ABtastic review

The selling point for 2Dogs.com’s iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch app ABtastic is “Why pay for a personal trainer when you can build your abs right from your iPhone?” Let me answer that question for you: because there is no sensible way to view the work out tutorials from such a small screen! To give this app the benefit of the doubt, it does come with twenty-five forty second videos, encompassing everything from the basic ab work out to the V-Up. If you aren’t familiar with what the V-Up is, please get your hands on this app or a gym membership, I think it’s time you learned.

It seems every time I step outside I’m accosted by obesity and over indulgence. While a lot of these applications cater to people who might fit that description, one like ABtastic beckons them away from their normal lifestyle of inactivity. In that regard, I really support the idea of “building your abs right from your iPhone,” but I can’t help point out that if you are a customer trying to lose a significant amount of weight this app probably won’t be too useful. I don’t think it’s possible to learn crunch routines from your palm, and even if you think you have learned them properly there is no one around to ensure that you have. The biggest dilemma is where to place your phone while learning the crunches. Do I prop it up on the table several feet away from my plane of vision? Do I place it beside me and awkwardly crane my neck over my shoulder to watch? Or do I just sacrifice one hand during the workout to hold my iPod to my face? Maybe what you can do is get your personal trainer to hold it up for you! Oh yeah, having a personal trainer defeats the point of using ABtastic.

Some pro’s of this app are that the video quality is really clear and good, the difficulty of each app varies, and the videos incorporate different props like the exercise ball and benches. While the actors demonstrating the different moves are attractive and fit, I’ll admit they made me feel a little bad about my flabby stomach and cellulite. Reflecting on my experiences with on screen work-outs, that seems to always be a byproduct of videos of this nature though. When I shed ten pounds from using Abtastic, I’ll get back to you. In the meantime, don’t cancel your gym membership.

AppSafari Rating: 2.5/5

AppSafari review of ABtastic was written by Renata Paszterko on July 29th, 2010 and categorized under App Store, Education, Health, Productivity, Sports, Video. Page viewed 5482 times, 2 so far today. Need help on using these apps? Please read the Help Page.