“From Flabby to Fabulous in Six Minutes a Day!”

I am all over fitness gadgets and I love taking fat burners. I saw this little contraption while in line at Wal-Mart one day.  My spouse was like, “Oh yeah, I’ve seen the infomercial for that thing.  It’s pretty hilarious.”  Well, me being a slave to marketing and desperately needing to tone my arms, I ignored my grinning companion and, relinquishing my hard-earned twenty dollars, bought it.

So, what is the ‘Shake Weight’?  Well, simply put, it is a 2.5 lb dumbbell that has an internal weight that uses your own motion to bounce it back and forth along the, er…’shaft.’  It is not motorized, does not require batteries and uses ‘dynamic inertia’ to tone your muscles from ‘flab to fab.’

Dynamic inertia is defined as ‘the tendency of a body in motion to remain in motion unless acted upon by an outside force.’  In other words, the weight uses this basic principle to create multi-directional resistance; while you’re shaking the weight one direction, your muscles are tricked into an extensive workout.

You hold the weight with both hands, lock your wrists and move the Shake Weight back and forth evenly, about three inches in each direction.  And eh viola, six minutes and several shakes later your biceps, triceps, shoulders and chest are worked out!

I have to admit to being dubious, especially when I shook the weight and felt like I was performing a sex act!  Of course my spouse sat down in a front row seat to watch.  And I came dangerously close to losing my front teeth, until I read the disclaimer that you were to ‘hold the device at least six inches away from your face to avoid injury.’  Yeah…should have probably read the directions before I embarked upon ‘shaking’!

But surprisingly, and in spite of the hilarity using this device caused, it actually…hurt!  After a few minutes, I could barely keep it up, and had to slow my shaking down.  I felt like I’d gone twelve rounds with Mike Tyson!   It really did give me a good workout.  The box contained a DVD also, demonstrating different exercises to perform using Shake Weight.  All I can say is…wow (and ‘ow’ equally.)

Apparently a scientific study was done on Shake Weight technology, conducted by a Dr. Daniel Cyriani, Professor at the department of Exercise Physiology at San Diego State University.  The study compared Shake Weight technology to use of normal dumbbells, and showed that Shake Weight drastically outperformed free weights.  This was because of Shake Weight’s ‘rapid motion’ and ‘isometric contraction’ of the entire upper body during use.

Have I seen a change in my body over time?  Have I continued to use it for six minutes a day?  Well, no.  The problem being, the device is so ‘naughty’, I cannot perform the exercise without collapsing into fits of giggles!  Maybe if I shook the thing daily for a few weeks I could finally get over my teenage immaturity towards it and view it as a serious piece of workout equipment!   Watching Ellen Degeneres hand them out to various celebrities on her show, didn’t help my disposition towards it.  Now I have a visual of Queen Latifah’s considerable bosom shaking along to it while making lewd comments and facial expressions.

Bottom line-this product is silly, but effective.  If you don’t have a dirty mind, you two should have a beautiful partnership; and you, beautiful, toned arms!

Happy shaking!