Fitness Notes

Ab Rocket Abdominal Trainer is labeled as an Ab-specific training apparatus but it is actually far more. Naturally, it was initially developed for ab training and development but recent innovations in the design now allow for a far more total full body workout. It comes with a training regimen and suggestions for implementing a program at your own speed, and the instructions are perfectly conceived.

While the nature of the abdominal muscles seem any more to revolve around appearance and a fixation on tummy issues, the fact is that a strong set of abs is the most enabling and helpful part of the anatomy in its very central role in lifting, squatting and even climbing. What this system offers is even more than this fundamental focus. It is possible with this most interesting workout system to develop strength and muscle tone thoughout the entire body. Legs, tummy, arms, neck - even the sides get enormous focus from a most useful and interesting training tool.

For more information and for user reviews of this adaptable and interesting training aid, click here.

Ripcords Exercise Bands are stark in their simplicity but amazingly effective when the rubber meets the road - when the workoput commences. Coupled with some great instructions on how to go about this toning operation, these bands act in ones or even twos to require as diligent and as thorough a workout as one could possibly want.

As opposed to working with weights and machines, these bands actually engage to work the whole muscles, including stabilizers, giving a far more thorough result. Resistence training with bands and tubes have long been a staple workout mechanism of all physiotherapists for long years, in dealing with torn rotator cuffs, bad knees and general rehabilitations. Ripchords use the same tension training principles but takes them to another level by supplying a fast and effective total body workout. Obviously, these otems are as portable as they can be and can extend the gym to just about any location - a true plus. Add that the 7 Minute Workout instructions incouded in the set are one of the best and even aerobic workouts there are.

For more information on these interesting training aids and for user reviews, please click here.

Iron Gym Total Upper Body Workout Bar proves the adage that the best things often come in small packages. Versatile in an unimaginable sense, this little unit provides pretty much every muscle group in th human body a platform from which to tone and strengthen itself. It truly is a gym on a stick, in many ways. Work your chest, arms, shoulders, abs, back, legs and more doing chin ups, sit ups, pull ups and countless exercises in new and not so new ways.

The metal bar fits between any doors 24" - 32" wide without damaging the doorway, and is releasable immediately. Pull ups and chin ups become the order of the day before dismantling and applying the bar and its straps to other exercises. It supports up to 300 pounds as well.

This is a terrificly-engineered American product. Versatile to the max and a definite training aid of the first order, it proves one does not need a $100 a month spa membership nor does he need some humongous and expensive workout exercise machine to achieve the goals of tone and strength.

For more product information with a list of uses, plus some good user reviews, please click here.

Timex T5G941 Heart Rate Monitor Watch provides a comfortable and - more importantly - very reliable assessment of heart rate for every purpose. Connected with information sensed from a comfortably-fitting adjustable elastic strap unobtrusively situated around the chest, the readout mechanism - the watch - is available in large print LCD readout, with INDIGLO backing for night lighting. Information included in the readouts are heart rate, activity time and duration, peak, minimum heart rate and it includes a 12/24 month/date and time display.

From Timex, this little watch is an inexpensive method of tracking your health and vital signs with ease. Inasmuch as so many currently available heart monitors - especially at gyms and spas - have a cumbersome feature requiring interrupting a workout to check vital soigns, a glance down at this watch's large LCD information can keep one in tune and up to date with his very latest reads.

For more product information and for some interesting user reviews of this product, click here.

Slendertone Women's Flex Abdominal Toning System Belt exercises, tightens and tones abdominal muscles like few other implements for ab training. 3 AAA bateries (included) actually activate signals which reach out to nerves to relax and strengthen the impact of workouts relating to abs in general. A site-specific entity, restricted to abdominal work primarily, this FDA-Approved mechanism is a truly focused and effective way of working out that region of the body and reaching a point of beauty and of tone. The fact is, it actually does work to simply strengthen abdominal muscles in a way few other things can in the time frame. Used regularly in 30 minute workouts, results are guaranteed within 6-8 weeks of starting the regime. Actually, according to the testimonials, many people find results far earlier. This is a simply stunning piece of body region-specific raining technolgy whose results are totally convincing.

