When it comes to fitness and exercise equipment, there are a lot of different options to choose from. This is especially true when talking about an abdominal exercise machine.

After all, the abs are the one thing everyone wants to improve upon. For guys, it's the six-pack, and for women, it's a flat, toned and tight tummy. And most people feel that if they can get a flat stomach, all the other areas of their body will follow.

So we're bombarded with infomercials that focus on the be all end all wonderous inovation of their latest and greatest abdominal exercise machine. If you just get that one machine, then you're all set!

Six pack abs, here we come! Yes, there was a little bit of sarcasm in that last part. After all, if it were that easy, if we just needed the latest, greatest abdominal exercise machine for great abs, we'd all have them by now. Instead, we seem to keep getting fatter. It doesn't really make any sense, does it?

Let me make a few points about ab exercise and getting a flat, lean, six-pack stomach.

Diet, weight training, and cardio play the biggest role in getting a flat stomach, not ab exercises or any one abdominal exercise machine.

Most ab exercise equipment is pure junk.

Most people go about training their abdominal muscles in the wrong way.

With that being said, let's look at what you can do to train your abs the right way, and what type of abdominal exercise machine can help you do it better, faster, and in more comfort.

Let's address point one above. Many ab machine advertisers, especially on infomercials, will lead you to believe that working on their adbominal exercise equipment will lead to weight loss and fat reduction, especially in the region of the abs, ie, getting rid of the bulging belly. This is incorrect on multiple points.

First, working your abs, especially on those '6 minutes to great abs' routines, burns very few calories. Second, you can't spot reduce, which is the outdated idea that you will lose fat directly from the area that you exercise.

In fact, your fat goes on based on your genetics, and this is also the way it comes off, and usually in the reverse order. And the abs is usually the last place fat loss occurs. You'll see it on your hands, face, neck, etc. first, before your stomach.

A quality abdominal exercise machine will strengthen your abdominal muscles, which will lead to a leaner, more toned stomach. But understand this - you won't see that leaner toned stomach, until you remove the fat that is covering up your abs!

Have you seen a relatively flat stomach on someone but it's not firm or toned? This is most likely because they don't work their ab muscles, so their abs aren't developed enough to give a tigher, leaner look to the stomach.

So it's very important to work your abs. But keep in mind the points being made here, that you need an overall fat loss, exercise, and nutrition program to lose the fat covering your abs so people can see the tight sexy stomach you've developed on your abdominal exercise machine.

A great thing about a good ab machine is that it will keep you working your abs. Let's face it, ab training is boring and doing conventional ab exercises like floor crunches, sit ups, leg raises and reverse lying crunches can be very uncomfortable, if not downright painful, and a lot of people develop neck problems. An abdominal exercise machine plays an important role in avoiding these issues.

If you keep this in mind, you'll know what to expect from ab exercise and abdominal machines. This way, you'll keep using it as part of an overall muscle building, fat loss program, instead of letting the machine gather dust because you didn't lose your stomach fat from working your abs six minutes a day.