Info comercial Electronic Ab Devices

[chinesecowboy]

Has anyone purchased those electronic ab devices you see on TV? If so, which brand and does it work? Thanks.

[ChrisH]

Best not to waste your money in my opinion
If you want to build strength in your abs, performed weighted ab exercises. Make sure you can only do around 6-10 reps with that weight, and don't overtrain like so many people do for abs (only do it a maximum of two times per week). Remember that muscles only grow during rest!
If you want your abs to show better: Adjust your diet and cut. Theres no point building them by doing situps, because they wont show. Dieting and cardio work will reduce the amount of fat in the area and make your abs show more.

[ChrisH]

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/ExList/WaistWt.html#anchor172895

Rectus Abdominis = Abdominals

[Biker]

My sister-in-law decided to buy one a little while ago. She's a bit on the lazy side and figures any sort of gimick that allows her to continue to sit on the couch must be a good thing. Anyway, I guess it actually works on her. Which is utterly amazing, seeing as how she is on the large side (massive understatement, no pun intended). It's amazing that the electrical pulses penetrate that deep. I could go on and on but I sense that this will be more than adequate to sicken anybody.

[Fighter]

Ab Training

Fighter@jkd.com.hk

Do not listen to ChrisH. Although Diet is important it is not the most important (for more info look at need help losing weight by Tical)

Train your abs as often as you can every day eg: when watching TV lie on the floor, your head lifted and stomach crunched watch TV like that. Also do 20+ reps for sit ups and the like

Those Ab machines do work in burning fat though. Using those is the panzies way out though.

[mjmnam]

i have one. i use it. it works (but only on the highest setting do i feel like i'm getting something done). i have pretty decent abs, though i don't use it religiously as electrical stimulation can be sort of painful.

[Fighter]

Painful?

Is the pain a dangerous type of pain or just annoying? If so I would post a warning. Because as I understand alot of people are using this junk.

[mjmnam]

it's an annoying kind of pain. feels just like you're flexing your muscle really really hard.

[Fighter]

OK

Oh...thats OK then that just means you had a good work out with them. But if it gets any worse I would lower the intensity.

[Biker]

Actually ChrisH is correct, although I do not agree with the part about using weighted ab exercises but that is just a matter of personal opinion. If you wish to see your abs, lose fat plain and simple. Okay, plain but not simple. If it were not necessary to lose fat to see your abs, we'd all have nice looking six packs that everyone could see. But when fat covers the whole area, all you see is either a couple 2 liters or a gallon and in some cases a full keg. In the off season bodybuilders still work their abs but you can't see them through the 75lbs of fat they put on.

As far as how often to train, usually 2-3 times per week, sometimes more, depending on how well you recover. Daily training isn't necessary, it just leads to over-training and the muscles never fully recover which opens up an all new can of worms. Over-training leads to muscles that are ultimately weak and may give out when you least expect it. Let's say you're rearranging furniture in your living room, you slide the couch over and "POP!" there goes the abdominal wall. That's usually followed by something like "Hole guano, Batman! That freakin' hurts!" Then you have surgery to repair it, and that is quite painful to recover from, I know from personal experience. No training of any sort for at least three weeks, it even hurts to just sit or lay down. If you can fully recover from training the same bodypart every day you might want to consider quitting the juice before you have any health problems.

Number of reps/sets? That is entirely dependent on each indiviual. Some people three sets of 10 reps will do, others need ten sets of 100 reps. That's the problem with any sort of muscle building program, finding what works for you. But once you do find the key, you will see improvements like you'd never believe.

[mjmnam]

Re: OK

Originally posted by Fighter
Oh...thats OK then that just means you had a good work out with them. But if it gets any worse I would lower the intensity.

yea, it's decent to use, but i wouldn't replace normal excercises with one. you lose the strength almost as easy as you gained it. I saw in a movie about bruce lee that he used electric stimulation to train his muscles. it really depends on what you're trying to do with one.

[Fighter]

Correct

As I said previously Electronic Muscle Stimulation should never ever EVER!!! replace good old fashioned hard work.

Does every one agree?

[Brokenmace]

I heard a news report that a study was done (don't know what it was called) and most, maybe all, of these machines don't work as advertised. I don't know anything else about them, haven't tried them, and wouldn't spend the dough on them. I prefer situps. Then again, I'm not trying to be an underwear model either.

[Fighter]

Good to hear that you wouldn't waste your time. As for them not working Im not sure. It may only be the TV ones. My dad hurt his back and the doctor said he should use a medical one.

He hardly ever used it so every time he wasn't using it I would be. This was when I was about 10. It seemed to work my stomach was sore after a while.

But doing real exercise is better! I cant stress that enough.

[yenhoi]

1) these things use electonic pulse to stimulate (tense, work) the muscle.

2) that works!

3) your not actually doing anything, so all your doing is training that muscle or group of muscles

4) your not training the neurological pathways, or tendons etc...... your using an outside electronic pulse to turn the muscle 'on' instead of messages from the brain.

5) again, your not really doing anything, so your missing out on alot of other benefits you get from body weight exercises, freeweights, and even machines.

6) they are beneficial as imho you should expose your muscles (your entire body really) to as many diferent types of stimulus and training methods as possible - they are very specific devices.

7) you must stay away from general workout myths etc, such as spot reduction of fat - if you use these on your abs, your abs will be worked and possibly get stronger, but the fat wont disapear.

8) dont use drugs, and remember rest is the most important part of training your muscles and other parts of your body and attributes.