Today I found that you can get a “Powerball” for under £20! They are said to really help to improve many different sporting activities and general fitness. As I am a keen indoor rower I think it may make a difference to my rowing stroke when working out on the concept two indoor rowing machine. Once I'm up and running with my gym membership through work I can put it to the test and let you know if I’ve seen any improvement on my personal best rowing times.

The Powerball requires no batteries, has no motor and works solely off of “gyroscopic” power. It just requires spinning your wrist while held tight in your hand to start the device off, the Powerball can then get up to spinning 15,000rpm at which point it's exerting almost 40lbs of pressure on your limbs and is travelling at nearly 250 revolutions per second.

You can use a Powerball as a fitness product to either tone or help build substantial power and strength in the wrists, forearms and shoulders. The Powerball is also a great rehabilitation product to mobilise and gently rehabilitate the lower forearm arm.

Power plates, the new fitness craze, with apparently 20 machines being sold every weekend in Harrods, it's the new way to work out.

On Home-Gym-Fitness-Equipment, we looked at and reviewed the power plate machine in an earlier article, and decided to take another look the machine that seems to be "shaking up" the fitness equipment industry.

With the likes of Madonna, P-Diddy, Claudia Schiffer and Natalie Imbruglia all claiming to own a power plate machine and use it in their fitness routine it's certainly creating a quite stir. Many gyms here in the UK are actually charging people for session on this machine as well as regarding it as a revolution in fitness equipment.

Manufacturers of the machine claim that the vibrating platform offers the same benefits of an hour long workout in just 15 minutes!

As with all these things I think that user interaction is required, if you're just going to stand on the thing and expect to shed pounds and get the body of a Greek god, I'm sure you'll have another think coming.

I agree the item in theory works as the machine was originally developed by Russian scientist Vladimir Nazarov, where whole body vibration training was used to prevent astronauts' muscles and bones wasting away when they were in space, but as with everything in this market it's to be taken as a part of your current exercise routine rather than giving up all exercise to sit on a power plate 3 times a week.

Instead of jogging or power walking, users are instructed to do gentle exercises like squats or stretches on the platform, It's very much like constant stability exercise combined with isometric contractions, which you can do at home for free. But it does offer users a varied exercise routine and anything that promotes exercise can't be bad!

As long as these sorts of thing are used in conjunction with regular exercise then you'll certainly develop your fitness program, if you're looking to stand on a vibrating plate, watch TV and get the body you've dreamed of, I don't think it's for you. If you are looking for a new exercise machine to add to a varied routine then this may be right up your street!

You can find and buy power plate machines at very reasonable prices and rather than signing up to classes at a gym maybe you could look into getting your own power plate machine.

I know, as soon as you hear of vibration trainer, you see another piece of equipment that goes straight to the loft. But this one apparently works! Power-Plate is a not-so-well kept secret behind great figures of Kylie Minogue, Madonna and...Clint Eastwood.

It's a machine that gives the body's muscles a high-speed workout by using vibrations to stimulate them to contract and relax. They generally contract once or twice a second, but by standing on the Power-Plate, its vibrations cause an automatic reflex muscle contraction of 30-50 a second. Think of it as a fitness microwave - you achieve the same effect but with much smaller amount of time! The makers of this miraculous device claim that just 10 minutes on the vibrating plate will give you the same effects as 60 minutes of traditional workout. How? The vibration stimulate different groups of muscles at the same time and by adding combination of compound exercises (such as squats and push-ups, which use more than one muscle group) and isolation exercises (biceps curls and front raises) you'll get a better training response, as well as increasing potential calorie burn.

What's the downside? Express fitness is not cheap - to get one of vibrating trainers you have to be ready to spend something between £1500 and £8000. If you prefer classes you can join one for about £20 per session. The trainers make it clear as well - the magic works at it best when you combine it with traditional exercises. So don't give up your gym just yet.

Finally! The gadget that is to revolutionize the way we play video games and exercise is here! Today Nintendo released Wii Fit - a pressure-sensitive balance board (about twice the size of bathroom scales), which the user can stand on and control game play by changing position and redistributing his or her weight. The board is automatically connected via wi-fi to the Wii console, and is sensitive to the slightest movements - so enjoy trying out few yoga poses such as “sun salutation”, and if you find it too relaxing jump on a virtual snowboard and slalom down the slope trying simultaneously to balance another player on your shoulders . Wii Fit even knows when to turn itself off. It costs about £70 and today is finally available across Britain. Will it be just as great a hit as Nintendo Wii console? Will it replace yoga instructors?
Let's have a look...Janine Thomas, yoga instructor, took Wii Fit yoga for a test. According to Janine Wii board is easy enough to set up - even a complete technophobe like her should manage. Explanation of each asana was provided by a virtual yoga teacher. Most postures involved standing on the board with one or both feet, or occasionally placing your hands on it. The program starts with a series of beginner postures. Practising these unlocks increasingly advanced exercises, so a total novice can’t attempt a shoulderstand and end up groaning on the floor. The postures include standing balances, where Wii technology comes into its own. In “tree” balance, a circle on the screen shows how your weight is distributed; the more you wobble, the more erratic the pattern. Focusing on the screen holds your gaze and allows you to concentrate on the task in hand – both fundamental aspects of yoga. However, in positions like "downward-facing-dog" Janine was unable to look at the screen without straining her neck. And earning points for posture isn't a very yogic concept. Yoga is not a sport; it encourages students to work in an uncompetitive way and be physically and mentally content with wherever they are.
Overall Wii Fit yoga is a well thought-out, safe program with detailed instructions that encourage body awareness. But all the stopping and starting affected the flow of sequences, which is an important part of many yoga styles, and the lack of variety felt tedious. It also failed to offer an overall yoga class – there are no warm-ups, few dynamic movements working with the breath and no final relaxation. Yoga needs only floor space and some stretchy trousers, so Wii yoga just overcomplicates a simple system that has worked fine by itself for the past 2,000 years.
Luckily, the bosses of Nintendo don't offer Wii Fit as a solution or a replacement to your fitness routines. “We’re not saying that it will help you to shed tens of pounds or provide the solution to any health problems you might have,” says Saunders. And even the university research, which was funded by Nintendo, concluded that simply playing the Wii was not strenuous enough to count towards the government’s recommended amount of exercise for children of one hour every day. But as I wrote in "Wii a replacement for exercise"you have to start somewhere - and Wii Fit is a fun way to do it.