Abdominal Exercise Machines:
Doing Crunches with a Swiss Ball Will Tighten Up Your Abs

Summary: Abdominal exercise machines, like the Swiss Ball, are great for targeting the abs without causing too much stress to the lower back. However, abdominal exercise alone will not remove unwanted fat from your mid section.  For that you must also be on a good fat reducing diet.

Question: When I was younger, I used to have fantastic abs. I watched what I ate, limited my fat intake, and did hundreds of crunches per day. Yes, it was very hard work, but the results were worth it. Then everything changed after I gave birth to my first child. I was suddenly very soft around the middle, had noticeable love handles, and couldn't get rid of the flab no matter how many different diets I tried. To make matters worse, I couldn't even do crunches anymore because I had severe chronic back pain. I wasn't ready to accept being out of shape, so I decided to check out some abdominal exercise machines.

Do you have any recommendations as to which abdominal exercise machine works best for someone in my situation?

Answer:  I work with a lot of people who, like you, are looking to get into better shape after preganancy or a long layoff from consistent exercise and proper dieting.

For people who have accumulated fat around their mid section it is easy to assume that doing targeted exercises with either convential sit ups or by using abdominal exercise machines will make the fat melt away from their guts.  This is not the case. 

This is known as "spot reduction".  It does not work.  The only way to shed fat is to get on a proper diet and exercise plan...and be on that plan consistently for at least 3 months before you will see significant results.

Abdominal exercise machines are great for building the "core muscles" around your midsection.  You should definitely do exercises to build muscle in that area of your body but don't think for a minute that those exercises alone will slim your waist.

What about Abdominal Exercise Machines?

I have tried a lot of abdominal exercise machines.  I see them advertised on TV and buy them just to see if they work.

Most abdominal exercise machines simulate the movement of a convential sit up or abdominal crunch exercise which anyone can do by lying on the floor and raising your upper body towards your feet.

Abdominal exercise machines a great for people, like you, who have physical limitations like chronic back pain.

My advice is that the best abdominal exercise machine is not really a "machine" at all.  It called an exercise ball (sometime referred to as a Swiss Ball).  You've probably seen these devices before.  It's simply a big inflatable ball.  Don't let the simplicity of this abdominal exercise machine fool you though.

It provides a killer workout for you abdominal muscle and is really easy on the lower back.  It also allows you to do many different types of ab and lower back and buttocks exercises.

The best part is that this abdominal exercise machine is relatively cheap to buy.

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