Abdominal workouts without equipment are notorious for failing. It is not that the workouts themselves do not work - there are enough abdominal workouts that exist to affect every muscle in and around your stomach - it is that the exercises themselves are painful and often cause enough aches and pains that most people that perform the workouts quit before they have a chance to see any of its benefits.

So many companies have attempted to release exercise equipment that are more comfortable that anyone looking for a good ab workout has a number of different choices they can consider. One of those options that looks especially tempting for most people is that of the ab chair.

What is the Ab Chair?

The ab chair is type of abdominal muscle workout equipment that looks a great deal like the type of portable lounge chairs that people put on their decks. These chairs are designed to let you relax the rest of your body while you perform your ab workouts so that you can avoid those extra aches and pains, especially on the lower back.

How does it Work?

The idea behind the ab chair is fairly simple. You do crunches just as you would without equipment, except that instead of requiring your body to contort against the ground, you are using your abs to pull yourself down towards your feet. With the standard ab crunches, you are using your abs to pull yourself up against gravity.

No matter how hard one tries to use their abdominal muscles to do the standard ab crunch, the lower back and shoulders are almost always involved. And with the weight of gravity, that extra pressure can be excruciatingly painful.

With the ab chair, you are resting your back and lowering yourself down towards your toes. The pain is significantly reduced and your back is not bending uncomfortably since the chairs are able to keep the back straight.

How well do they Work?

Ab chairs are an interesting piece of abdominal exercise equipment. They take out one of the most painful parts of a workout and provide you with a safe and easy way to perform the same crunches as you would on your back but without any of the pain or struggle.

That said, because they provide a method for performing the same type of workout as the standard ab crunches, they do a good job of making sure you are comfortable and able to do the workout regularly. Because you are sitting up you can very easily watch TV or even converse with a loved one. And the range of exercises is not much diminished as range of motion is still capable in well made ab chairs.

The only downside to ab chairs is that without the extra force from gravity, you need to do a few more crunches to achieve the same effects. However, because these crunches are so much more comfortable than they would be normally, it is easy to keep up to the daily amount of exercise you need to achieve the benefits.