Abs Exercise Equipment to Avoid

Recently, the American Council on Exercise (ACE) commissioned a study to determine the effectiveness of various abs exercises and pieces of abs exercise equipment.  The study was conducted by Dr. Peter Francis at San Diego State University, and it included 30 healthy men and women, ages 20 to 45.  Each participant was asked to perform 13 exercises for abs, ranging from the Traditional Crunch to the Bicycle Maneuver.  Three exercises were particularly interesting because they involved three popular pieces of abs exercise equipment: the Torso Track, the Ab Roller, and the Ab Rocker.  To monitor the effectiveness of the exercises and the equipment, the researchers monitored each participant's muscle activity with electromyography (EMG) equipment.  The participants completed 10 to 12 reps of each exercise, and the EMG equipment recorded the activity in each participant's rectus abdominus and obliques.  Then, the researchers averaged the results for each exercise and normalized based on the baseline exercise: the Traditional Crunch.  Finally, the exercises were ranked based on the amount of muscle activity they generated in the participants.

Among the three pieces of abs exercise equipment that were evaluated in the ACE study, the Torso Track generated the most muscle activity for the study's participants.  Specifically, it generated an activity score of 127 for the Rectus Abdominus and 145 for the Obliques, making it slightly more effective than the Traditional Crunch.  However, although the Torso Track outperformed the Ab Roller and Ab Rocker, it was only ranked 7th (out of 13 exercises) overall.  Thus, you're probably better off doing free abs exercises without this piece of abs exercise equipment.

The Ab Roller, which has been a staple in infomercials, underperformed the Torso Track.  But it did manage to slightly outperform the Traditional Crunch, generating an activity score of 105 for the Rectus Abdominus and 101 for the Obliques.  Also, similar to the Torso Track, the Ab Roller was ranked very poorly compared to the other ab exercises (10th out of 13), and as a result, you have much better free options that are more efficient than this piece of abs exercise equipment.

Of the three pieces of abs exercise equipment that were evaluated in the ACE study, the Ab Rocker performed the worst -- and by a large margin.  It was only able to generate an activity score of 21 for the Rectus Abdominus, making it about 1/5th as effective as a Traditional Crunch.  Its activity score of 74 for the Obliques was also extremely underwhelming.  Not only was the Ab Rocker the least effective piece of abs exercise equipment, it was the worst exercise overall (ranked 13th out of 13).  As a result, you should avoid the Rocker and opt for just about any other of the exercises for abs.