Ab Lounge Sport Personal fitness

So, like many women, for quite a while, I have been wanting to get some toned up abs and get rid of the extra little bit of wrinkles around the stomach area. I have tried sit-ups and that kind of thing, but it is very straining on my neck and back and I never feel like I am doing it to the full extent without someone holding my feet down. I wanted to try something more practical that I might be more apt to actually do daily. Something I could maybe watch tv or listen to the radio and be able to get in that workout without really thinking about it. But, with so many things out there to try, it's hard to know where to start: excercise balls, cardio machines, ab miracle stretch bands, loungers, weights?

I must admit I was very skeptical of all those excercise commercials offering the miracle 5 mins workouts with some cheap looking device that probably costs 50 payments of some ridiculous amount. You know the ones, you see them on at 2 in the morning or some weird time on a Sunday and you usually flip the channel. With new years coming around and resolutions abound, I saw this machine at a pretty good deal with a free bonus gift card and I thought, what the heck, I'd give it a shot. I actually wanted to try the Red Excerciser because it was smaller and folded up, but it was not in stock. So, I figured I'd try this and keep the receipt. just in case it was no more good than a big paper weight, if you know what I mean.

SET-UP: It comes with detailed instructions and a simple little allen wrench to put together. ALl that was fairly simple to figure out. It is sturdy enough, but it does have a weight limit of 250 lbs, so if you're too big you can't use it. Also, if you sit down too quickly and push back at all you're liable to tip and yourself over.

WORKOUT: I tried it out and it wasn't too hard, I doubted it doing much good, but if you do it right and do some of the excercises listed in the book, you do start to feel it in your abdominal area and it does work your muscles quite a bit. I continued to use it fairly regularly, but didn't see a vast difference, but I'm sure the repetition like anything made my muscles stronger. The screw plastic cap covers always popped off the thing, so I had to remove those.

CONS: The biggest problem with this machine however is that it so huge, when it is fully extended, you have to have a big room with not a lot of stuff around to use it! Then you can't fold it up and you don't want to keep having to disassemble and reassemble just to use the darn thing! I had it in one area temporarily, but had to move it to get it out of the way, and then I never really had room to use it. I was since going to use it in another room, but ended up not having room there either.. so I hope to find somewhere to put it to be able to use it again and see if continued use gets any better results than I've seen.

OVERALL: It certainly doesn't work miracles, but if you use it enough you will probably very slowly start to see or feel a little improvement. I think keeping your hands all the way up and not using the little strap is a much better way to get the full effect of the exercise. Also, leaning to the side and doing the leg stretch is good. You can find tips for the best exercises listed in the manual and on the dvd included. Although, it is a good alternative to the back & neck strain from crunches & situps, it's still quite cheaper just to stick to the original form of ab strengthing that requires no equipment.