What do you think about the Ab Lounge? (trying to get toner abs)

[Morketh]

Well it seems kind of expensive, but I am getting tired of doing my situps and stuff on the floor and straining my neck. I was going to get it on ebay, but the shipping is like $60.00, so I would do better buying it new at Sears or something. Anyways I was wondering if any of you have this and what you think about it (either the Ab loung xl or the original)? Lemme know please, and any advice for getting toned abs would help to.. I have a small frame (5"11, 150lbs) and you can see my abs but I want them toned up and ripped like bruce lee

Heres the price difference on them.. 99 bucks to 254.. kind of a huge difference lol..
http://www.fitnessquest.com/ablounge...omparison.html


This is the workout I have just started doing. I think I am going to up the amount I do each set for all of them to 35-50 because when I did it today, it didn't hurt that much.

http://www.shapefit.com/ab-workouts-advanced-5.html

[cre3d]

Toned abs come from losing body fat to uncover the abdominal muscles. Building your abs up using weighted resistance exercises like cable crunches, weighted decline crunches, swiss ball crunches w/ medicine balls/dumbells will give you ab thickness so they look more pronounced once you lose the fat thats covering them. Don't waste your money on machines, you just need to add resistance to your ab workouts. There is a generally accepted myth that abdominal muscles should be trained differently from other muscle groups, hence the lack of results in doing hundreds of crunches and using "fad" machines. Just like your other muscles grow from lifting progressively higher weight, your abs will too. Check out www.abcbodybuilding.com for some very informative articles and great nutrition tips. Abs are made in the kitchen, so get on a good diet and throw some weight into your workouts

[Nicksterr]

I use the Gazelle Freestyle Evolution. It's the big unit, cost me $400 when I bought it, but probaly cheaper now.

I use it every other day, in which I do:
20 minutes of cardio @ #1 resistance setting
90secs of 5 different strength resistance exercises @ #3 resistance setting

There are four resistance settings total, and #4 is a biatch.
Let me tell you, this thing works your WHOLE body.

That Ab lounge looks workable. Try it, what have you got to lose?

[cre3d]

Originally Posted by Nicksterr

That Ab lounge looks workable. Try it, what have you got to lose?

A bunch of time & money

[Morketh]

Originally Posted by cre3d

Toned abs come from losing body fat to uncover the abdominal muscles. Building your abs up using weighted resistance exercises like cable crunches, weighted decline crunches, swiss ball crunches w/ medicine balls/dumbells will give you ab thickness so they look more pronounced once you lose the fat thats covering them. Don't waste your money on machines, you just need to add resistance to your ab workouts. There is a generally accepted myth that abdominal muscles should be trained differently from other muscle groups, hence the lack of results in doing hundreds of crunches and using "fad" machines. Just like your other muscles grow from lifting progressively higher weight, your abs will too. Check out www.abcbodybuilding.com for some very informative articles and great nutrition tips. Abs are made in the kitchen, so get on a good diet and throw some weight into your workouts

I dont have any fat man, I'm just a lil' guy. I've NEVER worked out and you have always been able to see my abs, but I want them to be RIPPED man where you can see them through my shirt lol (know what im saying?)
err thats what I didn't want to hear.. "diet" lol.. I like to eat whatever I want, I usually eat a turkey sandwich with doritos, and only drink water and hawaiin punch, no cokes.

I was doing some raised arm crunches today 3 sets of 25 and they really strained my neck and shoulders, didnt hurt my abs too much.. i REALLY want to try that ab lounge out but I want to get more advice and research

should i post a pic of my lil 6pack? rofl so u can see my frame.. im just a small guy lol nuttin but skin and bones so i dont no how i can build muscle without fat

[Omeguz]

I agree with Cre3d. Not to mention it looks like the guy really knows what he's talking about :-P

Seriously, I work out quite a bit and I've also wanted to train my abs. I came to the same conclusion that Cre3d pointed out: You HAVE abs already, you just need to burn all the excess fat around them! They are there, you just need to "set them free".

Personally, my workout is: 40 minutes of hard cardio-vascular, 20 minutes intense boxing, 10-20 minutes weight lifting (bench press, butterfly, etc.)

I wouldn't waste time and money on a thing like that. If situps really DO hurt you that much, there are REALLY cheap frames you can buy. They are like cradles, you lie down in them and there's a bar surrounding you. You rock back and forth in that cradle. It supports your neck and prevents you from over doing it.

