Does the Ab Roller work?

Hello All:

 I was thinking about buying one of those Ab Roller like the one depicted at this web page (http://www.infomercialratings.com/product/abr oller) to increase my ab workout.  I was wondering has anyone used the ab roller and if so, did it help you lose weight and strengthen your abs?

 Like most infomercial gear, it's BS. It will in fact give you a worse ab workout than performing basic crunches or situps will.

 If you have spinal injuries or lower back problems it can help you keep form or perform the exercises more safely, but you'll have better results learning to do proper crunches, or better yet, bicycle kicks.

 'Course, the real core exercises for strong abs are squats and deadlifts - to have a fitness-model style sixpack, you need to be able to at least squat your own bodyweight, and have a bodyfat percentage below 12. (9.8% to have the Linea Alba show up)

It did not help me lose weight as well as cardio or a good overall strength building routine. The abs aren't really big calorie burning muscles, and "spot reducing" doesn't really work. If it did you would have a strong, lean right arm and a fat left arm.

It did help strengthen my abs, but I have since found that an excercise ball strenthens them just as well and I can work other muscle groups with it. In fact, I find that a pilates video also work my abs as well as the ab roller did, and I can get the videos for free through the library. That makes pilates free for me, and less boring since it is a new workout every week.

Original Post by melkor:

 Like most infomercial gear, it's BS. It will in fact give you a worse ab workout than performing basic crunches or situps will.

 If you have spinal injuries or lower back problems it can help you keep form or perform the exercises more safely, but you'll have better results learning to do proper crunches, or better yet, bicycle kicks.

 'Course, the real core exercises for strong abs are squats and deadlifts - to have a fitness-model style sixpack, you need to be able to at least squat your own bodyweight, and have a bodyfat percentage below 12. (9.8% to have the Linea Alba show up)

Melkor,

What is this linea alba you speak of and is it any relation to Jessica Alba?!  Actually, I need to find someone local to test my BF% so I can get some kind of baseline.  I really have no idea where I am at.  I am not sure how acurate the handheld devices or the scales tend to be.  Anyway...judging by your definition, I am not yet below 12% so I at least know that much!

Phil

My ab roller broke after just a few sessions, and it did nothing for me but hurt my back. I was really disappointed that i feel for that informercial. I don't know what those people are doing to make their abs look like that, but it's not the ab roller!

Linea Alba - the White Line, literally - it's the dividing line between the muscles of the abdomen that makes your abs into a true sixpack. The upper two muscles can become visible at around 15%, and you can get pretty good abdominal visibility between 10-12%, but you need to get down below 9.8% for the linea alba to be visible and have a true sixpack.

 Though you can sometimes have the sixpack at higher BF% - if you've been stressed and your body stores fat in odd places your belly can be quite lean while your love handles and back are full up. Metabolisms are quirky things and sometimes don't do as they're expected to :)

 For home use, you can get a reasonably accurate guess from one of the online body fat calculators - Covert Bailey's tends to track impedance measurement to within 1-3%. Short of tank immersion or a DEXA scan, caliper measurements will be the most accurate, but for just tracking trend lines I think you can do a lot with Bailey's.