Your Fitness Equipment

With the multitudes of companies designing different
pieces of fitness equipment, at least to the untrained
eye, how do we judge "the good, the bad and the ugly"?

Well your first clue should be if it says benefits like:
"relaxing and easy, complete toning in 5 minutes".

This will be my first real harsh lesson in reality.

It's NOT supposed to be easy, It takes much LONGER
than 5 minutes, and there is NO SUCH THING as toning.

Let me break this down for you in more detail. At the end,
some of you may not want be a part of my blog anymore
because the truth is too hard to accept. In other words,
the famous line in a Tom Cruise movie,"You Can't Handle
The Truth".

Most fitness and exercise equipment is geared towards
the average lazy person who doesn't want to do much work.
So words like easy, relaxing, no strain, and the like appeal
to this huge consumer market. Listen to the words that are
coming out of my keyboard: in order to succeed and reach
your goals, whatever they may be, it will require work and
lots of it. Anybody who tells you different has an eye on your
wallet.

Deep down, you know I'm telling you the absolute truth.
You know this! Don't get conned into buying something else
until this sinks in. Save your money and go for a walk, ride
a bicycle, do some pushups, whatever. Just don't look for
some way of making it easier. If you do, you have lost the
ability for your body to actually do some work, burn
calories, and recruit muscle and improve your overall
condition. It doesn't matter whether you're doing it to lose
weight (fat weight), increase muscle size, or improving your
condition for health or sport activity reasons, it's all the same.

It will take work and it's won't be easy.

Even activities like Yoga or Tai Chi, as simple as they look,
will require practise to get better and it really is not that
easy in the first place. Learning the moves and positioning
will require hard work. Oh, there's that word again.
Looks like some of you already are going to the delete
button on this blog! By the time I get to the end of this post
I may be saying, "is anybody out there?".

Success in 5 minutes. This is a great flow from the
paragraphs above. What can you accomplish in 5 minutes?
Tell me honestly? Here's the answer, look at the above
paragraphs! It will take a lot longer than 5 minutes. This
is another statement that you know deep down. If you
are badly out of condition, then start at 5 minutes and
work up to at least 20 minutes and more. This is with
any piece of equipment or taking a walk, riding a bike,
etc... See, I saved you money by tellng you that it's
not the piece of equipment, but the time you put in doing
something. The 5 minutes scenerio comes from the same
advertising selling to the same demographic group, the lazy.
Oh, there goes more of you reaching for your mouse to
leave this page for good!

That's the way it is in the real world. Do you really think
all those people you admire for their physical conditioning
and attractiveness get that way by easy relaxing, no sweat
required, in just 5 minutes type of activities? I hope the
answer is obvious because if it isn't, let me personally
delete you from ever coming to my blog again.

Ok, I see one or two of you still left that are reading. You
are the lucky ones because you see the light and are actually
understanding that it's all a marketing thing. You may be
still asking " what equipment is the best. In your last post
you said you would reveal the truth". I have told you
indirectly what is best and I will continue to give more
insight.

We must be patient for a while longer while I dis-mantle
long held beliefs.

You will read things that you may never see again because
people are too busy trying to give you the song and dance
with the final act of grabbing your wallet.

Stay tuned for the next post as I destroy one the longest
held "none-words". I'm really looking forward to it.

Stay tuned.

Basically, if you want to know if a piece of
fitness equipment is going to help you, here's
the long and short of it

IT DEPENDS.

Oh yes, way to go Jack. I really wanted to
hear something profound like "it depends"!
I'm sure that's what you are thinking, but hear
me out on this.

I don't care what piece of exercise equipment,
diet, healthy lifestyle program, or anything else
you try. If you don't use this Golden Rule,
nothing will help you or get the results you're
looking for.

Here it is, ready;

YOU NEED TO USE IT

There, I said it.

If you're actually going to use something and stick
with it, you will get some kind of result with 90%
of the fitness gadgets out there. If you are not
willing to stick with it, then I don't care how good
something is, it's not going to help you.

It's like buying a shovel to dig a hole and letting it
sit in the shed hoping it will dig a hole by itself
without you picking it up and doing the work.

If you we're expecting some great revelation
in this post, well...... You just got it. Get up and
do something and stick with it!

Once you are truly committed to making a change,
then we can get into the specifics. Please take this
to heart, because it really is the key to your success.

So is a piece of equipment going to work?

It depends

It depends on whether you are going to use it and stay
with the program, or shove it in the closet, put it in the
laundry room to hang some of your wash to dry,
stick it in a corner in the basement, throw it in a pile in the
garage with the rest of the stuff you've collected. Do any of
these sound like you? Your answer should be, of course not!
That type of buying and not using scenario happens to
the other 98% of the people, not me!

Great, now we can move forward and give the specifics
on what is useful and what is useless in fitness equipment.

Next post. What is #1 in making the most change in your
appearance.

Even though the initial intention of my blog
is to talk about good versus bad fitness equipment,
there is something that needs to be hammered
home. Be wary of the hype. Do your due diligence
and check out some of the ways to see which
exercise are worth their weight. The next
update, I will you talk about a few things to look
for to help make your decisions.

For this update I wanted to give you a few ways
that these male and / or female models look so good
while performing the equipment demonstration.
Not a lot of people know about the extra things done
to enhance the look and make them look even more
awesome. Take some of these secrets and use some
of them yourself help make you look better if you're
going to be somewhat unclothed!

