Stop wasting your money on useless informercial abdominal products. Learn how to effectively work your abs with the right ab equipment so you can finally develop a flat sexy waist with abs you can be proud to show off.

What ab equipment you need depends on how you go about training your abs. If you train your abs with the most people get ab exercise - lots of sets and reps - then you don't need much in the way of ab equipment. Performing sets of the basic floor crunch and reverse floor crunch are all you realy need. If these ab exercises are uncomfortable for you, then you may need some basic equipment just for comfort reasons.

Now, if you decide to train your abs properly, you'll most likely need some quality ab equipment. What do I mean by training your abs properly? Your abdominals are a muscle group, just like any other muscle group.

Let's take a look at some common misconceptions with regard to ab exercise and then we'll mention some ab equipment that actually works for you.

Is there anything out there in the fitness world suffering from more misinformation that how to get abs?

The number of ab machines constantly coming to market is mind boggling. Especially considering that they aren't needed and won't give you the results that you want.

Let's set the record straight on ab training right now and give you the real information you need so you can say no to the next infomercial ab machine and yes to actual abs.

• Training your abs consistently will eventually give you the flat stomach or six-pack that you want.

  No. It's not gonna happen if your abs are covered by a layer of body fat and doing endless sets of ab exercises is not the way to rid yourself of that excess body fat.

• Train your abs everyday for best results.

  Again, no. Your abs are a muscle, just like your chest, lats, arms and so on. You should train your abs just like these other muscles, with progressive resistance and high intensity - then allow them to rest and recover. Never train your abs more than 3 days a week.

• You need to do hundreds or reps and feel the burn to get great abs.

  Yep, again the answer is no. The abs a muscle just like I mentioned above. To get six pack abs you need to strip off the fat, but you also need to build the abs to get them to really pop out.

  If the muscle isn't developed, you'll just have a flat stomach but no abs. The name of the game is progressive resistance for sets of 8 - 20 reps, just like your other muscles.

• Train the abs with lots of sets and high reps to burn off stomach fat.

In order to do the proper ab exercise and develop a flat, toned, tight midsection, you need to follow these rules. And that means working your abs with progressive resistance weight training, just like your other muscles.

You need to put together a proper weight lifting program, nutrition plan, and cardio in order to rid your stomach of that stubborn layer of fat and bring yout your abs.

Gregg Gillies

Gregg Gillies is the author of "From Fat to Fit...Fast!" and "The Skinny Guy's Guide to Building Mass Fast!". He is the owner of BuildLeanMuscle.com. He publishes two fitness newsletters, "Fast Mass Tips" and "Fat Loss Secrets", each with over 5,000 subscribers from all over the world. Gregg has been a columnist for Body Talk magazine for 3 years, as well as being published in Ironman magazine and various web sites such as bodybuildingforyou.com and bodybuilding.com.