Always fighting that darned midsection means looking for additional ways to work the flab off your tummy. If you've grown bored with basic ab exercises such as situps and crunches, investing in ab-focused equipment such as a Torso Slider might be tempting. Although many pieces of equipment that concentrate on one body part are overhyped, the Torso Slider is one that, when used as part of an overall fitness regimen, actually works. It's how the equipment works to extend your body while engaging the core muscles of your abs and even your lats that makes this effective ab workout gear.
How to Use a Torso Slider
Step 1
Kneel on the floor, using the workout mat to cushion your knees, with the Torso Slider in front of you.
Step 2
Lean forward, bending at the waist, and grasp the handles on either side of the Torso Slider. Your arms should be extended.
Step 3
Move your torso forward to roll the Torso Slider away from you. Your body will start to straighten, and you should concentrate on keeping your arms and back straight and not allowing your legs to move other than straightening at your hips.
Step 4
Extend your body forward as far as you comfortably can, then draw the Torso Slider back toward your body, to return to the starting position.
Incorporating the Torso Slider Into Your Ab Workout
You can speed up the results you see from working out with a Torso Slider and doing cardio exercises by adjusting your diet. Personal trainer Matt Siaperas recommends that his clients make small changes such as switching to skim milk and substituting water for soda to help get more water into their systems each day. You don't have to cut the foods you love from your diet, but try limiting items such as sweets, cheese and fried foods. Make sure most of the meat you eat is lean, and try to eat five servings of fruits and veggies every day.
You can increase the amount of resistance by placing the Torso Slider closer to your body at the beginning of the set and drawing it fully back to that point with each rep.
For more of a challenge from your ab workouts, perform each set until failure rather than counting out reps.
Workout mat
Step 1
Exercise your abs two or three times a week, leaving at least a day between your ab workouts.
Step 2
Perform sets of the Torso Slider exercise along with other ab movements such as crunches, planks, situps, hanging kneeups and bridges. Do three sets of 15 to 20 reps of each exercise.
Step 3
Do a cardio workout four or five times a week for 20 to 45 minutes. Examples of aerobic exercises you could do include rowing, biking, running, swimming or climbing on the stair stepper.
Tips
Tips
Tips
Things You'll Need
References
- Mayo Clinic: Exercises to Improve Your Core Strength
- Military.com: Lose the Love Handles
- Sports Medicine of Baseball; Edited by David Altchek et al.
- The New Rules of Lifting for Abs; Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove
- Matt Siaperas: Personal Trainer, Hardbodies Gym, Blackfoot, Idaho
Tips
- You can speed up the results you see from working out with a Torso Slider and doing cardio exercises by adjusting your diet. Personal trainer Matt Siaperas recommends that his clients make small changes such as switching to skim milk and substituting water for soda to help get more water into their systems each day. You don't have to cut the foods you love from your diet, but try limiting items such as sweets, cheese and fried foods. Make sure most of the meat you eat is lean, and try to eat five servings of fruits and veggies every day.
- You can increase the amount of resistance by placing the Torso Slider closer to your body at the beginning of the set and drawing it fully back to that point with each rep.
- For more of a challenge from your ab workouts, perform each set until failure rather than counting out reps.
Writer Bio
Elle Di Jensen has been a writer and editor since 1990. She began working in the fitness industry in 1987, and her experience includes editing and publishing a workout manual. She has an extended family of pets, including special needs animals. Jensen attended Idaho and Boise State Universities. Her work has appeared in various print and online publications.