The Anti-Gym:
Men's Fitness magazine's February issue has an interesting article about Michael Karolchyk, owner of the Anti-Gym in Denver, Colorado. This particular personal training center specializes in results, at the expense of the dignity of their clients. Karolchyk utilizes his strong personality and a motivation style that combines boot camp and fraternity hazing to push his 400+ gym members to achieve dramatic changes in their fitness and body composition. This sums up his approach nicely:
"If you want positive reinforcement, go to Richard Simmons or Oprah. Both of them are fat and make millions of dollars by making fat people feel good about themselves"
- Michael Karolchyk
Quote of the Week:
"Politics in bodybuilding...never thought I'd see the day!"
- Rob Smalley on Heavy Muscle Radio last week.
The Gymboss:
Billed as an interval timer and stopwatch, Gymboss claims you'll "receive a better workout with better results, workouts easier to plan and execute with more accuracy and consistency." This is a pretty damn significant claim, so we've put our sample Gymboss through some hard testing.
Some of the targeted markets for the Gymboss are Crossfit, Tabata and MMA athletes. Clearly, the need for accurately timed intervals and rest periods, usually measured in seconds, is paramount for these workouts. Using a traditional stopwatch means somebody isn't working out while others are; not to mention, it's impossible to use a stopwatch, yourself, especially when you're lying on the floor trying to breathe between sets.
My female "Stuff I Like" tester, Anne, is a fit athlete combining Crossfit-style and traditional bodybuilding workouts. She dove into learning how to set-up the Gymboss, checking in with their website for detailed instructions. An imaginative series of workouts, some alone and some including myself as a guinea pig, have convinced both of us the Gymboss is a gem of a workout tool.
Anne likes the compact size; it's easy to carry in the gym and fits in a pocket or the palm of the hand. She found it easy to program, even for "direction-challenged individuals like myself," she reports. Gymboss runs on a single AAA battery, and has a 30-day money back guarantee and a one-year warranty.
She put the Gymboss through the paces, using it primarily for short duration exercises of 30-60 seconds each, and for Tabata-method training. Gymboss is also useful for HIIT workouts, as it allows one to do things without a training partner to keep track of time. Using Gymboss means you no longer have to stare at the gym clock trying to watch the second hand; it allows for precisely timed rest periods with no guessing.
Utilizing 1 or 2 interval settings allows endless options. For example, when doing varied exercises for a set period of time, Anne was able to program a 10-second transition time getting from one exercise to another. Gymboss allows athletes to set any number of total intervals up to 99, and to program intervals of 2 seconds to 99 minutes.
"The built-in clip allows me to carry it attached to my waistband or sleeve. It also allows me to set the alarm to be audible from 1 to 10 seconds, although I'm not sure why anyone would want an alarm to go off for 10 seconds! When I used this feature it was annoying," Anne said.
Gymboss' alarm beep has high and low volume settings. She used high in the gym and it was loud enough to easily hear without annoying the other gym members. The low beep may be difficult to hear depending on the noise level of your environment. We found the vibration feature wasn't as effective as the alarm.
Anne says "When I had Gymboss clipped to my waistband while doing bodyweight squats, I didn't feel the vibration intensely enough. When I switched it to 5-second duration, it was easier to detect, but I still prefer the "beep" alarm."
The $20 price tag makes Gymboss an essential piece of equipment everyone will want to have in their workout bag.
Healing Through Exercise: A New Way to Prevent and Overcome Illness and Lengthen Your Life by Jorg Blech.
Reading "Healing Through Exercise" proved to be a quick process. Author Blech is a science journalist with a clear writing style, and he doesn't get bogged down in too much science for the average reader. I like the premise of his work. With 60% of the world's population being sedentary and health costs associated with this massive group skyrocketing, the simple application of regular exercise manifests itself in many positive ways.
Blech makes the important point that modern medicine often uses drugs and medicines to combat illness, meanwhile prescribing no exercise. He carefully makes the critical point that exercise not only prevents but often treats many of the diseases Americans suffer from today. . . including osteoporosis, asthma, osteoarthritis, chronic pain, and type-2 diabetes. He goes so far as to link exercise to brain cell growth.
However, I quickly lost interest in this book on page 168, after Blech mentions that testosterone acts as an anabolic hormone and enables muscle growth. This was fine, but he goes on to say that it's a "small wonder that testosterone and the hormone DHEA are marketed as anti-aging products and consumed by many men......" "...in reality, hormone prescriptions help only the drug manufacturer and the prescribing doctor. A study has just shown that neither testosterone nor DHEA enhance well-being when given as drugs." He even goes on to state a paragraph later that "Obviously these hormones are helpful and effective only if produced by the body."
Millions of men worldwide, and their doctors, would find much to argue with Blech about on this topic.
I'm happy a new book publicizes the virtue of exercise as important therapy for modern diseases. At the same time I'm unhappy with his disregard for hormone replacement therapy for men; an area of great importance.
www.dacapopress (Lifelong Books)
Go to www.superhumanradio.com and listen to radio show #280, "Two Guys Shooting the Breeze," to hear Carl Lanore and I talk last week about the supplement business and food for weight training and health. Two cranky guys!
Contact John Koenig at [email protected]
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