Do electric muscle stimulators really work?

ohhh man, thats so wrong...... BUT FUNNY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Yeah, and you'll tell it eighteen times before Monday morning!

 

its all to do with diet

 

I'm a little late on this thread... E-stim is not going to build your obliques. There are benefits to E-stim in a clincal setting and for rehab purposes, but not to build muscle like you want to do. To draw an analogy for you, if e-stim worked, you wouldn't see bodybuilders in the gym any more. Mr. Olympia would be the guy with the highest electric bill!

What are you doing for your obliques now? Are you training your core / subsystems?

 

1) abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym. low bodyfat is the only way to show that 8pack tummy, and if you are trying to get obliques, and stop the protrusion of tummy flab, well, start with a good diet.

2) electronic stimulation will do NOTHING unless you just came out of a full body cast and everything had atrophied. Not even if you were on a serious steroid stack would this work.

3) nothing replaces serious gym time.

so to sum it up; clean up your diet to lower bodyfat, don't waste money on gadgets, get back to the gym with incresed cardio. If you are close to the beach, obliques and surfing are a really good combo, that range of motion is great.

 

When most people lift they take a wide set and get nice and stable, then do high weight with low reps.

To build the core (abs, obs, back) you need to do the opposite of that. Why do you think dancers always have great abs? They may not use major resistance, but they are constantly off-balance (meaning using just the left leg, right arm, or whatever) so their core muscles are being constantly recruited to keep their spine in proper alignment.

If you pick up the latest Men's Fitness, they have some good routines and strategies for building the core with off-balance lifts and exercizes but I personally suggest getting into a sport that requires constant directional changes such as basketball, tennis, racketball, etc. Find one you like and play for a couple hours a week - you'll work that fat off and build those muscles in no time.

 

IF you want to build a strong core, do back squats, dead lifts and Standing overhead presses.

 

There is this large, unwavering, and rather annoying myth that you have to work the piss out of your abs and obloquies to have a nice midsection. Not only is this not true, but it can also cause the undesired effect of making your midsection bigger. The abs and obloquies are after all, muscles. Like any muscle, they will grow with stimulus. Diet is the key, as most people have said, it depends on how bad you want it. Alcohol and sugar are the main perpetrators of abdominal lard. Also, for men the fat around the obloquies is the hardest place to loose fat. You may be doom a bit, by genetics as most men are.
Another myth that dooms people is frustration, is that extended cardio sessions will, burn the fat. It does burn calories and will eliminate excess fat, the body has more efficient ways go getting that energy rather than going to stored fat. We don't have to go to the microbiological level to understand why. Just get a picture of an marathon runner and a sprinter. You will notice that despite running a million miles a week, the long distance runner stores body fat around the midsection and the muscles, look for the most part, emaciated. The sprinter will have larger leaner muscles and very little body fat. The reason for this is that to go a long duration the body has to conserve and store energy to make the journey so it stores fat. The sprinter's goal is to go as fast as possible, so the body's response to the shed unnecessary weight in the form of fat. This should give you a clue as to what to do.
Diet: Clean up a bit, eliminate at least one unnecessary food or drink
Resistance training: Up intensity, do compound movements and Olympic style lifts. Do NOT to abs more the two times per week.
Cardio: Speed is the key. Get a stop watch and do timed trials, try to beat your best. 440's and 880's are the best. The timing gives you a measure, bring a notebook and keep score to track improvments.
Wow, that was long...