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Is There Really An Easy Way To A Washboard Stomach?

There's a good chance you've seen infomercials for products such as Fast Abs™, or the Ab Energizer™, promising to define and tone your hips, thighs, and stomach - all while you sit in front of the TV.

Fast Abs

Devices like Fast Abs™ and the Ab Energizer™ are battery operated electronic muscle stimulators (EMS for short) designed to be worn around your stomach, thighs, hips or arms.

Strap on the electrodes, turn them on, and they send an electrical current to your muscles. This current "tells" the muscle to contract. According to its manufacturers, just 10 minutes with Fast Abs™ is the equivalent of 600 muscle contractions, allowing you to, "define hips, thighs, and buttocks all in just minutes a day."

But can machines such as Fast Abs™ or the Ab Energizer™ really help you get the body you want without a lot of sweat and strain?

Ab Energizer

If we judged their effectiveness by sales alone, the answer would be yes. Since it was launched, almost two million units of the Ab Energizer™ have been sold.

Although it's only recently that products like Fast Abs™ and the Ab Energizer™ have attracted such interest, EMS itself has formed a large part of physical therapy since the 1960's. Early work in the former Soviet Union showed that EMS was effective at strengthening muscle in elite athletes.

EMS works by stimulating muscle fibers that aren't normally used during conventional weight-training programs...

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