EDIT after Morketh's post:

Originally Posted by Morketh

I dont have any fat man, I'm just a lil' guy. I've NEVER worked out and you have always been able to see my abs, but I want them to be RIPPED man where you can see them through my shirt lol (know what im saying?)
err thats what I didn't want to hear.. "diet" lol.. I like to eat whatever I want, I usually eat a turkey sandwich with doritos, and only drink water and hawaiin punch, no cokes.

I was doing some raised arm crunches today 3 sets of 25 and they really strained my neck and shoulders, didnt hurt my abs too much.. i REALLY want to try that ab lounge out but I want to get more advice and research

should i post a pic of my lil 6pack? rofl so u can see my frame.. im just a small guy lol nuttin but skin and bones so i dont no how i can build muscle without fat

Sounds to me like you DO need to take a better look at your diet. My brother is almost exactly like you. I'd look into a high carb, high protein diet.

[Nicksterr]

Yeah I understand dude. I drink and eat whatever I want...and usualy 3+ Diet Cokes a day.

The Gazelle keeps me in tip-top shape though.

Try the Ablounge dude.

[Morketh]

lol I've always been skeptic of those workout machines.. but since the ab lounge has came out I've always wanted to try it.. that's all I want is abs, don't care about any other muscles..

[anticitizen013]

Try Tae Bo. Some people dont like it for some reason but Ive gotten some pretty nice results. You of course need to expand on it after a bit but its a good starter for sure. The website is very helpful as well.

[orenda635]

Is the airforce letting you go soft Mork?

Best thing to do is join a gym. They have trainers there that can customize an excercise routine for you to help you get the results you want. My mom went the gym route while my dad does the home thing, my mom if better off in terms of fitness.

Those machines you see on TV infomercials are often ineffective or outright dangerous if not used correctly.

[Dojomann]

Gah, the OP reminds me of me. I'm the same sorta way, you can see my "abs" but I'm really just very skinny. Well, sorta. And, in the spirit of good fun and having ppl see more into my life.. a pic appears:



This is a pic before I started exercising. Now I'm on a little setup where I do pushups, (4 sets of 25) Crunches (As many as I can do until it hurts hard) and working with dumbbells on my arms every which way. I don't worry about my legs much because every weekday I take a 40 minute hike (backpack and all) to my school. Then the same thing back. Thoughts? I weigh ~130 lbs.

[Sota]

I'd buy it....

[{LOD}PITBULL]

Ok ..heres my 2 cents....I compeat in Pro body building and have for the last 18 years.There is no easy way to do it..Lay off the Soda,Milk and Salt.start running and just do crunches and 2 other things for Abs..They will come out..Abs are one of the muscle groups thatare more Diet than anything else..period...Pit

[Morketh]

Originally Posted by orenda635

Is the airforce letting you go soft Mork?

Best thing to do is join a gym. They have trainers there that can customize an excercise routine for you to help you get the results you want. My mom went the gym route while my dad does the home thing, my mom if better off in terms of fitness.

Those machines you see on TV infomercials are often ineffective or outright dangerous if not used correctly.

lol I work nights so I get to skip out on the PT hehe.. not like it'd give me abs but still..
Anyways, my abs look about like yours Dojo, so we in the same boat hehe I just a way about 20-30 more lbs..

I don't want to go to a gym unfortunately, that would require me to leave the house I want to do it all from home, stubborn... yes!

I've heard lots of bad stories about those tv info machines but the Ab Lounge cries out to the mork man


Pitbull, running is something I can handle hehe.. I like to run. Just have to get myself to drive to the track
I already stopped drinking soda about 4 months ago.. salt, I dont really know how to lay off of it. I was eating like nothing but chicken for a while but then that got old, so I moved to turkey sandwiches (starting to get old as well)

Main thing for me is I have to stick to my lil routine I got off the net.. I have bruce lee pics up around my room for motivation hehe..

Im not sure if I will get that Ab Lounge or not.. it's a lot of money just to take the strain off my neck and shoulders

[Sota]

Originally Posted by {LOD}PITBULL

Abs are one of the muscle groups thatare more Diet than anything else..period...Pit

Yep very true. Without diet, all the crunches and sit ups in the world won't mean squat.

You gotta do them though...

