Anybody watch the infomercials about exercise?

[HollyS]

Suddenly, I''m totally glued to the tube watching infomercials promising me a sleeker, sexier moi.

Anybody here seen the Malibu Pilates chair thing-a-ma-bob? What''s your opinion?

 

[Skippy123]

Holly what about getting a ball? An exercies ball is great and inexpensive. Here are so things you can do similar strengthing but using the ball

http://exercise.about.com/cs/abs/l/bl_core.htm

 

[marcy]

Holly, I know several people who love the exercise ball. Me being totally uncoordinated would never try one but they look great!

 

[nuclear]

Nothing is better than a plain old gym membership. Buy one of those "gadgets" and it will end up in the basement collecting dust.

 

[Skippy123]

All of a sudden I noticed a bunch of infomercials. Well if you have a Consumer Reports subscription they give the low down on the new gadgets out there.

 

[Haven]

I hear you, Holly! I think those infomercials can be really motivating.

I bought the Tae Bo VHS tapes with my roommate in college and LOVED THEM! I gained a lot of weight my freshman year, and Tae Bo was what I needed to get my rear in gear. We ended up getting a huge group of regulars to do Tae Bo with us on our floor each night. In fact, people on our floor were so annoyed that the dorm put a VCR in the basement exercise room for us so we could do it down there.

Now that I live with DH, exercise infomercials are no fun. He discredits nearly every single claim they make. His favorite is when people talk about "upper" and "lower" abs. He just mutes the channel when those commercials come on. He''s a muscle specialist now, and he worked as a personal trainer for years. He also has his master''s in occupational therapy, though he says that didn''t teach him much at all.

I agree that the best exercise program is the most basic--lift, do cardio, life, do cardio. When I worked as a PT after college I had a lot of colleagues throwing their clients up on Bosu balls, standing on one leg, doing bicep curls. That''s effective if you want to tire someone out, but not if you''re looking to build muscle. My most effective clients were the ones who believed in my basics philosophy and followed it.

 

[Haven]

Holly--Have you read Bill Phillips''s Body for Life? It''s a great motivator, too, even if you don''t want to follow the program to the fullest extent. I could only maintain that workout schedule while I''m off work during the summer, but it''s a great program.