The battle of the bulge is an ongoing fight for many women, especially in regard to the midsection. If you desire a streamlined waist, you must focus on training your oblique muscles along with the rest of the abdominal region. Although oblique exercises alone won’t eliminate the fat, strengthening these muscles through the use of oblique machines acts as grease on the wheels of building your ideal, healthy body.
Plate-loaded
Plate-loaded oblique machines are specially designed to exhaust the sides of the abdomen through added resistance. These machines operate by adding weight plates to a designated bar. As the movement is engaged, the bar is lifted through your effort and the target muscles are fatigued. Examples of plate-loaded exercise machines include the lever seated side leg raise crunch, seated twisting leg raise crunch and the barbell side bends.
Selectorized Lever
The selectorized lever machines operate through a series of levers and pulleys. Weights are selected by placing a selection pin underneath the weight amount you wish to lift. Upon engaging in the exercise, the selected weight amount is lifted and resistance is added to your movement. Selectorized lever machine oblique exercises include the lever kneeling twist, seated side bend and the lying twist.
Cable
Cable exercise machines fatigue muscle groups by providing constant tension within working muscles. These machines offer greater versatility than the aforementioned exercise tools because multiple exercises may be done without having to switch machines. Due to the constant pressure placed on oblique muscles, carefully select weight amount or avoid cable machines until you progress in your oblique strength. Examples of oblique cable exercises include the one-arm high-pulley cable side bends, standing single-leg cable rotation and the cable Russian twist.
Considerations
Although weight machines can assist in the progression of strength and muscle definition within the oblique muscles, not every exerciser needs resistance beyond her body weight to fatigue core muscles. Before starting an oblique exercise routine with machines, speak with a fitness professional to guide you through proper lifting techniques to prevent accidental injury. The University of New Mexico suggests only progressing to resistance training on the obliques when you feel standard bodyweight exercises are not challenging.
