Gym dandy, on the go
For those times when you can’t get to the gym -- or don’t feel like breaking out your credit card to pay the membership fee -- home workout equipment is essential. But as these innovative, lightweight and very portable devices show, a home gym doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg or take over the entire living room. They don’t even have to stay at home anymore.
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Hanging around
GFlex Portable Gravity Gym: Simple clip-on, strap-and-pulley suspended bodyweight device that turns any door, tree or solid structure into an all-body strength-training apparatus.
Likes: A gym in a bag that allows you to do dozens of exercises, from basic presses and pulls to plyometric lunges and hack squats. By incorporating a simple pulley, the GFlex ramps up the effectiveness of suspension/gravity training by allowing for more difficult, single-arm efforts. A superb DVD includes 10-minute beginner, intermediate, advanced and cardio routines that lead you through a wide variety of challenging exercise. Efficiently designed (it secures in place between a door and door jamb or cinches around any tree or fixed structure), the device stores in a 12-inch fanny pack that doubles as a cardio belt to support jumps and suspended body weight movements. It’s ideal for hotel-room workouts.
Dislikes: None
Price: $59.99. (310) 310-0968; www.Gflex.tv.
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Heavy-handed
Altus 4-Pound Weighted Leather Training Gloves: A pair of 2-pound mixed martial arts-style fingertip-open gloves studded with sand-filled compartments for running, shadowboxing and other activities.
Likes: Good idea, well executed. I punched a heavy bag, did push-ups and ran four miles with them on. Secured at the wrist by a wrap-around Velcro-strap, they definitely add upper body work to a run or walk without disrupting your form, as hand weights can. Enjoyed having full use of my fingers. A glove designed for women, the neoprene-suede Micro-load, offers the same idea with adjustable weight of up to 2 pounds per hand.
Dislikes: Hard to hold dumbbells or kettle bells while wearing them.
Price: $19.99. (800) 654-9873; www .altusathletic.com.
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Abs on a roll
Torso Ball: With a design to make the age-old ab wheel easier for women to use, inventor Jerry Abbott employs an 18-by-13-inch oval inflatable fitness ball that rotates around a handle speared through the center.
Likes: Practical, fun and effective for women and men. Higher off the ground (8 inches) with wider handholds than a normal low-tech ab wheel, it provides a stable, challenging ab rollout -- a fantastic midsection exercise that stretches and contracts the core at once. Other exercises are possible, such as tough, unstable push-ups and dips, and doing squats against a wall by holding it behind your back. Even those who are very fit could get a workout from this. Air pump, knee pads, DVD and power-assist cords included. Deflated, it’ll easily fit in your trunk.
Dislikes: Not cheap; the promotional video is a turn-off. But it works.
Price: $99.99, plus $19.95 shipping and handling. (508) 380-1707; www.torsoball.com.
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Sideshow
Spin Trim: Two 11-inch plastic rings that each rotate on a handle, working your wrists and forearms.
Likes: Although sort of rinky-dink and overblown (the website video touts its “complete upper body workout” and “gyroscopic technology”), there are benefits. Whipping them around like a dime-store ninja, I began to feel fatigue in my forearms and wrists in less than a minute. Doing this for 10 minutes while watching TV stopped me from reaching for the Cheetos and got some blood flowing. To push it, I tried it while performing squats. All in all, far better than doing nothing.
Dislikes: Pricey for being so low-tech. Won’t make you fit or break a sweat.
Price: $19.95. (818) 859-7088; www.spintrim.com.