Thanks, Michael, great post. I agree with all what you have written!

Bob I posted this on the old board also. Reason I posted it was because it is a form of Focused Muscular Tension exercise. It is power flexes for Your abs, obliques and lower back. Yes I agree some people may get back pain if they are not done right or if it's not right for You.

You posted the article on the effect abdominal exercise has on abdominal fat. One thing You'll find on the internet is an article that's conflicting with another. I'd rather depend on my own experiences. If You're getting good results with what You do than don't let any article or person on the internet steer You away from that. Remember the old say," There is more than one way to skin a cat".

My opinion on this subject is diet is first for losing weight or fat. Exercise boost Your metabolism and helps burn more calories than You would if You didn't do anything at all. I prefer exercise that gets me breathing a little heavy and gets my heart rate up. From my personal experiences, without a change in my diet this has given me the best weight loss results. Do I think abdominal exercises alone will get rid of belly fat? I'll answer that with a question. Why in the heck would You only do abdominal exercises?

So much conflicting people, articles and so called experts that say don't work Your abs or do work Your abs. Do what You like. Honestly just working Your abs alone to lose stomach fat would take a perfect diet and situations. I'm trying to look at both sides of this. When it comes to the Ring of Fire exercises, I have tried them. Most of the time I stay pretty lean, winter months I tend to be 5 pounds heavier. When I did these they were intense. I was sweating and You have some heavy breathing with these. Honestly it felt like an intense workout. I'm no expert but the deep breathing and intense contractions had me feeling pretty good. I think when people say exercise like this burns belly fat it's because of the deep breathing, heavy breathing or whatever You want to call it.

When I did long hold isometrics with an isometric strap I lost weight. So my opinion, it's has more to do with the concentrated breathing and the contraction of the muscles that people say spot reduction. I don't think You're really just losing it in one spot. Again I'm no expert just my opinion. I have lost over 50 lbs and kept it off since 2009 with differant things like this.

However:

J Strength Cond Res. 2011 Sep;25(9):2559-64. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181fb4a46.

The effect of abdominal exercise on abdominal fat. Vispute SS1, Smith JD, LeCheminant JD, Hurley KS. Author information

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of abdominal exercises on abdominal fat. Twenty-four healthy, sedentary participants (14 men and 10 women), between 18 and 40 years, were randomly assigned to 1 of the following 2 groups: control group (CG) or abdominal exercise group (AG). Anthropometrics, body composition, and abdominal muscular endurance were tested before and after training. The AG performed 7 abdominal exercises, for 2 sets of 10 repetitions, on 5 d·wk(-1) for 6 weeks. The CG received no intervention, and all participants maintained an isocaloric diet throughout the study. Significance was set at p = 0.05 for all tests. There was no significant effect of abdominal exercises on body weight, body fat percentage, android fat percentage, android fat, abdominal circumference, abdominal skinfold and suprailiac skinfold measurements. The AG performed significantly greater amount of curl-up repetitions (47 ± 13) compared to the CG (32 ± 9) on the posttest. Six weeks of abdominal exercise training alone was not sufficient to reduce abdominal subcutaneous fat and other measures of body composition. Nevertheless, abdominal exercise training significantly improved muscular endurance to a greater extent than the CG.

Aerobic exercise (like walking, running, swimming, etc) has been shown to cause major reductions in belly fat in many studies:

1. Int J Obes (Lond). 2007 Dec;31(12):1786-97. Epub 2007 Jul 17.

A dose-response relation between aerobic exercise and visceral fat reduction: systematic review of clinical trials. Ohkawara K1, Tanaka S, Miyachi M, Ishikawa-Takata K, Tabata I.

2. Obes Rev. 2012 Jan;13(1):68-91. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-789X.2011.00931.x. Epub 2011 Sep 26. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect of aerobic vs. resistance exercise training on visceral fat. Ismail I1, Keating SE, Baker MK, Johnson NA.

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Thanks, Michael, for attracting attention to this article. Exercises remind me Dynaflex. I tried to do them before, but I always got pain in my spinal column that was injured many years ago. Now I perform similar exercises but in the super-slow mode and frequently with a stick. It is easier for me.