Use Ab Lounge 2
The discontinued Ab Lounge 2 received aggressive infomercial marketing from personal trainer and television personality Tony Little, and lives on in secondhand sales and a series of very similar Ab Lounge models. Strictly speaking, you don't need the Ab Lounge or any other piece of abdominal exercise equipment to work your stomach muscles. But if the Ab Lounge inspires you to incorporate core exercise into your workout program and maybe even do some cardiovascular exercise too, it's worth using.
Contents
Steps
Mount the Ab Lounge 2
- Straddle the foot support on the Ab Lounge 2, facing out. Place both hands on the stationary handlebars behind you and ease yourself back into the seat, as if you were sitting in a chaise lounge.
- Sit up straight or recline gently; don't lean back with any force until you're ready to start exercising.
- Maintain your grip on the handlebars as you place your feet on the Ab Lounge {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} rests, one at a time. Once you feel secure, reach up and grasp the overhead strap with both hands in a palms-forward grip.
Basic Jackknife
- Squeeze your rectus abdominis muscle that runs down the front of your abdomen from ribs to pelvis. Think of doing a crunching motion, bringing your ribs down toward your hips.
- Note that although the Ab Lounge 2 directions instruct you to do an abdominal crunch, the resulting jackknife motion--as your hips drop and your legs and upper body come up--happens at your hip joint, not the lumbar spine. Your rectus abdominis muscle doesn't perform hip flexion; your hip flexors do.
- Relax back to the starting position and repeat. Although your rectus abdominis muscle doesn't perform the primary motion during this exercise, it does work to stabilize your lumbar spine against the pull from your hip flexors.
Oblique Jackknife
- Rotate the toes of both feet so they point about 45 degrees to the right. Allow your hips to naturally follow this motion, but keep both shoulders flat against the top of the Ab Lounge 2.
- Drop your left arm to your right hip.
- Squeeze your abs. Think of bringing your rib cage down to the top of your hips, which are still angled to the right.
- The Ab Lounge exerciser will swing down, bringing you into a jackknife position.
- Relax back to the starting position and repeat.
Stretch
- Assume the basic starting position, with both feet on the footrest and both hands on the grab strap. Lean back slightly, "unfolding" from the pike position until your body is straight. You should feel a mild stretch in your abs.
- Extend both legs, resting your ankles on the footrest, for a more intense stretch that includes your hip flexors, the muscles across the front of your hips.
- The Ab Lounge 2 won't do much to limit your stretch. You must do so yourself, stretching only to the point of muscular tension, not pain. Hold the stretch for at least 15 to 30 seconds, breathing normally.
Video
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Tips
- You can modify the basic jackknife by adding a leg lift, pulling the knee of one leg toward you as you fold into the jackknife position. You can also add intensity by extending both arms through the grab strap instead of holding it, or extending both legs straight out with your ankles on the footrest.
- Exhale as you fold into the pike position, and inhale as you return to the start position. Never hold your breath when exercising; doing so can cause your blood pressure to spike dangerously.
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