It was a most interesting experience. The one product in particular showing this time was a cross-breed between a stairmaster and a cross-trainer (name withheld to avoid a lawsuit against me). The man and the woman presenting this were, of course, booming about how great it was for fat burn, building muscle tone, avoiding injuries and yada yada yada. There were clips of oiled-up athletes using the machine, fitness experts praising it, flashing percentages of how superior it was compared to other ways of training and, of course, the man using the machine "for the first time" and getting utterly surprised by how easy it was.
Convincing enough, huh? Well, let's take a closer look. Oiled-up athletes using the machine? Does that make it more credible? So, if I would take two golfballs and glue onto a toothpick and put this "mini-dumbbell" into the hands of Arnold Schwarzenegger, does that mean I could credit his impressive biceps to my toothpick-and-golfballs dumbbell? You figure.
Onto fitness-experts. You're presented by a couple of smiling faces praising the product, and at the bottom of the screen you see their names and the words: "Fitness expert." Period. Umm... Fitness expert? Who's a fitness expert? The CEO of the company's wife who uses the machine daily? Or is it an actual trainer, certified by a recognized organization and without any economic interests in the product? It doesn't say.
Then they tell us that the product is five times more effective than a fat-burn session at a treadmill. They even tell us that you can cut your cardio-training time by four-fifths if you're using their product! Great, huh? Not quite. The small text at the bottom says that this goes if using the machine at 80% resistance, while having the treadmill at 2.7 m.p.h. When was the last time you used a treadmill going 2.7 m.p.h.? Then add the detail of us being humans. Sure, you might burn five times more CALORIES, but are we talking actual fat loss here? Experience tells us that you must keep the pulse up for 15 to 20 minutes before you get any fatburn worth mentioning going. Busting your guts for 10 minutes and believing you're burning fast as efficiently as if you were doing 50 minutes of lower intensity work? Not likely.
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