Question:

I've heard of a few exercise-related gadgets, but some are kind of expensive. I don't mind paying for them if they're worth it, though. Do you have any suggestions on good gadgets to rev up my workouts?

— Maureen

Answer:

I am not a big exercise gadget person, but I'll throw in my two cents.

While there are some cool gizmos out there, I believe that they can only make the blood, sweat and tears you shed during your workouts more entertaining. The distraction and/or motivation that they offer is about all they are good for. Exercise is exertion, and even if you are equipped like Inspector Gadget, you still must put forth the effort to get results. For that reason, I keep it simple and do not have the greatest knowledge of the trendy gadgets.

But an excellent exercise gadget that will always stand the test of time is a heart rate monitor. In order to get your body in the fat-burning zone, you have to have your heart pumping at the right intensity. Most of us, consciously or unconsciously, exercise at a lower intensity level and thus are robbing ourselves of good fat-burning results.

Although I am not a "bells and whistles" kind of guy, heart rate monitors have turned high-tech. They can now track your cadence, speed, distance and even stride length of your run or walk. If you really go high-tech, they can monitor the changes in elevation as you trot through the hills of Cincinnati. I like the simplicity of the alarms they have that alert you when your heart rates goes too high or too low during your training. This keeps you perfectly in the fat-burning zone.

Another neat invention is in the video game industry, and it is Wii Fit. This is an interactive video game that now has exercise software. I have had a couple of clients who really enjoy it, and you can demo a video of it with the link seen below. Wii Fit uses a weight-sensing platform that you stand on and it senses your weight distribution and changes in the distribution.

With the Wii Fit platform you can perform several exercises utilizing your own body weight, perform some great balance challenges and also perform techniques seen in Pilates and yoga. While this will not enthuse the kids for long, the snowboarding simulation will. The overall toning benefits of the Wii are limited with only body weight exercises, and the weight loss benefits are even more limited. A population that I think would benefit greatly from the Wii Fit is the elderly. If performed in a safe environment, the balance exercises can be done safely and they offer great feedback for improving their balance and preventing falls.

The practical fitness gadget is the heart rate monitor, as it will always be a useful and valuable tool for every form of exercise for life. The exercise toy would be the Wii Fit: innovative and entertaining but as with any other video game, you might get bored with it over time, and it will soon become dated as improved versions certainly will be coming out soon. Home exercise equipment, no matter how big or small, no matter how cheap or expensive, no matter how high-tech the gizmo or gadget, often becomes an expensive dust collector. I am a very disciplined fitness trainer and I sold all my home exercise equipment because I never used it with all the distractions that home brings. Learn from my (and many others') costly mistakes! Before you buy a very expensive dust collector, make sure you have established the discipline and motivation to use it. If you don't have that, you need to skip the gizmos and gadgets and buy the low-tech accountability of a trainer.

Click here or on the play button below to see a demo of the Wii.

Doug Gibson
		About the author:
		Doug Gibson is a columnist for Cincy Chic and president of Sensible Fitness Personal Training Center in Blue Ash, Ohio, which specializes in women’s fitness programs. E-mail him at doug@sensiblefitness.com.
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Last update: 16-12-2008 10:33

Published in : Magazine Items, Health