- Notice the sheen off the models as your looking at
their bodies. They use oil to highlight the muscles and
make them stand out more. That isn't sweat!
- You may not notice this as much, but these models
either have a very dark tan, or use a chemical dye on
their skin, or both. The reason for this is that a darkened
skin shows more highlights and shadows, thus making
the definition look more prominent ( most people use
the word "tone" or "toned", THIS IS INCORRECT. I
will explain why in a near future article).
- The lighting to enhance the muscle definition (NOT TONE)
is placed at just the right angle so that the tanned skin
creates the shadow between the muscles. This in turn
gets further highlighted by adding a bit of oil to make them
stand out more. By the way, notice that an actor or actress
in a movie, where they are required to show off their
body in certain scenes, will have a glisten on their skin
which is oil to highlight their physique.

There are many more ways to make the body look
better and I will through them in a future update. The
next update will start to focus on fitness equipment and
what is the good, bad and ugly.

You see an ad for some new type of fitness
equipment and you are led to believe, by the
host of the T.V. infomercial, or author of the
magazine ad that these"buffed" models got
that way from that piece of equipment.

The truth is that most of these people
were in good shape to begin with and have
spent several months preparing for this one
day to get filmed, or have pictures taken.
People who look that good know what they
are doing and have certain routines they follow
when they need to fine tune their bodies. One
thing they usually don't tell you is that diet had
a huge effect on their shape. Next time look down
at the bottom of the page, or scroll at the
bottom of your screen during an ad for fitness
equipment and see the fine print that says "best
results when combined with a sound diet or
nutritional program".

Now please believe me when I say that I am not
being negative here about all exercise equipment,
I am just trying to give you a real review of what
is good and what you should not spend your money
on.

The great thing about blogs is that there is a freedom
of speech allowed without having to be too politically
correct. I will do my best to help you with your choices
and point you to the right direction.

If you keep in mind that at the very basic root of the
fitness business, that's exactly what it is, a business. So
companies are after the big dollars. It may be harsh to
hear that, but that's the bottom line. If they have to use
deceptive advertising, or stretch the truth and get away
with it, they will.

Next update I'm going to tell you how those models
look so good performing the exercises. It doesn't only
have to do with being in good shape!

Common sense would tell you that in
order to make good progress and results,
you be should doing what the serious exercise
people are doing.

Are they using gadgets and contraptions
like you see the models using in the T.V.
infomercials? Are they doing exercises that
make the workload easier? Do I really have to
answer these questions for you? You know the
answer.

Let me tell you about a friend I have who did
an infomercial with those waist belts that
contract the abdominal muscles through
electrical impulses. I'm sure you have seen them
on T.V. or in magazines. You can find them in
garage sales now. Anyway, she did the infomercial
because she had a good reputation as a personal
trainer and she is in excellent shape. The producers
of the program thought that she would be a great
choice. They paid her good money and she did the
infomercial for that product.

The result? She still regrets doing that T.V. gig to this
day. The ads ran 4 years ago. I remember seeing it
and feeling embarrassed for her. Her credibity went
out the window. She got the "gears" from her friends
and fitness clients for a long time after that. She sold
herself for that product. She never did use it for herself
becaue she knew better. She got her results from the
standard and real fitness equipment over the years.

The point? Just because you see some models, fitness
people, bodybuilders or just people in great shape
advertising something, or some piece of equipment,
doesn't mean they actually use it to get into the
shape you see them in.

The moral of this story is: do what the people with the
results do in real life, not in the fantasy world called
advertising!

Next update, I'm going let you in on a secret all these
models do in order to sell this equipment.

You're not going to like it!

There is a simple method to see what is not
worthwhile to buy. This is very general, but it
will work if your reaching for your money.

If it says "perform easy....", "comfortable"
"helps do the work". Comments like these and
similar ones, put your money away.

Listen, it's not supposed to be easy!

Deep down, you know that it takes work to
lose fat or increase your cardiovascular ability.
Don't fall prey to someone telling you that 3
minutes of easy to do stomach exercises with
this machine is all you need. If you see this on
T.V., shut it off or change the channel, you are
being fed a useless item that will collect dust in
your basement. The only thing that will get
thinner is your wallet.

Stores, newspaper ads, infomercials, magazines,
everywhere there's somebody or some company
selling something that is supposed to be the ultimate
product to make look like a Greek God or Goddess.

Millions of people buy fitness equipment. Evidence
of this is the classified ads under "Misc. for Sale" or
"Sports Equipment". People buy these body fantastic
gizmo's which end up as an expensive rack to hang
laundry on. If you saw something on T.V. that you
think would help you get rid of that extra cushion of
comfort, wait a couple of months and pick it up cheap
in the paper or garage sale.

Better yet, come by and see me at this blog. Let me
show you which fitness equipment will actually do
something for you. This blog will keep you in-the-know
about the little tricks used to make the models look good.
You will also get an honest review of the item being sold
and learn for yourself how to spot the good, the bad and
the ugly.

Which fitness equipment will actually do somethng for you?

Stores, newspaper ads, infomercials, magazines, everywhere
there's somebody or some company selling something that
is supposed to be the ultimate product to make look like a
Greek God or Goddess.

Millions of people buy fitness equipment. Evidence of this is
the classified ads under "Misc. for Sale" or "Sports Equipment".
People buy these body fantastic gizmo's which end up as an
expensive rack to hang laundry on. If you saw something on
T.V. that you think woiuld help you get rid of that extra
cushion of comfort, wait a couple of months and pick it up cheap
in the paper or garage sale. Better yet, come by and see me at
this blog. Let me show you which fitness equipment will actually
do something for you.

This blog will keep you in-the-know about the little tricks used
to make the models look good. You will also get an honest review
of the item being sold and learn for yourself how to spot the
good, the bad and the ugly.