Fluidity Bar
Fluidity.com
www.fluidity.com
If you’ve ever wanted a dancer’s body, here’s the training gear for you. Whether you’re a ballerina-wannabe or just really want to increase your tone and flexibility, the Fluidity Bar is like bringing a ballet studio into your home. Solid enough to stretch and balance from, it’s designed to use your own weight in your resistance training. Weighing 55 pounds, it conveniently folds down to 4 inches high for easy storage. When set up, it measures 43 inches long by 33 inches wide. Training videos are also available with the package.
$199.75
Balance 360 Board
Balance360.com
www.balance360.com
For surfers and snowboarders alike, look into the Balance 350 boards. A part of the new trend of balance-based fitness, the board improves muscle tone and strength working all of your muscle groups as you try to keep upright. The Fatty Board is wider and will help you train your kick-ass surfing skills—while the skinny board mimics a snowboard-type shape. It’s available with or without an instructional DVD—
$119.95 without or $124.90 with.
Slam Man
Fitness Quest
www.fitnessquest.com
Indulge your inner beatdown instincts while improving your heart rate with The Slam Man. A 21st century improvement on the old punching bag, it’s a computerized upper body human form with light readouts to tell you where to punch. 15 different workouts are pre-programmed into the form which measures 18.5 inches long and 15.75 inches wide. Height is adjustable from 64 inches to 72 inches. It also comes with an instructional video—though you can still pretend you’re beating the crap out of your arch enemy.
$179.99
Em40 Home Gym
Fitness EM
www.fitnessem.com
Ladies, if you’ve ever been intimidated by those massive home gyms that look vaguely like medieval torture devices, check out the Em40 Home Gym, specifically designed by Fitness EM for women. A compact, fold-away design, this unique gym incorporates brightly colored dumbbells into the sleek outline. Complete with a cable for lower body exercises and a 4-position contoured bench, it takes up about 23 inches by 26 inches folded. It also comes with an instructional video and body workout wall poster.
$399.95
CardioWave
Technogym
www.technogym.com/cardiowave
Check out the newest competition to the elliptical trainer—the Cardio Wave by Technogym. This gym-quality machine uses side-to-side motion (think speed skating) to work the glutes and legs in a no-impact smooth motion, all while lifting your heart rate (and burning off those mozzarella sticks you love so much). Complete with all the typical accoutrements—heart monitor, calorie counter, time, distance, et cetera, it even has a nifty LCD monitor in the console—definitely the future of exercise equipment.
$5,695
Steve Cooper is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Hitched. You can follow him on Twitter at @hitchedmedia.
