Do those electronic Ab stimulators on TV actually work?
I’m thinking: Hmm…if it does what it claims it does, ie, send electronic signals into your muscles to cause them to contract, why shoudn’t it work?
The only difference between it and a sit up would be that your nerves are sending the “please contract” signal: the device is.
Answers, comments?
-Allen M. Presctt
From what I hear, they simply massage the muscles, and do very little to strengthen them. They are also useful for people who can not move them voluntarily, as they will keep the muscles from completely atrophying. However, they won’t give you abs of steel. For one, the contractions are not controlled, and they are not as strong as those that will lift your whole body up. If they were, the belt would cause you to constantly bend over. What they do is probably equivalent to flexing your abs while sitting at your desk.
Jman
Disclaimer: I’ve never tried the things and haven’t seen any data
But, while I figure they would build muscle (just how much would be a function of the strength of contraction), the muscle built might not look so hot. That’s because connective tissue growth (in bone, muscle, skin) is along lines of tension. This phenomenon helps your tissues acheive maximal strength. Normal exercise coaxes the abs to develop along these stress lines and produces the characteristic shape. However, electrostimulation promotes development along artificial (potentially-depending on electrode placement) lines of stress. The result might be odd abs.
Another Ab stimulator quandry is that using the stimulator should be as fatiguing as exercise. In essence, the stim replaces your nervous system, but it’s the muscular contraction (which you are doing) that consumes energy and produces a sensation of fatigue. If that’s the case, and I hated exercise, why would I use the stim? Jman is probably onto something with his comment that the contractions aren’t so strong. However, after 10-15 mins of contraction, you should be feeling some fatigue. If this were no less unpleasant than actual exercise, what’s the advantage?
Sorry, I did have a ton of cites, but just got a new PC at work and didn’t save alot of my favorite links.
I researched this pretty thoroughly.
They don’t work is the gist of it. Unfortunately, the ab stims and some other products slip through any regulation because of their classification, so the commercials and claims can be deceiving.
Professional muscle stims put out a lot more power and they can’t be used to build the muscle in as much as they can just provide some sort of massage therapy for it, and the info-mercial stuff isn’t close to the performance of the professional stims.
Abs make an appearance in the absence of total body fat (low body fat %), and really start to shine (6 pack) when worked brutally (the total reps to develop rock abs is phenomenol…much like someone with weak calves trying to develop them, it takes tons of work and reps to make them six pack and hard).
Mostly, you need to reduce your total body fat …that will get you something down there…and then to kick it up a notch, your have to destroy the abs through vigorous workouts.
The ab stims are just not the thing. You are better off spending the money to buy a book by a reputable health professional and following the advice in there.
At least one brand has been banned from California.
If you do use them, you should watch out for burns. It’s fairly simple to cause severe burns with these devices.
[quote]
INDEX: Business, Social
NAPA, California – Californians won’t be able to shock themselves into shape – at least, for now.
A judge has issued a preliminary order barring the advertisement and sale of electronic muscle stimulators in the state.
A Napa County prosecutor says the devices are only licensed to be used by doctors and physical therapists.
Several T-V ads promise rock-hard abs and other muscle toning for people who use the devices, which stimulate muscles with electric current.
The judge issued an injunction against the Nevada-based distributors of Gymform Plus, which sells for 50 dollars U-S. (APB) — vja
Seeing as they’re designed to extract money from the vast pool of people who want to look like underwear models without actually doing any real work or changing their lives in any appreciable way, I’d have to say they work great.