Zen Lunch Box

Despite the rah-rah testimonials from Shape and Fitness magazines and all the personal testimonies from club owners, personals trainers and average, everyday citizens, the BodyWedge21 is nothing more than an overpriced triangular piece of foam. Seriously. And maybe its simplicity is what’s driving its supposed popularity, but I guess for me the whole thing just seems silly. And come to think of it, my issue is really more about the price. I find it amazingly difficult to believe the BodyWedge is worth more than, say 30 bucks – and that’s at the high end. So rather than paying 80 dollars ($70 at Target.com) for this catastrophic invention, I’d be better off buying a big block of foam for 80 bucks and punching myself in the head several times. That’d be about the closest I could get to the way I’d feel after buying the real thing and realizing I’d been hoodwinked for 80 greens. 

So anyway the BodyWedge has 21 exercise moves printed on it for reference that you can perform in 21 minutes. And that’s all you have to do – pretty sweet, eh? And for those who don’t want to drop 80 bucks they even make a 20 dollar blow-up Wedge ($15 at Target.com). This I really don’t get because not only are inflatable items more unstable, but they also tend to lack comfort as well. The bottom line on this version of the Wedge is that no one should be working out with a blow-up apparatus that resembles a giant piece of cheese. As for the more sturdy pro version, you just might be lucky enough to see one of them this summer at a local garage sale. You’ll probably find one hanging out next to a Body Burner, Cardio Cruiser, or Total Gym.

Now I’m not saying you couldn’t get in shape using the BodyWedge21, I’m simply saying that in the realm of fitness equipment, this product is full of holes and reeks like a bad piece of gorgonzola.

I know. You saw the picture and you’re thinking, “That thing is ridiculous. Who in God’s name would put that in their house?” The answer to that question in a minute. First let me tell you what the Titan T1 Fitness System by Fitcore has to offer. There are over 80 different exercises you can perform at a multitude of angles. This will prevent your workout routines from going down the road to boredom and allow you to break free of strength plateaus that often leads to frustrated workouts. And there are a whole slew of attachments including a boxing heavy bag that can be added to the system.

Three of the Titan exercises worth special mentioning are the counter-balance system for assisted pull-ups and dips, the cable crossover pulley system, and the smith machine which allows you to do a variety of lifts without the help from a spotter. The Fitcore website offers a great reference page with video clips (though you’d think they’d get a guy who’s a little beefier to demonstrate the lifts) for many of the lifts that can be performed and how many of the attachments are used.

But wait – before you run out and buy this bohemeth, you should know that it weighs in at over one ton (that’s 1000 pounds for those of you who ain’t too good with numbers), and is just over seven feet high. That means you better have some dedicated space and most definitely better make sure you know where you want to put it, ’cause you aren’t gonna be shifting this thing around like a loveseat. Oh, and sadly enough, no weights are included. So be ready to drop a few hundred bucks more for some quality plates.

In addition to getting one of the best complete weight machines on the market, they also toss in a high quality storage rack to hold the attachments needed for certain exercises and to hold some of your weights. Obviously, just the weight of this thing screams EXPENSIVE! And indeed it is, with a pricetag of $4500 this weight machine becomes an investment. Which brings me back to my initial question – who would put this monument to health in their home? Well, I’d say it’s either some freakish muscle head who drinks pork puree’ for breakfast and loves to lift stuff or it’s someone who wants the luxuries of a health club in the comfort of their own home.

Either way it’s quite an impressive structure and likely worth it’s steep pricetag.

Welcome to the trendiest new form of getting in shape – Podfitness. For $19.95 per month you can get a personalized workout audio recording combined with your favorite workout music that’s specific to your personal training goals. They’ve got world-renowned personal trainers on board folks. World renowned. Let’s see there’s the guy who trained Christian Slater, the guy who trains Reese Witherspoon, oh, and some chick who has been on the Oprah show. Damn, what a line-up.

Here are the problems I see with this high-tech fitness venture:

First, it’s grabbing onto a business name that’s connected to a product they have no control over. That’s great as long as the iPod is on cloud nine, but when it comes to electronics, it’s rare for a single product to dominate the market forever.

Second, I’ve got a problem with how their elite group of trainers drop about 15-20 famous names in their online demo. I don’t really care that you trained Li’l Kim or Little Hercules – that doesn’t mean you’re more magical than the best trainer at my local gym. Unfortunately, they use that as a selling point because there must be some saps out there that buy into the glamour of having someone who’s a trainer to the stars talking to them on their iPod. To me all it sounds like is a low-grade infomercial.

Third, their website says that their program runs with iTunes. Don’t have that and you can’t use it. It says you can use an iPod or other MP3 Players. Unfortunately, for Windows users, there are no other MP3 Players that are compatible with iTunes. Mac users have it a little better off, but they’re a minority. I realize the iPod is dominating the market right now but you’d think they would make their product a bit more accesible. Not everyone has an iPod or iTunes – it just seems like they do.

On the plus side, this idea does have some potential to be a helpful workout tool. Your music plays; the trainer’s voice comes on; the music volume fades just enough to hear the trainer clearly; you get your instructions from warm-up to cool-down and the next day you download another workout. It’s not clear if your workouts are made JUST for you or if you choose a type of workout, marathon training for example, and everyone gets the same marathon training audio. Not sure about that.

So overall, I wouldn’t necessarily call this idea innovative. Afterall, it’s just a recording – it can’t respond to what you’re doing, give feedback on how great or how little effort you’re giving, or interact with you at all – it’s just some Joe or Josephine telling you what to do and when to do it for 20 bucks a month. One of the biggest benefits of having a real trainer is having someone who will motivate you and give you that extra push when all you wanna do is give up. A recording can’t do that and unless Podfitness evolves into something more, they’ll be forgotten just as quickly as Steven Seagal’s crappy ninja movies.

So waddaya think about gettin’ four or five feet of air, pullin’ a no hander with a peg grab and a flip dismount? If that sounds sweet to you then the next generation, super powered pogo stick is what you need and Flybar can bring it to you.Flybar is the combined forces of SBI Enterprises, the originator of the pogo stick and Andy Macdonald, eight-time World Cup Champion skateboarder. Basically, they ripped out the old steel spring of yesteryear’s Leave it to Beaver pogostick and replaced it with some “secret” Go, Go, Gadget rubber spring elements, thus creating a super bouncy stick that you can take to the moon…ok, so it only goes about four or five feet high, but you’ll probably feel like an astronaut.

Seems like this could be cool to play with but unless your were hardcore pogo stick dude and your best buds had one too, I think this thing has potential to lose some of it’s appeal over time. To it’s credit this is an excellent spin on an old product that’s been recognized with several major awards including the Popular Science Best of What’s New Award and one of Business Week Online’s Best Products of the Year.

So if you’re into extreme air be prepared to shell out between $250 and $380 to live among the birds. That ain’t cheap, but for a chance to reach the stars it just might be worth it.