During the Pandemic Lockdown, people started buying exercise equipment. These people bought exercise equipment like hotcakes: rowing machines and treadmills. But not everyone can afford fancy set-ups like that – and thankfully, the bottomless pit of junk that is ‘Amazon’ provides.
Amazon sells a range of tiny gadgets that will keep you fit. Are you looking to do your exercise in the comfort of your own home or on a tablet? You will find everything on this website. Prime Day 2021 will bring you a discount on these gadgets.
Are you where?
Image credit to End To End
Colum number 8 Date written: 15/06/21 Days starting: Current location: St Robert, MO Distance traveled: 439.57 miles Distance left: 1,838.43 miles Red Magic Watch is the current tracker
I currently run across America writing TechRadar columns each fortnight about my tech and gadgets. My health has been a focus of this adventure and it was exciting to discover all the amazing gadgets Amazon had for me.
These gadgets will be worth your attention. Are they affordable? Are they able to help you lose weight? Instead of reading testimonials from athletes and personal trainers I chose to buy five devices and conduct my own research.
The three main criteria for evaluating each purchase of a gadget are: It should be user-friendly and economical. I didn’t spend more than £25 (roughly $35, AU$45) on any of these things – I generally chose the cheapest I could find, so brand and build quality wouldn’t be a factor in whether the kit was worthy or not. So I believed.
Training in grip strength
Confession: A grip strength device was what I used to train my hand and arm muscles. It inspired me into this Amazon gadget hoedown. This device was purchased for me to increase my grip during bouldering and it is absolutely wonderful.
All you need to do is squeeze the thing repeatedly in one hand, and you get stronger (in theory) – you can adjust the tension, to make it harder to squeeze, and apparently it’s also useful to release your grip slowly to train another type of strength.
(Image credit: Future)
The grip strength trainer is my favorite because it’s so easy to use while doing other things. Clicking around on the internet with my mouse in my right hand causes my left arm to swell. When I eat cheese with the left hand, my right hand gets fitter.
It’s also a great piece of kit because it’s transportable – I bring mine into the office and use it there too.
However, the question remains whether or not grip strength training improves grip. Well, this clearly isn’t a scientific article, but I think it does – I’ve found it far easier to grip on beams and hand-holds since I started using it. Although this kit won’t make your body appear muscle-bound, it will help you to look more like a Hollywood celebrity. It is easy to use, and can help improve your fitness.
Here are some strength training options for you Amazon US(opens in another tab) / Amazon UK(opens in another tab) / Amazon AU(Opens in a new window)
The power ball
As the powerball, I was constantly referring to it. “orb thing”In my notes, while I was testing the gear. The name “power ball”This is as unscriptive as possible and as forgettable as possible. The powerball came about because, while I could do pull-ups and strength training for my arms, my wrists can get a little wacky. Here is where powerball steps in.
Two balls make up the powerball, with each having its own ball. The powerball is spun by winding a string piece through the one end. Turn your wrist around to keep the inner ball moving.
If this description sounds confusing and unclear and you don’t understand what’s happening, it’s probably a good representation of how the thing felt. I felt the powerball was something that I could throw at Pokemon to catch them. It wasn’t a tool to make my wrists stronger.
There’s a knack to the power ball – if you rotate your wrist at the right rhythm, you keep the ball inside spinning longer, and one time I managed to do it perfectly, so the ball never stopped rotating. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to duplicate this feat.
I’ve used power balls quite a bit now and I still don’t know what to do with them. My wrist is just turned and I hope it works. Do you think this is a good exercise for your wrist?
Set it up takes some time. The process of winding the string takes around half an hour. The ball spins for just 10 seconds. It isn’t very efficient. I found that I could use my wrist strength trainer instead of the power ball, since it didn’t require any setup and could be used repeatedly.
There are power balls available Amazon US(Opens in a new window) / Amazon UK(Opens in a new window) / Amazon AU(Opens in a new window)
Resistance
(Image credit: Future)
We’re now getting into the serious workout stuff. Resistance bands are elastic rubber bands you can pull in many different ways. They can be used for squats, pulling them down on your doorframe, and hooking them to the wall. Different combinations can make this even more difficult.
The parcel contained the band packages. I was amazed at the door anchors, hand-holds, and colors. I thought it was a great idea. ‘this is the real deal’ – coming after the orb thing, it felt like some serious exercise kit. I was eager to get ripped. Not the bands, but my body.
After I opened the instruction book, I began to lose my mind and tried desperately to understand what it was that I was meant.
First, the graphic showed all bands in one place with the label. “100lbs”A second image with the label is then taken. “150lbs”The bands can be shown in different orders. You will have more resistance if the bands are attached in a different order. This is understandable. They can’t be kept in the same place if they’re attached to the hands-holds.
