Choosing the right ab exercise equipment can mean all the difference between working out your abs properly to the point where you get results and, if you choose the wrong equipment, giving up in frustration. While you do not need all too fancy equipment to provide yourself with effective ab exercises, having the right equipment can help.

Exercising your abs is integral to a healthy body because failing to do so can lead to ab muscles that are either too tight or too weak, and this can result in painful spasms or even all-out injuries. When getting yourself ab exercise equipment, make certain that you look for equipment that stimulates your muscles in the external obliques, the internal obliques and the rectus addominis.

Depending on what kind of ab exercise equipment you employ, you can have better or worse results at getting in a good core strength workout. The muscles that this kind of ab exercise targets are the muscles in your abdomen and your lower back--the core muscles. As a bonus, these types of exercises also give you a heightened sense of both stability and balance. Since ab exercise equipment does not need to be expensive by any means to actually be very effective, you can simply use a plain, old exercise ball for your core strength workouts.

A common misconception with ab exercise equipment is that it should allow you to do a lot of crunches, but nothing could be further from the truth. With an exercise ball, even basic rolls and twists on the ball are good enough to make you feel the burn.

Effective and enjoyable ab exercise equipment should also offer you a good degree of variety, meaning that you actually have a lot of different types of exercises to choose from to work out your abs. One of the best pieces of equipment out there to achieve this variety is the Bosu ball, which is a name that is short for "both sides up." It is really nothing more than a piece of equipment that has a flexible dome on one side and a flat platform on the bottom of it. This very unique setup allows you to do a myriad of exercises on it that involve actions like standing, bouncing, twisting, squatting and even jumping. Because of all these actions, your back and abs are always exercised no matter what type of exercise you do on your Bosu ball.

One of the most highly rated pieces of ab exercise equipment is the so-called Captain's Chair. While expensive, this device involves you propping yourself up over its bars with your elbows and forearms so your legs dangle. From this position, you then bring your knees to your chest, making sure to create a slow and deliberate motion. It's easy to see that in this exercise, you get to really work out your abdominal muscles very intensely.