There is no way that I could or would buy something like this (unless maybe I could also drive it to work), but I am intrigued by a magazine ad for something called an ROM, which looks a little like an exercise bike designed by Rube Goldberg. It purports to give the user a complete aerobic and cardiovascular workout in four minutes. Apparently it is primarily marketed to private users, especially people near the manufacturer in California, rather than gyms or health clubs, but some are in commercial use. Has anybody had any experience with this thing? Is it worth trying to find a gym that uses them, or is this just one more way for people in Southern California to proclaim “Look, I’m rich!”?
I’d be suspicous of anything that calls all experts fools.
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Far less expensive than any alternative method of exercise.
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In other threads I’ve detailed my own absolutely free excercise plan. Obviously bollocks statements like this about the machine’s cheapness make me even more suspicious.
A big part of excercise is mind-body coordination and training in how to do various things. I doubt very much that you can effectively focus on all your muscles at once.
Now here we have a statement that proves that they are full of it. I’d say the leg muscles are more than 25% of the body’s muscle mass by a large amount. Just because a muscle is moving through 15% of its range of motion, doesn’t mean that 15% of its cells are working. It’s pretty unlikely in fact.
Again, this is uttely false. Well the part about only burning 40 Calories is probably true, but your resting metabolism isn’t boosted in this way by short burst of excercise. Your resting metabolism is affected by how much total muscle mass you have(among other factors) to gain much muscle in 4 minutes a day, no matter how large the range of motion. Total muscle mass is ultimately only affected by how much mass you lift, and your diet.
Here’s my post again with better coding :smack:
I’d be suspicous of anything that calls all experts fools.
In other threads I’ve detailed my own absolutely free excercise plan. Obviously bollocks statements like this about the machine’s cheapness make me even more suspicious.
A big part of excercise is mind-body coordination and training in how to do various things. I doubt very much that you can effectively focus on all your muscles at once.
Now here we have a statement that proves that they are full of it. I’d say the leg muscles are more than 25% of the body’s muscle mass by a large amount. Just because a muscle is moving through 15% of its range of motion, doesn’t mean that 15% of its cells are working. It’s pretty unlikely in fact.
Again, this is uttely false. Well the part about only burning 40 Calories is probably true, but your resting metabolism isn’t boosted in this way by short burst of excercise. Your resting metabolism is affected by how much total muscle mass you have(among other factors). You are unlikely to gain much muscle in 4 minutes a day, no matter how large the range of motion. Total muscle mass is ultimately only affected by how much mass you lift, and your diet, and sex ( and species).
Actually, it is. Cite.
However, the rest of the site is total bullshit.
Interesting. Googling around, I see that only 30 second bursts of intense training with short breaks in between are required for results. I don’t imagine only 4 minutes total is going to have a huge effect though.
Consider the engineering, amount and variety of materials, and moving paarts and electronics that goes into a cheap $14,000 car.
Now look at the ROM.
You decide.
I liked this picture from one of the articles about the ROM they linked to -
Having insults hurled at you by a dominatrix while Bjork utilizes the art of acupressure to burn calories, all taking place around a glorified excercise bike with armrests. It’s the future of tomorrow, today!
Most cardiac and cardiovascular research indicates that maximum benefit from aerobic exercise begins with about 20 minutes per day. Presumably, these studies correlate health benefits with activities that cause increased heartrate and respiration for 20 minutes. This gizmo would have to provide those same benefits in four minutes of increased heartrate and respiration. In light of those studies, it does not seem reasonable to think that one’s heart and cardiovascular system could benefit from 4 minutes of activity, regardless of what that activity is. To me, it appears the benefit accrues in part from the amount of time that the heart is working at increased speed, and ultimately increased efficiency.
Some people have way too much money, and here’s how some of it gets redistributed.
Well, doing some research, you would get some benefits from 4 minutes of super intense activity. Certainly more than from 4 minutes of aerobics. Whether or not it is more than you’d get from 20-30 minutes of aerobics or other excercise at lower cost is the $15,000 question, whose likely answer is no.
The answer to your question is a resounding YES! It is for those who have way too much money/
It will give you exactly what it promises, a 4 minute workout, but one equivalent to a 20 or 30 or 40 minute workout. Just not possible to cram more the 4 minutes of physical exercise in to a 4 minute work out.
And you can do HIIT just by jumping rope or sprinting uphill, you don’t need a 14k machine to do it.
Bjork??? 
Ah, OK; I know the video, I just didn´t make the connection. 