Notwithstanding this weird science, I flipped over the instruction manual to find a list of workouts that was longer than the entire Encyclopedia Brittania – there were countless pictures of different exercises, with names in font so small I could barely read them. There were only two to three graphics per illustration that displayed different sections of an exercise.
While I followed the instructions exactly, there was no way to tell if it was right. Sometimes, I felt it. ‘burning’It was hard to do a workout and sometimes it made me feel stupid. Also, I wasn’t sure which activities were best to use to grow the muscles that I desired.
I did find the resistance bands super easy to use though – they seemed sturdy, and the door anchors were effective in keeping the band attached to a door, for different types of workouts. Although it was difficult to find the right exercise for me, I eventually found one that I liked and could be used easily.
Would I then recommend resistance bands? I’d give it a tentative yes – while I’m not sure I found them as effective as the grip strength trainer or pull-up bar, I actually had more fun with them, and they fit in my small flat pretty well. It’s a sure yes if you have a friend or personal trainer who can teach you how to use them correctly and which activities to link together.
You won’t be disappointed by the bands’ prices, so you don’t have to spend a lot. stretchIt’s too much.
Take a look at these resistance bands Amazon US(Opens in a new window) / Amazon UK(opens in another tab) / Amazon AU(opens in another tab)
Pull-up bars
The pull-up bars are a part of a kit I just purchased. These are metal bars that attach to your home’s doorframes and allow you to do pull-ups.
This is for some people a red flag. To pull-up, you must rely on the strength of your home. My first attempt to attach it was unsuccessful. It almost cost me my life and I ended up damaging the paintwork. I hope my landlord won’t see this.
The doorframe will allow you to reach the highest point of your body.
Depending on where the pull-up bars are placed in your home, they can either be an annoying little extra that you don’t use or the most important part of your home gym.
You will need to unattach and attach it each time you do pull-ups. This can quickly become a problem.
It will be more practical if you have a spot in your house where it can be maintained. It can be casually walked over while you’re doing something else. I use mine while I’m cooking dinner, watching TV or on my iPad.
Seit ich began my ‘pull-ups-when-I-can-be-bothered’ fitness regime, my arm strength has noticeably improved – I’ve received comments pointing it out too. Result! Result!
Pull-up bars available Amazon US(Opens in a new window) / Amazon UK(Opens in a new window) / Amazon AU(Opens in a new window)
Rolling
(Image credit: Future)
Finally, we come to the ab roller – this is basically a fancy way of doing press-ups. This is a better alternative to bending your arms upward or downward. Instead, roll the thing up onto the ground.
My ab roller arrived in a black, luxuriously-designed box. It even had an insignia. This was a far better option than those plastic bags that had resistance bands inside, or the boxes with the powerball, grip strength trainer and power ball.
As soon as I unwrapped the package, alarm bells began to ring in my head. The wheels were made of cheap plastic and couldn’t support me. The alarm bells only got louder when I constructed the thing, and found a gap between the wheels so that they wobbled when in use – and the mental bells reached a wailing crescendo when I looked for instructions on how to use the thing, only to find instructions absent, and a link to a WikiHow article for ‘how to use an ab roller’Instead of writing on the back,
Okay. Realize your expectations.
My first problem with using the ab roller wasn’t to do with the product, though, but my flat – it turns out you need lots of floor space to do a press up, and even more to use an ab roller, and my tiny central London flat didn’t have much of that. My flat had a narrow hallway that I could use to exercise.
I did a few reps without any injuries despite my wobbling and cheap feeling feet. However I didn’t quite like I was doing it right – these are meant to be fantastic core exercises, but it only felt like I was working on my arms.
I was a bit clueless on how to use the ab roller properly, and WikiHow’s guide – well, it’s WikiHow, I don’t need to say more. It was very similar to the reaction I had to the resistance band. However, it was fun to adapt my routines in order to get the elastic worms working the way I wanted. An Ab roller allows me less flexibility.
If you’re a seasoned ab roller user, it is definitely worth looking into. It was exhausting. It didn’t seem to improve my core, and I wasn’t sure if the stress and confusion it caused.
Take a look at our ab rollers Amazon US(Opens in a new window) / Amazon UK(Opens in a new window) / Amazon AU(Opens in a new window)
Which do you prefer?
There’s not a single piece of kit I bought that I straight-up regret – even the worse ones still seemed to work now and then, and given I barely paid anything for them, it was probably worth it.
If you’re unable to purchase one, I will list them according to my preference. My three criteria are value, convenience, and improvement in fitness.
Amazon Prime Day 2021 is scheduled for June 21. It’s worth waiting to purchase the kit as there may be a discount. If you’re tired of all the cheap home gym equipment, you can get the real deal by reading this article.
