Should you do your abdominal exercises with or without the abdominal exercise machines that can be found at your local gym? Do you need them for something? The answer is not so simple. In general, you should do different exercises where you are not limited to any strict movements like you are with different abdominal exercise equipment. For beginners, these machines can help you start exercising as you can select your resistance with them.

The problem with machines lies more or less in movement. When the machine sets a strict path for your exercise movement and helps a little, you are only using the muscles the machine is targeting. At first, this might seem like more or less what you should be doing, but it’s actually not that great. Compared to free weights and other exercises without machines, you’re using a lot of your abdominal muscles to stabilize your core, the middle section of your body. This is why it is more difficult to do sit-ups and basic sit-ups just by doing them on the floor or on a sit-up bench compared to a sit-up exercise machine.

Since exercises on machines tend to be easier, it also means that you generally get the desired results. Many think of getting a flatter stomach, in this the free movement exercises are much better, they always work the abs everywhere, although they target a certain part of the abs. This should not be taken as a write-up against abdominal exercise machines, there are definitely some good ones out there, for some, and especially for beginners, they are much easier to do and use.

Ab machines have their place, but for true abdominal muscle strength, I highly recommend doing those free ab exercises.