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Saturday I had the opportunity to attend this year's International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association trade show. This was my first time attending the IHRSA trade show, and I must admit it was a blast.
Having been doing in-home personal training and small outdoor group fitness training exclusively for the past 9 years, I haven't been inside a large commercial health club since about 2000. It was fun to not only see the newest, most technologically advanced exercise machines, it was quite an experience getting to try them out.
Some of my favorites were the X-Force negative training machines. Their unique machines create a negative resistance force 40% heavier than the positive motion's force by tilting the weight stack 45 degrees during the positive phase of the exercise. I got a chance to do a set of rows on their Lat Back Row machine. I've never felt a set of rows as intense as the five reps I did using the X-Force machine.  I was also impressed with the Hoist Fitness ROC-IT line. Talk about fun. I tried several of their machines, each one feeling like a theme park ride with the way the technology moves the seat or bench, keeping the user in an optimum position for proper biomechanics. Their line was by far the most visually appealing equipment I've ever seen.
Powerblock, who makes in my opinion, the best adjustable dumbbells, had their products on display. They made a great item better with their Flex Series Urethane sets. Unlike the past sets which are rigid, the new blocks have weight additions that flex, so if a user sets them down too hard on the edge there isn't the problem of the rails getting bent and sticking. I was not impressed with the Kettleblock. They were way too big. When I think of kettlebells, the first exercise to come to mind is the swing. With the size of Powerblock's Kettleblock it just wouldn't be doable because of the length.
Five minutes after stepping into the convention center I told my friend, Chris Bennes of Precision Training, that I was going to make sure I got in a decent work-out by getting to test drive the floor models. Well, with about 45 minutes to go before the show was over, we hadn't even seen half of the trade show floor and decided to pick up the pace. But then I saw the ROM. Most people are unfamiliar with the ROM, and most who have seen an ad for it are turned off by either its claims or its price tag. The manufacturer of ROM claims you can get a complete non-impact cardio, resistance, and flexiblity workout in 4 minutes. I have always been skeptical. So when I saw the machine there, I knew I had to take the opportunity and see if they were telling the truth. I am a believer! In 4 minutes I had a great workout- cardio, strength, and stretching! Unfortunately at a cost of $14,615 I won't be getting one real soon. But for someone who can afford it, is looking for a great new piece of exercise equipment, and likes to get a great workout in a short period of time I would highly endorse the ROM. It was the highlight of my time at the IHRSA 2010.
Even though the machines and equipment were very impressive, I'll stick with my $100 a year weight room membership, and at home workouts, rather than joining a large chain health club. I don't mind waiting until the IHRSA returns to San Diego for my next high tech machine fix.
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Hey, hey be nice!
) right? The main thing is just keeping some exercise in there, and it sounds like supplementing the baseball workouts with some fitness exercises is probably your best bet.
