Thursday, February 10, 2011

Are You Kidding Me?????


         During the past two years my wife and I have been on a good routine of working out on a regular basis.  In the states we would be at the gym around 6am and do the regular workouts.  Mary Barbara has really upped her workouts and is running distance as well. So when we moved to Hong Kong, it was important to both of us to continue this routine.  She has been much better than I in keeping on a regular workout regime since moving to Hong Kong.  I am very proud of her and her dedication to working out.
      One of the important aspects of wherever we lived in Hong Kong was a gym nearby. We found an apartment that had a gym in the building.  It has all the right pieces of equipment: a couple of treadmills, a couple ellipticals, a couple of bikes, free weights, a couple nice universal machines and a couple of extras.  It is the extra that has got me saying, “Are you Kidding me”.
     In between the free weights is a piece of fitness equipment that I could not believe.  For me to call it fitness is to me a stretch.  I grew up loving John Wayne movies, the Lone Ranger and a lot of westerns. However, this piece of equipment had to be out of the western “Blazing Saddles”.  When someone thought about inventing this piece they must have been a John Travolta fan and saw Urban Cowboy one too many times.


Side to Side, Waist or Hips--your choice

   Ok---right smack in the middle of our gym is what I believe is called the Joba. It is an exercise saddle. I thought it was a joke or something to keep the kids satisfied while the adults worked out.  I even looked it up on the internet and what I found was a mild form of what I would call video exercise porn. It was like those original ESPN workout videos when ESPN just started and they would have two women working out in leotards and all they ever showed was their face/lips and body parts. I do not believe anyone worked out aerobically to those as well.


What is being sold here?

             So the Joba is a saddle which gives you the ability to supposedly work the core of your body. If you are interested, go to the internet and watch one of the videos.  It looks like they originally began out of Japan or Korea and they are now in the states, although I believe it is just a fad and they are riding off into sunset.

    In the videos it shows which area of the body is exercised, which looks like a little bit of the legs and hips.  Although I find this hard to believe.  I can see some possible uses for it with modifications, maybe a beginner learning to ride.  However, as an exercise machine, it is not.
    I know that John Wayne is happy with his remake of True Grit, but he is rolling over in his grave at this machine and the fact that I had to try it.  He would be saying, “Are you kidding me”.

One too many John Wayne Movies





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