Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Day 66: The Things We Buy To Get In Shape

My mind wandered today to exercise fads and all the craziness we have seen over the years associated with separating people from their money.  I have always believed that if you see a piece of exercise equipment on an infomercial you should avoid it like the plague.  Over the years we have been subjected to some of the worst ideas in human history pertaining to getting fit and the best part is we buy them. 

Do you remember the Thigh Master? This single piece of equipment was dedicated to exercising just one set of muscles on the body and people bought it like crazy.  I don’t know anyone who would admit to owning one but someone had to.  It made Suzanne Somers a fortune.  She still sells the thing online.  Her website claims that over 10 million have been sold and while I find that hard to believe I also wonder what that says about us, as in the human race.  Order yours now for only $29.99.

Does the name Tony Little mean anything to you?  If it does chances are you watched one of his Gazelle commercials back in the 90’s.  I looked it up and he still sells this thing.  It’s basically a swing set for your legs.  I have no doubt that you can exercise with this thing but it offers zero resistance.  Personally I think you would be better off with an elliptical machine.  In addition to the Gazelle he hocks another piece of equipment called the Total Body Shaper and it looks like a medieval torcher device.

There is also all the things you shake to get in shape.  Awesome products like the Shake Weight which I find hysterical, why you can’t just pick up something heavy and shake it don’t know.  My favorite is the BodyBlade.  Yes, they still make this product again I had to look it up.  I love the fact that you can become a certified BodyBlade instructor from their website.  There is a section on the website where you can find gyms that offer BodyBlade training and you can find one close to you buy putting in your zip code.  Sadly there were no gyms offering BodyBlade training within 100 miles of me.  So I tried several different zip codes and came up empty.  Finally I just switched to map view and was shocked.  There are no official BodyBlade facilities in the WORLD!  Why even have this feature on your website.  Hopefully it was just broken and we are surrounded by gyms where you can take your BodyBlade for a workout.

Finally, have you seen the Hawaii Chair. Their motto is “If you can sit, you can get fit.” It’s a chair that takes you through the motions of hula hooping and people who have used it said it’s like riding a mechanical bull. Do yourself a favor and YouTube the infomercial it’s horrifyingly funny.

Daily Recap:

Matt: 31 min. jog this afternoon. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get it in with all the clouds and rain. 


Kelly: TBD

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