[CleavesF]

Fack the ab lounge.

http://www.fastexercise.com/



ONLY $14,615 dollars US, and unlike ab lounge, it's made in the USA

I can give you my input as a certified personal trainer:

Its junk, every single piece of equipment is junk, some may help isolate certian motions and muscles thus help with building muscle but its nothing you cant do for free with crunches.

You said you were doing situps? thats probably why right there. Situp's almost never hit the right spot you probably feel more strain where your legs connect to your hip rather than you abdominal area. Infact its unhealthy to strain that area, military is making a move to cut down on leg lifts and things due to that because its prone to injury.

Slow controled crunches where you breath out on the way up, contract, hold it for like 6 seconds, then go down very slow, about 4 seconds, will build you up all you need.

As mentioned above some tho its not just the mass of the muscles thats important the main thing hiding most peoples abs is fat, so you need to build up enough tone mass to show, and the mass also helps burn more fat then you need to hit up cardio. Cardio + a good diet to burn off the fat in that area.

Id get into detail on how to really do the diet + crunches right but thats what im supposed to get paid 60$ an hour for j/k look it up on the net do some research proper form is very important.

[nm+]

man up
ride an exercise bike and do some crunches
Wouldn't hurt to lift a bit to.
Those machines on TV are gimicks tha break and/or don't work.
Ask those people who had bowflex bars snap on em (there's currently a recall)

[cre3d]

Reading everything so far theres really 2 ways you can go to get those abs the way you want them; obliterate your abs with every kind of training you can find for a ridiculously long period of time (think years) while neglecting a proper muscle building diet and just eating whatever OR do some research and create a high protein/high carb diet that is high enough above your calorie maintenance level that your muscles will actually grow as a result of your workouts. At the same time, you need to apply yourself in the gym. As I said before, though abs are always "there", you can really get that thick cut look by building them up using resistance training like you do for any other muscle group. Train them every other day or so, taking a 2 day break once a week and don't slack. The results you see from a proper diet are directly related to the intensity you apply in your training.

As a final note, especially to those who feel they don't "need" to train a certain body part; your body likes symmetry. This is a biologically proven fact, so keep that in mind when you're blasting your upper body and never doing anything for legs. Take it from someone with personal experience in this misguided mindset -- for years I saw slow and painful progress that often ended in long periods of absence in the gym due to not working the entire body. The moment I truely applied myself and started a full body routine that focused on building the body as a whole, my progress skyrocketed! Arms grew, chest puffed out and my back has never seen such gains.

I'm not saying you should be training to become a giant either (unless that is your goal of course), but getting into a full body workout type of routine while putting extra emphasis on areas you really want to improve is your best bet for success!

Stop taking the easy way out, you want results, you'll need to work for them. Accept this and you will achieve your goals much more quickly

[Morketh]

Originally Posted by 古強者死神

I can give you my input as a certified personal trainer:

Its junk, every single piece of equipment is junk, some may help isolate certian motions and muscles thus help with building muscle but its nothing you cant do for free with crunches.

You said you were doing situps? thats probably why right there. Situp's almost never hit the right spot you probably feel more strain where your legs connect to your hip rather than you abdominal area. Infact its unhealthy to strain that area, military is making a move to cut down on leg lifts and things due to that because its prone to injury.

Slow controled crunches where you breath out on the way up, contract, hold it for like 6 seconds, then go down very slow, about 4 seconds, will build you up all you need.

As mentioned above some tho its not just the mass of the muscles thats important the main thing hiding most peoples abs is fat, so you need to build up enough tone mass to show, and the mass also helps burn more fat then you need to hit up cardio. Cardio + a good diet to burn off the fat in that area.

Id get into detail on how to really do the diet + crunches right but thats what im supposed to get paid 60$ an hour for j/k look it up on the net do some research proper form is very important.

not really doing too many situps.. moreso different types of crunches.. but I was doing them kind of fast. I will try to slow it up and do the 6 second thing.. as for a diet.. Ill just stick to chicken, fish, turkey sandwich, doritos, water, and hawaiin punch
only reason i want that ab lounge is to take the strain off me neck and shoulders.. gives me a slight headache sometimes

Well the important thing with any weight lifting that most people neglect is the negative lift, or the lowering of the weight.