For much more on the product and its manner of working, plus some interesting and enlightenining testimonials, click here.

Total Gym 1700 Club is a compact edition of what is, in essence, an entire gym. An ergonomic sliding platform, the "glide board", allows a person to tone and sculpt every major muscle group in the human body. A few very handy and easily adapted attachments can bring one from lower body work to upper strengthening exercises - including weights - in seconds. A Pilates Bar helps improve range of motion and balance. Dip Bars and the Pilates bar add versatility and allow more effective focus on very specific body regions as workout aims. An additional 75 pounds of weights can be purchased separately to augment what the unit offers in general for pure weight training for any part of the body.

For many people who are not among the steroid-laden classes of weight lifters and body builders, this gym is a dream come true. Small in size yet utterly effective and extremely durable and well-built, the fascinating compactness of the design allows for the most rigorous workouts for the ultimate result: great good health.

For more on this interesting and practical workout product and for testimonials from those who use them, please click here.

Omron HJ-720ITC Pocket Pedometer reveals just how far modern pedometers have come. Far from needing strapping to a leg, this unit can be attached to a belt or even even just put inside a purse or a pocket to reveal to the user how many steps he takes over a period of time. It measures, among other things, steps, aerobic steps, minutes, calories and distance on one hand - of an individual workout - and seperately meaures the number of aerobic steps when they amount to over 10 minutes. A 7 day history allows one to down load the data onto accompnaying software or to even make a spreadhseet listing the data involved. The unit, which also has a clock, shuts down at the end of every day automatically, so the data involved will always be automatically fresh.

It passes the acid tests of practical measurments given by users and is remarkably - of not totally - accurate as to the rate and number of steps taken daily. The software is easily adapted and accessible and can reveal much about the normal day suppositions versus the reality of how far, how long and how aerobic we actually do walk.

For more detailed information about this handy training aid and for user reviews, click here.

Confidence Foldable Stow Away Exercise Bike is a nearly noiseless, smooth-running exercise bike which folds up tight for easy and out-of-the-way storage. Weighing in at about 50 pounds, this bike folds into a tight formation and can be out of the way in a seconds. Designed for a lower body, low-impact cardiovascular workout, focusing on legs, hips and buttocks, this little unit burns 4 times more calories than walking at even the lowest settings. Adjustable magnetic resonance resisteance settings run to 10 different resistances, insuring one of a stiff workout at every level.

This exercise bike is easily-assembled at home and has all the qualities of composition and engineeering which will make this unit last for long years of use. Durable, compact and efficient, this is an ultimate bike for cardiovascaulr workouts at home, no matter how tiny the space alloted for exercise. A gel seat can be ordered as well, for those who find the seat with this one too small.

This terrific product has some very prasieworthy reviews from happy users. Click here for those testimonials as well as for more information on this great unit.

Manduka Yoga and Pilates Mat is a quarter inch thick, 7 feet long and 26 inches wide. It soft non stick surface and underment at once gives some cushioned relief to elbows, knees and other joints while practicing yoga or Pilates. Manduka's mats have long been considered pretty much the "state of the art" or the "Rolls Royce" of practitioner mats and are famous for their durability and comfort.

Its fabric-like surface is not srticky but yet slip resistant, even when sweaty. The firm but still-pliable composition resists bunching and remains flat even when using on carpeting or with sticky feet. One of the true benefits is that this version of the mat is extra long - 7 feet. It allows different spots for positioning and does not require a lot of repositioning when going through routines. Most teachers of Yoga consider this The Mat and support its use generously. User comments are almost universally emphatic in their praise for a myriad of practical reasons, perhaps most importantly for its durability. This is a mat one can use for years, not months.

For more information about this products and for some very enthusiastic reviews, please click here.