Chair of Torture

Those that have tried mine, will definitely agree, this is truly the chair of torture. Mine looks very similar to this model. The few differences are: padding is slanted, padded foot bar is in a straight line, not an 'L'. If you look at the illustration, you'll see the Roman Chair's of the past and how they were built. That particular form of chair still is in use, however it is not as functional as the one I purchased and here's why.

My new-to-me chair allows me to also do hyper extensions of the lower back, this way I can build the core muscles surrounding my spine and kidneys. These are sheer torture. For the abdominal exercise, I'm able to do about 30 before I am screaming in pain. I like to do a set of 10 normal style, then I like to do a set each of 10 twisting to the right then left as I come up to really make my obliques scream. For the back hyper extension, I think I can do about 3 before I cry "UNCLE". My lower back is so weak now. Hmm... that's a little embarrassing. What's really neat about the Roman Chair is that even though you are strongly targeting the abs or the lower back, you really get a good quad, hamstring, and buttocks workout as well since you must hold yourself on the chair. Another great thing about this chair is, unlike when you try crunches on the ground, you have nothing grinding against your spine, like the floor, so you aren't limited to the amount of bone pain you can handle. With this chair, your body is basically suspended (thanks to your legs) so you can perform the exercise with no interference. A modification I've tried to do while working on my lower back is to squeeze my butt cheeks together as I lower and raise, this way I'm really straining those muscles and helping put my butt back where it should be.