News :
Coolest Workout Equipment
Forbes - USA, July 28 2005 -- NEW YORK - Looking to make
your workouts more interesting? Maybe what you need is exercise equipment
that makes it more fun, if not more rewarding.
A tour through any state-of-the-art fitness club reveals
an arsenal of space-age machines that look like a cross between torture
devices and props from the set of a Star Wars movie. Take the $14,615
ROM Time Machine, from North Hollywood, Calif.-based Romfab, a cross-trainer
that claims to give a total body workout in four minutes. It's popular
with celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Sylvester Stallone and Stephen
Spielberg—not to mention the U.S. Navy S.E.A.L.S., the U.S. Women's
Olympic swim team and the Phoenix Fire Department—the ROM looks like
it could eviscerate you, if it didn't first give you long, supple muscles
and an improved cardiovascular system.
Exercise equipment has come a long way from Indian clubs
and medicine balls, but the basic concepts are the same: lose weight,
get strong, get healthy. Like dishwashers and microwave ovens, what
modern equipment does is get you the same result in a shorter amount
of time.
Fitness equipment sales are on the rise and manufacturers
such as Nautilus (nyse: NLS - news - people ) are responding by creating
cool, new toys to break a sweat with. We don't mean kids' toys either,
send the youngsters to the sitter—these are lean, mean muscle-making
machines built for the toughest—or maybe the richest fitness fanatics.
The National Sporting Goods Association in Mt. Prospect,
Ill., released data in May 2005 showing fitness equipment sales in the
U.S. hit at $5 billion dollars for 2004. They project about a 2% growth
for 2005. Some of the biggest companies in the industry are Life Fitness,
which is owned by Illinois-based Brunswick (nyse: BC - news - people
), Nautilus and Precor, a subsidiary of Finnish sporting goods giant
Amer Sports Corp. So while Americans are racing to get in shape, manufacturers
are racing to nab customers and they're bringing their flashy machines
with them.
"The reason manufacturers are making their equipment
so high tech is just a sign of our culture," says Rosemarie Ferrara,
General Manager and Personal Trainer at Premiere Fitness & Health
Spa in Alamogordo New Mexico. "We are always wanting the most-progressive
product available, same goes for fitness."
That's why our list of Coolest Fitness Equipment features
machines that look good and provide optimum performance. For instance,
Nautilus subsidiary Bowflex took simple free weights and created SelectTech
dumbbells. One set gives the option of 30 individual weights made to
save space and time—key in any busy lifestyle.
While innovation isn't lacking in the fitness world, there
are always those who stick with basic concepts. NSGA data shows the
good ol' treadmill is still the most-sold piece of fitness equipment
in the nation. Sales were at about $2.8 billion in 2004. Those figures
could be changing in the future. Research from The International Health,
Racquet, & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) shows use of elliptical
trainers, low-impact cardio machines bred from a stair climber and a
cross-country machine,are rising significantly.
"Ellipticals are the best piece of equipment to use.
They train all leg muscles with less force on joints than even walking,"
says Dr. Joseph Mercola, who heads mercola.com, a popular health Web
site. Ellipticals also save time by combining strength and cardio workouts.
Springing from the same concept are now machines such as the Cybex ARC
trainer, it uses the gliding motion of an elliptical, but gives the
feeling of hiking or running bleachers because who has time for outdoors
anymore?
Next is our list of Coolest Fitness Equipment. Don't
be surprised if you find yourself scratching the plans for that baby
room. Isn't it time to start building the new home gym you've been wanting
instead?
(source : www.forbes.com)
