About Seated Abdominal Exercise Machines

Everyone wants to have lean and shaped abs. Having toned abdominal muscles not only makes us look good, but it is important for our overall health. Maintaining a healthy body weight helps to prevent and reduce disability from many chronic health conditions. In addition, weak abdominal muscles are often the main cause of back pain. When our abdominal muscles are deconditioned, our back muscles must take over during everyday tasks. This can lead to the back muscles becoming tight and overworked. Having strong core muscles improves your posture, balance and energy levels. There are many seated abdominal exercise machines on the market, but are they effective and really necessary?

Misconceptions

If you are thinking about buying an abdominal machine consider this point. Seated abdominal machines may help to tone and shape your muscles, but they do not help you achive a flat stomach. Having a flat stomach is the result of being at a healthy weight range. If you are overweight, you need to lose weight to get rid of belly fat. Abdominal machines are under the classification of strength training equipment and they do not burn calories. To lose weight; and excess fat you need regular aerobic exercise such as walking, dancing, swimming or other vigorous exercise to help burn off those calories. Once you are at a healthy weight, doing exercises for the abdominal muscles will help to shape them and keep them strong.

Significance

Our abdominal muscles are part of what is commonly referred to as the core muscles. Our core muscles are made up of our abdominals, obliques (waist muscles) and low back. Keeping our core muscles strong helps with maintaining good posture, preventing back injury and in helping to relieve chronic back pain when you are injured. Doing abdominal ecercises with a machine or just on the floor, is an important part of any fitness program. While you may be tempted to purchese an abdominal machine, it is good to note that they are not always the most effective way to target and isolate the abdominal muscles.

Identification

Seated abdominal exercise machines span a wide range of equipment. There are the types that you see in infomercials that have you sit in what looks like a lounge chair and rock back and forth. Others have you sit and lean forward or pull the machine down, such as in the picture seen at the top of the page. Many health clubs also have commercial versions of these machines where the resistance or weight can be set quite high. The set up of these machines often encourages users to push into the pads with their chest or use their arms and shoulders to initiate movement. On the return, it is very easy to use your chest or shoulders to resist the movement as well. This is why with most seated abdominal machines,in the end, you are not using your abdominal muscles very much at all.

Considerations

Before deciding that you need to purchase an abdominal machine, try hiring a personal trainer or sign up for an exercise class. If you are new to exercise or have been away from it for some time, you will find that simple exercises done on the floor or a bench will work your abs just fine. The picture here shows a simple but effective abdominal crunch. The picture above shows an advanced crunch on a bench. If you have neck or back sensitivity, a well trainer instructor can show you how to do these exercises without straining your neck and back. It is not usually the exercise that is causing the pain, it is the way the student is performing the movement.

Potential

If you have been exercising for a while and you find that non weighted exercises are no longer giving you benefits, then you may need to make your routine more challenging. You can do abdominal exercises on a ball, holding weighted medicine ball, and you can try doing them on a bench in an inclined or declined position. However if this is still not enough, you can try a seated abdominal machine. The one pictured here is sold by Nautilus. The key is to really make sure you are isolating the abdominal muscles. You may initially need to push into the machine with your shoulders to get started, but then keep the movement small. Do not come back up all the way and do not let the weights touch in between repetitions. You should not feel the exercise in your shoulders or back. Keep the movement concentrated enough that you can feel your abdominals working.

Resources

• ACE Fitness: New Study Puts the Crunch on Ineffective Ab Exercises