Exercise Gadgets Put Fun in Your Workout

By Valerie Nahmad, The Miami Herald

Jul. 10–It’s too hot, too humid and too rainy. Good for the air conditioning retailers, bad for aspiring exercisers. Breathe new life into your workout with these three offbeat fitness tools.

Billed as a “complete aquatic solution,” AquaVee Pilates Plus ($119 at Swim, Bike & Run 5940 SW 73rd St., South Miami, 305-668-5650 or aquaveeonline.com) brings Pilates into the pool. The system utilizes an inflatable belt, various resistance bands, high-pressure suction cups, ankle wraps and handgrips to facilitate an underwater Pilates experience. Attach resistance bands to a pool wall, slip on various grips and perform the breaststroke, backstroke and various other Pilates exercises. Working against the combined resistance of the water and the bands is said to facilitate the fitness trifecta of cardio, strength and flexibility.

Play like a kid again with the Vurtego Pro Pogo Stick ($299 at vurtego.com). The Vurtego may be the “world’s most advanced & high performance pogo stick,” but it’s also one of the most entertaining forms of exercise I’ve experimented with. It’s light, adjustable, easily inflatable, surprisingly challenging (I was sweating in minutes.) and impossible to use with a straight face.

The Entertrainer ($139.95 at theentertrainer.com) is simultaneously pure genius and sheer torture. Motivate kids, couch potatoes and video game addicts with the wireless, softball-sized machine. Mount the Entertrainer to a television, slip on a heart rate monitor and exercise away. Keep your heart rate in the target zone (calculated according to age and desired intensity) and all is great, dip a little and the volume begins to drop. How’s that for some motivation?

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