I dislike going to the gym, partly because you have to wait to se the machines, and partly because I find exercise boring.
So, I had an idea about a new type of machine-this would be some kind of steel skeleton that you wopuld strap yourv arms and legs onto-and the machine would force you to make the various exercise moves-it would provide the resistance, yet force your muschles to work.
You could have a full workout on 30 minutes-without waiting around-would this concept work?
How would the machine make you work without providing the force that your muscles should be producing?
Or is this the Skynet Fit 2050?
No.
For starters, the skeleton could be made out of cast iron. On the back (out of reach of your hands) is a mechanized lock that only opens after a significant and complicated series of movements. The lock is connected to cast iron underpants. To exercise, put the contraption on and drink three liters of water.
Or, the machine could be made out of some ultra-light but strong material. The servos could be interchangeable for various strength levels. Attached to the skeleton is a camera and a computer. The camera has image-recognizing software. Any time it sees a flight of stairs, the servos kick in and it heads towards that. The only way to avoid the stairs is to push back against the machine. (I don’t know how to avoid the stares).
Lastly, what if throughout the machine were bars of rare earth magnets, aligned in such a way as to require force to keep from doing a split (if you don’t build strength you’ll build flexibility) or require force to keep from hugging yourself (again with the stares problem, but after using the machine for a while you can take care of gawkers yourself).
Electrodes carefully placed and signaled could force you to do things. Such devices are used to keep muscles active in folks who have nerve problems. However, it would require assistance in the application and be prohibitively expensive.
Unfortunately, you are a person who is bored with exercise. You will never get anywhere with that attitude and I’m not about to change it. Don’t take that unkindly. You are among the hordes of folks who feel similarly. I say don’t exercise if it bothers you. Concentrate on diet and nutrition. Look for simple activities that you can do like walking or some healthy activities like tennis or boating. Life should be fun, not boring and loathsome. You can make it work for you.
Since the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon (Blow) Movie gets so little mention nowadays, I figured I’d add that just such an forced-exercise fitness machine, the Insanoflex, features as a prominent plot point - among other things, it increases Carl’s muscle mass greatly, via involuntary dance-exercise moves, so that Dr. Weird can eventually harvest them.
So you may want to reconsider how viable your forced-exercise machine idea is if it was used by the Adult Swim writing crew.
Then again, in real life there are arm & ankle weights you can just strap on, so as to get some further ‘passive’ exercise benefits as you walk (or jog/run/hike etc).
I’ve always wondered about products like the AbRocket that are supposed to make crunches easier. If they’re doing part of the work for you, then you get less out of them, don’t you? I use a 9" yoga ball to make balancing an added challenge while doing crunches instead, because I’d like to make them a bit harder, not easier.
Exercise IS BORING. That’s probably why we all hate it. I found books on tapes to be my saviour. I would’ve quit the gym years ago, but now I just pop in my book on tape, which I checked out free from the library and I know “read” all those books I could never find time to read before
Someone already beat you to it. The claim is that you can get a full workout in 4 minutes. It came up in a thread a couple of years ago, and I pointed out that it probably wasn’t complete bullshit to make that claim, but that it’s more than a bit of hyperbole too.
Yes, but it might make the difference between exercise being uncomfortably difficult vs tolerable. So it could still be effective.