Great inventions and useless gimics

[Lark]

I wanted to create a thread in which people could talk about what they've found to be great inventions and what's been bogus gimics in relation to sports and training equipment.

I've been wondering lately about those toning belts which are meant to operate using electrodes or massaging gears to promote or outright deliver abdominal muscle definition, are they a take on or for real?

I'm particularly wanting to do something about abdominal fat and to as quickly as possible eliminate it and replace it with hard muscle.

 

[Stanton Moore]

You have to change your diet and get aerobic exercise. There are no shortcuts to this, or everyone would already be there!

 

[scienceresearcher]

I've been wondering lately about those toning belts which are meant to operate using electrodes or massaging gears to promote or outright deliver abdominal muscle definition, are they a take on or for real?

Electronic Muscle Stimulation has had a great deal of published researched completed.
Our central nervous system fires action potentials, or electric nerve impulses, at the motor end plates of a muscle to stimulate a contraction. EMS seeks to simulate this process by using electrodes placed on muscles and sending an electric signal through to cause stimulation.
For healthy individuals like you and me, it is essentially worthless. Studies have found no difference between healthy individuals using EMS versus a group of sedentary individuals.
EMS has value in the geriatric population or those with atrophy induced diseases. At those specific populations there have been some muscle retention.

As Nebbykoo said, diet and exercise (aerobic is controversial) will do best. You already have hard muscle surrounding your abdominal cavity, it's just covered with a layer of fat. Remove the fat and you'll have your abs shine through.