"Guaranteed to work or your money back!" I can't tell you how many times I've heard that. So I always get asked about fitness products,equipment, supplements,books,videos etc.  So lets start with what I think started it all:

Body For Life

Body For Life was a book written by Bill Phillips (founder of Muscle Media 2000) that started the whole fitness contest craze. It was simple. Take a before picture . Use at least one EAS product and take an after picture 12 weeks later. The winners were featured in the movie Body For Life and then the book Body For Life. The book was very simple. No great secret here. If you burn more than you take in, you lose weight. Add 3 days week of resistance training and you will improve your physique. What I really like about this whole thing was that it got everyone excited about fitness. The result, Body For Life spent 200 straight weeks on the best seller list.

Total Gym

You gotta love Chuck Norris. Seriously, if Chuck told me that eating cat food would turn me into a better fighter I probably would have to try it. Throw Christie Brinkley in there and you have got a recipe for success. I actually like the Total Gym. It is based on the principal of using portions of your body weight to perform exercises. The pulley system adds an element of instability. Get the delux version it is more stable and not as shaky. I recommend the Total Gym to maintain you body. You can also get some very original Pilates like movements on this machine.

The Bow Flex

I loved the infomercial for this thing. It was comical. Yet very accurate. This is actually one of the most complete pieces of equipment I've ever seen. No real drawbacks. I like the"power rods". While I've seen a number of these machines in the garage collecting dust, I have yet to hear a complaint. Like the Total Gym , the rods add an element of instability. 

P90x

I get so many people that say Austin Fitness Extreme is a great deal like this DVD. I bought it a while back and was very impressed.  I love the concept. Work every body part and never rest. The exercises are very  smooth. The transitions are flawless and the workouts are diverse enough to keep you interested  and motivated. I like P90x. 

The Power Plate

I'm gonna get myself in trouble here. Every now and then a piece of equipment comes along that makes too many claims for it's own good. The Power Plate is  a platform that vibrates at varying levels of intensity. The user can perform varying exercises and/or poses to engage their stabilizing muscles and core. I am not a fan of this machine at all. While it does cause you to engage stabilizing muscles , it does so in a way that doesn't address the users individual lack of balance or stability. The plate vibrates at an even rhythm. Conversely if you get on a balance board, you find out real quick which side you favor, and how you need to correct your own stability. The power Plate doesn't do that. The claim that it improves strength has been disproven by The Cooper Clinic and Harvard Medical School.  However, if you are sore it does offer some relief much the same way a massage chair would. 

So What do I like? 

I love kettlebells, plyometrics and my new set of gymnastic rings. More than anything else, keep your workouts new. try new things. Just be logical about it. Like I said a while back, "Does balancing on one leg ,on the bosu,holding a weight in one hand, closing one eye,   while doing a squat realy do anything?"  Not so much.