Most people just "drop" the weight when thats half the work out, so definitly go down slow you will definitly feel the diffrence.

sombody that can pump out 50 pushups just pushing up then droping is in worse shape than sombody that can do 25 nice slow pushups and will probably look alot less tone and rounded.

again as said above the body likes symemtry. I take it bit further, the body NEEDS symetry its designed to be a well balanced machine. For every muscle that pushes you have one to pull, so you need to keep them in balance or bad things happen.

So you need to make sore you keep oposite muscle groups in check to maintain good balance and health.

like your bi's and tri's if you build one up too high and neglect the other you have problems, and uventully the weaker one will hold the other back from futher develipment, and if you take it way out of hand you give yourself a high risk of injury.

so in the case of ab's the main focus to counter blance is your lower back. doing a "reverse" crunch is one way to work that out at home lay on you stomach and try to pick your upper boddy off the ground while pulling your lower and upper body together just like a crunch but backwards.

As for the mention of a fullbody workout being important, thats true but legs have a even more important roll than just being part of a full body workout, they house more muscle mass then the rest of your body, working them out nice and hard makes your body release endorphins and other various triggers that "shock" your body into fitness/growth mode and also its the foundation of your body just like you need a good foundation for a house, weak foundations will make the best house fall.

Even when laying down on a bench doing a press. Totally having your legs out of the picture as for what muscle your using, it STILL makes a diffrence, it builds up core strenth and balance wich will actully make your upperbody stronger and more sturdy in addition to the hormons and stuff I just talked about.

If anybody lived in Tampa id gladly be your personal trainer if you pay for my gym membership


edit add in:

only reason i want that ab lounge is to take the strain off me neck and shoulders.. gives me a slight headache sometimes

I dont know why your shoulders would hurt but its normal for your neck to hurt some till it builds up strength too. a good thing to do is actully grab onto your face like near your jaw and cheeks then rest (mount) your arms on your chest to lock your head in a straight position, you can semi-support your head this way to take some stress off, its also a good way to get started with proper crunches, as almost anybody without proper instruction and training will start to pick there head up when they are sitting up and you dont want to do that, its cheating the exercise just like when you kick your legs up on a pull-up. Keeping your neck totally straight is important, so holding your face like that is a way for you to prevent yourself from picking your head up as you will feel yourself moving your arms if you do. After you have good form you can put your hands under your head and not have the neck pain, but there is muscle in your neck and the strain is just a sign that you will get stronger if you keep at it.

Alot of guys do extensive neck exercises because it really can put a polished "finish" look on you when you are trying to look like a body builder, I never got too big into it myself but when I did work it out some I saw the benifits of less stress on my neck, no more neck aches when doing strenious things like working on my car or crunches, and I did look bigger.

[cre3d]

Good stuff, I agree on all points!

[Morketh]

Wow, thanks a lot you guys helping a lot.. I guess I am going to start looking up a diet I should get on that won't be too hard for me.
Ill try hitting up those reverse crunches as well... Whew, I know those slow crunches are gonna tear me up lol.. going to do them when I get off work, can't wait

Alright Im off to look for a diet

Yeah if you do it right you could be hurting and dead after just 10 of them, when you do them as slow and controlled as I used to.

If you hit up a gym or have space at home one of those phisioballs (big ass rubber balls) are great for crunches and pushups and various other things. About the only way to build up a hidden muscle, your spine. Forcing yourself to balance while doing those exercises on those builds up your "core" strength wich is pretty much your spine.

If you have a female companion at home, or friends with benifits they can also serve a second purpose, but thats more in the lines of cardio exersises that I wont go into. Be creative.

Actually I will go into just abit, since we are all adults here (well most of us) Sex is the best exercise, and I will honestly admit thats probably one of the things that kept me super tone and trim in my hip's ab's legs ect when I was with my first fiance. It also has effects on testosteron and other hormones that aid in staying fit.

[Icebird]

You could always try Pilates combined with a low GI-diet. You're barely breaking a sweat while getting nice abs, and long, toned muscles.. While eating food that is really good for you. A stable blood-sugar level will really do you good and you'll soon realize that you crave less and less. And yes, I do know that Pilates sounds like something women do.. But it was invented by a man, and is used by men and women all over the world cause it's very easy on the back/ neck/ knees/ etc.. Instead of pushing your body to the limit, you are learning to control each and every movement, control muscles you didn't even know you had, and it has high meditation possibilites as well. IOW, the combination Pilates and low GI is good for mind, body and above all, inner system.