Abdominal Workout Exercise: Which is Best and Which is Worst?

Posted on July 9th, 2008 by admin, under weight loss exercises.

A Look at Abdominal Workout Exercises

There are plenty of abdominal exercises that can be done, but do you know which are rated the best and which are the worst for getting the job done? Before you get started on a variety of ab exercises, it is important to ensure that you doing the right ones while avoiding the wrong ones.

According to a study conducted at the Biomechanics Lab at San Diego State University, the very best abdominal exercises are not as difficult to do as some people believe.

In order to figure out which exercises were the very best in strengthening the abs, they looked at 13 different types of abdominal exercises. These exercises ranged from the simplest to perform, such as the basic traditional ab crunch, to more complicated exercises. They also looked at exercises done at home as well as those done at the gym and compared them.

Thirteen Exercises Studied

Researchers studied 13 exercises for the abdominals. Each one of these exercises was ranked for the amount of muscle stimulation that took place in the rectus abdominis, the internal obliques and the external obliques. The muscle stimulation was measured by way of EMG.

Study Results

The top three abdominal exercises according to this study were as follows:

1. Bicycle Crunch Exercise
2. Captain’s Chair Exercise (performed on a vertical knee raise machine)
3. Crunch on an Exercise Ball (a large exercise ball is best)

The top abdominal exercise equipment was as follows:

Commercial Use in Gyms- Vertical Knee Raise Machine
Home Use- A Large Exercise Ball

Researchers studied a variety of kinds of equipment. Of all of the ones they studied, the worst choice was the Ab Rocker by Body by Jake. Earning slightly higher marks but on par with the basic crunch was the Ab Roller and the Torso Track.

Complete Results of the Study

What exercises were ranked the best to worst for strengthening the rectus abdominis? In order from one to 13 they were …

1. Bicycle Crunch Exercise
2. Captain’s Chair Exercise
3. Ab Crunch on an Exercise Ball
4. Vertical Leg Crunch
5. Torso Track
6. Long Arm Crunch
7. Reverse Crunch
8. Crunch with Heel Push
9. Ab Roller
10. Plank (Hover) Exercise
11. Traditional (Basic) Abdominal Crunch
12. Exercise Tubing Pull
13. Ab Rocker

What about the best to worst exercises for strengthening the obliques? Here are listed the 13 best to worst, according to the study …

1. Captain’s Chair Exercise
2. Bicycle Crunch Exercise
3. Reverse Crunch
4. Plank (Hover) Exercise
5. Vertical Leg Crunch
6. Ab Crunch on Exercise Ball
7. Torso Track
8. Crunch with Heel Push
9. Long Arm Crunch
10. Ab Roller
11. Traditional (Basic) Abdominal Crunch
12. Exercise Tubing Pull
13. Ab Rocker

This article was about best abdominal workout exercise for you.

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