{"id":4604,"date":"2011-02-15T04:39:04","date_gmt":"2011-02-15T02:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ultimatefatburner.com\/?p=4604"},"modified":"2015-12-07T11:51:56","modified_gmt":"2015-12-07T16:51:56","slug":"exercise-gimmicks-vol-6-the-gymygym","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/exercise-gimmicks-vol-6-the-gymygym\/","title":{"rendered":"Exercise Gimmicks – Vol. 6: The GymyGym"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a while since I profiled a goofy fitness gimmick… but after\u00a0taking a gander at\u00a0the “GymyGym<\/a>,” I figured it was high time to make up for the lapse.<\/p>\n

So what’s a GymyGym? It’s billed as “The World’s First Ergonomic Exercise Chair.” Now, I don’t have an issue with the “ergonomic” part – as someone who sits for long hours in front of my computer, I can certainly appreciate the value of a well-designed chair! And I also understand the potential toll that prolonged sitting can take on one’s health… in fact, I’ve written about it myself<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So what’s the problem? You can see it for yourself in the GymyGym videos.<\/a>\u00a0 Here’s a sample:<\/p>\n

[youtube:http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=k80qfxM4zxc]<\/p>\n

The alleged benefit of buying this particular chair, is that you can do a range of exercises while sitting in it. But\u00a0here’s the deal:\u00a0the GymyGym workout is based on simple, inexpensive exercise bands – which\u00a0are readily available in any sporting goods store (or department store with a sporting goods section).\u00a0Needless to state,\u00a0you don’t need the chair to do resistance band exercises<\/a>. And it’s not like you’re saving time by doing them in the chair, either – it takes only moments to, y’know… stand up and step away from your desk (something which would offer a psychological benefit as well).<\/p>\n

\n

So is\u00a0using an ergonomic chair a good thing? Sure.<\/p>\n

Is it also good to break up a marathon session at your desk with “mini” exercise breaks? Absolutely. You don’t even need to use exercise bands, either.<\/a>\u00a0You can do pushups, wall squats, or\u00a0hoist a\u00a0couple\u00a0of dumbbells (no reason why you can’t keep a pair\u00a0tucked away\u00a0under your desk or in a corner).<\/p>\n

But\u00a0you certainly don’t need\u00a0to plunk down close to $600 for a GymyGym, sight unseen. For starters,\u00a0ergonomic chairs aren’t\u00a0“one size fits all.” You\u00a0should always try before you buy<\/a>.\u00a0And you certainly don’t need your chair to be threaded with exercise bands – particularly since the point of taking a mini exercise break is to get out of the chair in the first place<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The GymyGym is a perfect example of what Paul calls “crapitalism<\/a>.”\u00a0I got a laugh out of this comment on the thing from Wired<\/a>:<\/p>\n

You know what this chair will actually be used for? A nerd torture device. With all those bungees, it will be ideal for tying up the new guy on his first day and descending upon him, Nerf-guns loaded.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Too true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a while since I profiled a goofy fitness gimmick… but after\u00a0taking a gander at\u00a0the “GymyGym,” I figured it was high time to make up for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,12,28],"tags":[1852],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4604"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4604"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10362,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4604\/revisions\/10362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}