Ripoff Fitness Fads

I was reading a health and fitness forum the other day and saw what has to be the worse case of a fitness rip-off that I have come across. It was an exercise machine, which admittedly was fantastic to look at, but it came with a price tag of USD15,000. The manufacturers claim was the most worrying thing though – that it could get you fit with just 4 minutes of exercise per day. The four minute routine really consisted of 2 minutes of rowing, followed by two minutes on a stepper. With a price tag of USD15,000 you would expect to do a full body workouts, but all that seemed possible, judging from the demonstration videos, was rowing and stepping. An equivalent rower would be a basic Sculling Hydraulic Rowing Machine, which costs around GBP120/USD250, and a simple stepper costs about the same amount. So for GBP250/USD500 you could have everything that the machine for USD15000 offered.

This got me thinking. How many other fitness fad rip-offs are there out there? I have been a member of a large commercial gym, that provided almost no guidance, tuition or motivation from the staff. I also know that all large commercial gyms rely on people joining and not attending. If every gym member went to their gym twice a week there would always be lengthy queues for the machines, showers, swimming pool and saunas. To me, these gyms are a rip-off – they take our money, knowing that they cannot server everybody, and therefore do nothing to actually encourage people to workout more, or to reach their goals. The gyms make money because people fail year after year to actually lose weight and get fit!

But what else is there that is a real rip-off. By this, I mean something that the manufacturer knows will not actually do what they claim it to do. I am not sure how they get away with it really, as I would have thought that the advertising standards authority would stop the adverts, but maybe there are different rules in different countries.

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Expensive equipment and health clubs are not the only rip-offs though. There are so many different supplements and fad diets, plus eBooks on the internet, plus detox diets, stupid vibration plates and the such like, all of which to some extent or another will not do what they claim to do so, at least not without a lot of hardwork.

But what can we do about it? People will always look for a quick fix, whether it be a piece of machinery that claims to give them washboard abs in 2 weeks, or supplements that will make them look like Mr. Universe in a month, or a new diet fad that will allow them to lose all their fat and still have the energy to stand up at the end of it. Would the world be a better place if we had a list of all the ripoff fitness fads, diets and machines? Will I we be sued if we called the products a rip-off, or can we only give a bad review? And who are these people that keep giving good reviews? Can the claims be tested? One machine claims to give a full workout in 4 minutes, stating that the quality of a workout is solely dependent on oxygen consumption during exercise, and that their machine will lead to increased oxygen consumption. Sounds a bit far fetched to me. 60 minutes circuit training, or 4 minutes on a stepper / rower. What do you think is best?

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