Trimmers and Toners from TV to You

Trimmers and Toners from TV to You

Cable television is awash with infomercials for specialty items to help you trim or tone this body part or that. Such devices have been around for years, but seductive television infomercials, often with celebrity endorsements, imbue them with an in-your-face presence that makes them hard to ignore. Many of the products hawked on television also are available at discount stores, sporting goods retailers, and perhaps even supermarkets. Some products are sturdy and decently built; others are flimsy and marginally effective at best. It’s hard to tell on the TV screen, and most people just shove purchasing mistakes away rather than take advantage of the money-back guarantees that usually are part of the offers. If a product seduces you, try to take a good look at a real sample and evaluate its quality in relation to its price. You can always go home and order it, or you can buy it locally, perhaps even on sale. If you buy from a local retailer, you won’t have to pay the dreaded shipping and handling add-on,and if you are unhappy with the product or it doesn’t live up to its claims, you’re more likely to return it to a local retailer than mail it back to a distant company. You will also find that such items are often available at garage sales, because many people order them but never use them.
Over the years, the fitness marketplace has probably seen more types of abdominal exercisers than any other category. One early low-tech (and low-cost) product consisted of a system of cords and pulleys with five loops, one to go over a doorknob and four for the wrists and ankles. You just needed to lie on your back on the floor and alternately move the left leg/right arm and right leg/left arm. More recent abdominal exercisers have been tubular devices twisted into a cagelike form. You rest your head on a pad, and your hands grasp the side supports as you work your abdominals by doing caged crunches. Brands designed for abdominal exercising include Ab Rocker,Ab Sculptor, Ab Trainer, Ab Blaster, EZ Crunch, and Perfect ABs. At the peak of their popularity, they cost up to about $100, but prices quickly dropped dramatically.Lower-body toning devices also abound. The ThighMaster, with its celebrity infomercial endorsement, enjoyed a high profile during its heyday. To use it, you put this resistance device between your thighs and squeeze your legs together. Other lower-body toners include Better Buns, Bun and Thigh Sculptor, BunTrainer, Fit Thighs, IsoBun, and UltraBurner.
In addition to these products that target specific body parts, multistation exercise machines and aerobic machines for home use are marketed on television. Some are sturdy, quality devices that really enhance your workout. These will be discussed in the section about setting up a home gym in Chapter 16, “Where to Work Out.” Others are low-quality devices that mainly enhance the marketers’ pocketbooks. Whatever the device, if it requires you to move your body or to work your muscles against resistance of some sort, it probably won’t do any harm. If you’re willing to make the investment in a product that appeals to you, you can add it to your home fitness arsenal and use it to spice up your routine or to supplement longer strength-training and aerobic workouts.Always remember that none of these fad devices will do anything for you that mainstream gear or traditional exercising won’t do. And like all other fitness equipment and programs, such apparatus are only good if you truly use them.