knee pads wear out too soon, etc).
If you are a beginner and are not aware yet of how your body should move and feel, then these reviews make sense. For those advanced at workouts and ab exercises, you may want to consider the source of those reviews and see if it applies to your situation.
That Concludes This Portion Of Our Buying Guide
Now that you know more about the types of ab machines on the market, you can think about your own situation and then be ready for Part 3: How To Buy An Ab Machine!
Here are links to the complete guide:
- How To Buy An Ab Machine Part 1:
An Introduction To Ab Machines (that’s this page!) - How To Buy An Ab Machine Part 2
Types Of Ab Machines - How To Buy An Ab Machine Part 3
Careful How You Research Ab Machines - How To Buy An Ab Machine Part 4
Ab Machines Recommendations
Cheers!
Check out reviews of each of our recommended best ab machines for home and more
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