ROM machine

[ripper1]

Has anybody heard or tried this workout machine called ROM? I have seen it advertised in magazines and other places over the last few years. It looks like the time machine from the H. G. Wells classic. They claim you only need to do a 4-minute a day workout on it. The cost of the contraption is like $15,000. It sounds like it is competing with 7 min abs. I find it hard to believe that anybody can get any kind of health benefit from 4 to 7 min exercising.

 

[Midpack]

I read about it years ago, but when I saw the $15,000 price, that ended that. When you can get a good workout for next to nothing, why pay $15,000? Not having time is BS no matter who you are.

Sounds like a fitness room decoration for the 1%, along with the horses swimming pool and the 2000 sqft shoe closet...Madoff may have one for sale at a good discount.

 

[REWahoo]

The cost of the contraption is like $15,000.... I find it hard to believe that anybody can get any kind of health benefit from 4 to 7 min exercising.

You mean other than the healthy boost to the seller's bank account?

 

[ripper1]

You mean other than the healthy boost to the seller's bank account?

Well, I would never purchase one but I would like to go somewhere and try it out.

 

[Leonidas]

I read about it years ago, but when I saw the $15,000 price, that ended that. When you can get a good workout for next to nothing, why pay $15,000? Sounds like a fitness room decoration for the 1%, along with the horses swimming pool and the 2000 sqft shoe closet...

Their FAQ would seem to agree with you.

Fact is that 92% of people who own exercise equipment do not exercise and 88% of people who own health club memberships do not go to their health club. All of these people who do not exercise had no problem with spending the money toward the good intention of exercising to improve their health and fitness.

But their machine is magic because it only takes 4 minutes to get in a workout somehow equal to a 45 minute workout.

Believe it or not, there are still 10% to 15% of ROM owners that do not have the discipline to do 4 minutes of exercise per day. But for many of these less disciplined ROM owners it is easy to get back on the 4 minute per day ROM exercise program because it does not take a lot of resolve to do a 4 minute workout.

So, you're not buying a workout machine, you're buying resolve, willpower, etc.

And finally, you're just looking at the cost the wrong way.

We do not know yet how many 4 minute uses our ROM machines will ultimately last, but dividing the $14,615 price of the ROM by at least 80,000 uses comes out to under 20 cents per use. Of course it is a problem that it would take a single person over 250 years to use up 80,000 uses. The ROM will become an heirloom passing from one generation to the next.

I'm not sure, but I think I bought a car, or a timeshare from these guys once.

 

[eytonxav]

Although not said by PT Barnum, as many believe, the quote "there is a sucker born every minute" seems very applicable to this piece of work

 

[Midpack]

Save big!!! rom exercise machine | eBay

 

[Nemo2]

Save big!!! rom exercise machine | eBay

Just saved a bundle......didn't buy any of them.

 

[Nords]

I find it hard to believe that anybody can get any kind of health benefit from 4 to 7 min exercising.

Oh, it works great, as long as you do 5-10 reps.

 

[Amethyst]

Must admit that this thread follows very closely my train of thought when I first saw an ad for the ROM (in Men's Health or some such).

Exercise-related articles consistently advise a minimum of 30 minutes of cardio, 3X per week, and even if you really only need 20 minutes 3x per week, you still can't get that with 4 minutes x 7 days per week. Besides, I like my days off

Amethyst

 

[haha]

Must admit that this thread follows very closely my train of thought when I first saw an ad for the ROM (in Men's Health or some such).

Exercise-related articles consistently advise a minimum of 30 minutes of cardio, 3X per week, and even if you really only need 20 minutes 3x per week, you still can't get that with 4 minutes x 7 days per week. Besides, I like my days off

Amethyst

There is no doubt that very intense short period exercise can greatly enhance VO2 fitness, studies have shown this over and over. However, this really says nothing about metabolic fitness, which is what most of us are after.

Certainly our paleo ancestors did not exercise intensely for 4 minutes/day then get right back to sitting.

 

[DangerMouse]

Must admit I have seen the contraption advertised over the years. I would love to hear from someone who actually has one and uses it as to whether it does provide the advertised benefits.

 

[Nords]

I would love to hear from someone who actually has one and uses it as to whether it does provide the advertised benefits.

OK, moderators, cue the inbound horde of ROM trolls!

 

[REWahoo]

OK, moderators, cue the inbound horde of ROM trolls!

Romulans?

 

[easysurfer]

If you workout too fast on it, you might disappear in thin air like Robert Taylor in The Time Machine. That was a great movie!

 

[Nords]

Romulans?

Good one!

 

[TromboneAl]

The book Body by Science has made me at least open to the possibility that short high intensity is better than lots of cardio. I'm not convinced, but it may be that our love of lots of cardio is misplaced.

I've heard conflicting stories of what our paleo ancestors did regularly. My guess is that much of their time was spent with exercise like walking, with some short high-intensity running or lifting thrown in. I bet few did the equivalent of running for 60 minutes or more five days a week.

I find it hard to know what's best.

 

[Nords]

The book Body by Science has made me at least open to the possibility that short high intensity is better than lots of cardio.

This describes a lot of my taekwondo workouts. I have to admit that when I try to do the intensity over a 90-minute period, as a number of separate drills on a 1:5 duty cycle, it absolutely wipes me slick. We're talking dripping sweat on the floor, quarts of water to rehydrate, considering discreetly vomiting in the bathroom, and sore for two days.

By contrast if I add two or three sessions of at least 15 minutes of cardio to my week as separate workouts on an elliptical or a treadmill, then I do a lot better at taekwondo. So the cardio endurance seems to make it easier to handle the short high intensity effort.

At my age, cardio is probably a better reward/risk ratio than high intensity.

 

[Nemo2]

If you workout too fast on it, you might disappear in thin air like Robert Taylor in The Time Machine. That was a great movie!

Rod Taylor.

 

[M Paquette]

It's a great piece of gear. You can hang up to a dozen sweaters over its various rails and bars, more than any other exercise machine. Compare that with the three or four sweater capacity of a typical stationary bike.

 

[Midpack]

It's a great piece of gear. You can hang up to a dozen sweaters over its various rails and bars, more than any other exercise machine. Compare that with the three or four sweater capacity of a typical stationary bike.

 

[rescueme]

Looks like a device I saw many years ago in a foreign brothel ...

 

[Nords]

Looks like a device I saw many years ago in a foreign brothel ...

Great, now I'm wondering what they use in domestic brothels...

 

[TromboneAl]

Great, now I'm wondering what they use in domestic brothels...

Report back.

 

[Nords]

Looks like a device I saw many years ago in a foreign brothel ...

Report back.

I'll be sure to file an itinerary so that the authorities know where to start their search & recovery operations...