Online since 2000
When it comes to home gym equipment, there are more infomercials featuring buffed out men and toned-up ladies than you can shake a shake-a-weight at. But how do you tell which pieces of home fitness equipment are actually good for you and will give you an effective workout and which ones are simply there to take your money and leave you just as flabby as before you bought them. Here are some ways that you can tell that a piece of home fitness equipment isn’t worth your time.
Okay, so not all of the gym equipment out there today that is featured on an infomercial is a terrible product. But odds are, if the company didn’t see much success in selling it through the normal sales channels and competing with other fitness machines that are in stores then it probably isn’t going to help you tone your abs or give you 21-inch biceps. If it has an infomercial behind it, look at it skeptically. Of course, you can do your research on the product and find out if it really is providing you with a valuable workout to make your final decision.
You have a very finely tuned BS detector, and it will alert you when some piece of fitness equipment doesn’t seem right. One of those times is likely to be when a piece of fitness equipment is so ridiculous that you can’t stop laughing when you see the advertisement for it. An example of this is a product from Korea that simulates the motion of a horseback ride or the “Hawaii Chair” which basically jiggles you and spins you around while still claiming that you’ll be able to work at the office while using it. Yes, both of these are actual products.
It is a safe bet that a piece of fitness equipment that doesn’t actually use any science in its design is a scam. If the product in question is based upon the tribal elders from the deepest parts of Africa, or on “ancient Chinese medicine” you can safely change the channel when you see it on television. Real exercise equipment that works is based upon actual kinesiology (the science behind movement) and many, many decades of research has gone into understanding what makes us fit or not.
No matter whether a product is on television or found through an advertisement in one of your favorite magazines, you can usually tell when something is not quite right when the outlandish claims that it is proclaiming is followed by a lot of fine print - Really fine print! The kind it takes a magnifying glass to see properly. Fine print is a company’s way of covering themselves so that they can make all sorts of outlandish claims legally, and you should watch out for those products accordingly.
Online since 2000