The Today Show reveiws Infomercial exercise equipment

I watched the Today show on Feb. 6, 2009 and they reviewed four popular infomercial products.

It was terrible

ARE THEY KIDDING?

I thought the Today show was supposed to be informative? In this case, they were borderline negligent when it comes to what they said.

Their expert personal trainer didn’t have a clue. I don’t care how many degrees or certifications she has, what she doesn’t have is common sense.

Let me review the products:

1. The swivel thing your run on. The Rock and Roll stepper. Haven’t you ever seen a see saw? Duh! It’s a see saw. No different than a balance board. Your body is the axis with each leg teeter-tottering over the axis. It is not only precarious (as you could see as Al Roker and the other woman tried to balance on it), but the weight of one side of your body counteracts the other side, which means it does nothing other than cause an isometric contraction, provides no way of progressing other than moving quicker which becomes a balance act. Waste of money.
2. The perfect pushup? What does that mean? These are circular pivoting handles that allow the wrist to move while performing the push-up. If the goal is to work the chest, then studies have shown it is better to place the hands closer than shoulder width because the fibers of the chest pull the arm inwards towards the midline of the body. Your expert trainer obviously doesn’t know that, or is aware the chest is a shoulder adductor. She stated it was easier on the shoulder. WHAT? The shoulder has no clue as to what the wrist is doing since the action of the wrist is occurring at the radio-ulnar joint (the elbow). Just look at the shoulder when they were performing the push-up. Nothing changed at all when the wrist swivelled. The action of those swiveling pads takes pressure of the wrist and has nothing to do with shoulder!!!!!! And she’s an expert?
3. The pull-up bar piece. The Iron Gym. Fantastic, if you’re a leopard. Who can do pull-ups all day? If they could, they probably are already in shape. I gather no one on that stage could’ve done 2-4 sets of 10, which even if they could, might have taken a total of 60 seconds of total exercise. Not very much. This piece won’t get you in shape; you already have to be in shape!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4. The bucking bronco. The Rock and Go. Give me a break? It moves the muscles of the core???? What if i just shake you for free. Here’s one better: How about you just stick your finger in a socket and fire all your muscles?

The Today show needs a real expert who knows what they’re talking about, where to even look or examine a piece of the equipment, understands functional anatomy and is actually in shape.

Thier trainer is not an expert and a Health editor, please……

Not trying to be mean, but it’s similar to getting financial advice from someone who edits financial news. They’re an editor not an expert.

This isn’t the first time they’ve missed the entire picture when it comes to fitness or personal training.

Let me on there and I’ll give them a real review