Holy cow, an entire gym in such a tiny box!

It almost has to be too good to be true, don’t you think?

500 Calories burned from the couch!

This just makes me giddy as a school girl!

I really just can’t believe this, I believe I will sell off all of my home gym equipment to purchase this fine product.

Such a killer deal too at $649.00 US!

What a perfect gift idea for the couch potato in your life. Since they are too lazy to get their butt up off the couch, now there is no excuse for them to still maintain a beer gut, is there?

Their bold claim:

Now, let’s be real. This is such a bunch of hogwash, and anyone with two brain cells that can rub together should know this. But, since these scam products have such a huge market, it is apparent that just maybe there are a lot of folks who were born just last night. This huge  market leaves me wondering just how many have recently fallen off a turnip truck only to be taken advantage of by unscrupulous marketers. It is mind blowing when you think about the sheer numbers it takes in order to make these scam products sell. And here is the kicker, because each and every one of us have what is known as a Basal Metabolic Rate, we all, already can burn 500 calories while sitting on our couch doing nothing. Yes, your body burns a number of calories each day simply by you existing, your heart beating, your lung taking in oxygen, all of your bodily functions are burning calories during the day as it is. Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the rate at which the body uses energy while at rest to keep vital functions going.

Burn calories rapidly – at levels equivalent to intense exercise

Increase a person’s heart rate – to levels equivalent to intense exercise

Enable sustained cardio exercise – once you had trained up with it

Increase a person’s VO2 Max levels, i.e. boost aerobic fitness

Deliver the benefits of exercise in a way that is gentle on the joints

There is a bit of truth in the italicized claims, however, they are greatly exaggerated. Which I will address next.

Perhaps what is most revolutionary about BionicGym is it requires less willpower.  Or at least a different type of will-power.  At intense levels you still get all the body’s signalling that it is intense exercise but you can distract yourself by watching TV, etc.

Many forms of exercise require constant mental-effort to complete. For example, when using an exercise bike or treadmill, a person must choose to keep pushing themselves. If they are mentally fatigued, they often can’t exercise for long.

However, stimulated shivering via BionicGym is different. As electrical impulses trigger the legs to move repeatedly, users can simply put BionicGym on, dial up the intensity, and via a kind of remote-control exercise, watch their legs move. This makes it possible to do passive exercise while engaged in another activity – like watching TV or playing a computer game. This also means that many normal environments, from working at a desk to lying on a couch, can become places where exercise can occur.

This company is marketing their gadget to people who are lacking willpower. It is in their own words above. It takes willpower coupled with good nutrition and true exercise to achieve a fit and trim body. Even if one who might be a bit lazy and lacking in will power decides to use this gadget, it is going to be a distraction to their TV watching if the intensity is set very high. After all, it is shocking the hell out of your legs.

The most important thing stated, which is really kind of glossed over in their ad is the line, “Diet PLUS exercise = weight control”.

Not many people can out exercise a bad diet even with vigorous activity. Your nutrition is always key to having a healthy, fit and trim body.

It is a universal truth that abs are “made in the kitchen”.

Can I sell you a bridge?

Look, gullible or desperate people are being sold a bunch of hooey when they are told they can build and tone muscle while burning fat with these scam gadgets. Think about this, yes they do work to stimulate muscles electrically and you will feel them tingling and contracting. But his really means little to you, snake oil might have made people feel better in the moment too. However, you can take a frog that has recently died, hook it up to a muscle stimulator and you can see his dead muscles twitch too. These people are playing on your lack of basic knowledge when they sell these gadgets.

Electrical muscle stimulators are used in physiotherapy for only two uses:

1. To help people re-strengthen injured areas not to burn fat or tone muscle effortlessly. To strengthen weak muscles, the key is to be actively exercising the muscle while the machine is on. The muscle stimulator must be synchronized with your active movement in order to be effective. Physiotherapists have used this principle extensively since the 1940’s and the Russians used it in the 1970’s with their weight training athletes. For example, a weight would be placed on the ankle and the stimulator pads are placed on the front of the thigh (quadriceps muscle). The person then straightens their knee making their muscle contract while the stimulator works on the quadriceps muscle also making the muscle work. By working the muscle along with the stimulator there will be an enhanced strengthening effect.

2. Muscle stimulators are also used to help with pain and muscle spasm relief. Physiotherapists will use them on the back muscles for example to help reduce muscle tension and spasm. They are set to go on for 10 seconds and off for 10 seconds. This repeated contraction and relaxation of the muscles tells the brain to relax the muscles and kill the tension. They are often used in combination with heat which has a great relaxing effect. A muscle stimulator is really a specialized form of TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator). As well as causing muscles to release their tension, a muscle stimulator will also reduce pain. It sends electrical signals through the nerves to the brain which helps to release endorphins and block pain signals. Endorphins are your body’s own natural pain killers, fifty times more powerful than morphine.

A portion of their Terms of Service:

SECTION 3 – ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS AND TIMELINESS OF INFORMATION

We are not responsible if information made available on this site is not accurate, complete or current. The material on this site is provided for general information only and should not be relied upon or used as the sole basis for making decisions without consulting primary, more accurate, more complete or more timely sources of information. Any reliance on the material on this site is at your own risk.
This site may contain certain historical information. Historical information, necessarily, is not current and is provided for your reference only. We reserve the right to modify the contents of this site at any time, but we have no obligation to update any information on our site. You agree that it is your responsibility to monitor changes to our site.

So, the information they provide to get you to buy their scam gadget is not necessarily reliable and apparently it is your tough luck if you did not do your due diligence with research before plopping down your hard earned cash.

Is there any actual use for electronic muscle stimulators?

Per the FDA; While an EMS device may be able to temporarily strengthen, tone or firm a muscle, no EMS devices have been cleared at this time for weight loss, girth reduction, or for obtaining “rock hard” abs. Electric muscle stimulators are federally regulated devices most often used in physical therapy. The majority of these stimulators are administered by a health care professional to ensure proper use and safety for rehabilitation purposes. However, you will sometimes see where professional athletes have incorporated them into their fitness programs, but most of us are not professional athletes. The benefits of EMS have been discussed extensively in theory but the real challenge is the successful incorporation of EMS into a training program. EMS works best as the last training element of the day, separated from other work by at least two hours. You are not going to get the results you might want if you are just sitting on the couch with the dream of getting stronger. The use of EMS is used in conjunction with other strength programs and is not a stand alone program in itself.

From the weight training website T-Nation:

Most users never come near the level of contraction they need for best results, especially in clinical settings. To understand the intensity the athlete needs to experience, have him contract the quads as hard as he possibly can voluntarily, and then have him imagine a goal 30% higher than that! The contraction is massive, and it feels that way! Don’t worry about “burning” the muscle though, as it takes only five-millionths of an amp to maximally contract the quad.

To give you an example of what I mean by cranking it up, my athletes would often have to bite down on a piece of leather or a stick while being “stimmed.” Is it really that painful? Well, it should feel like riding up a very steep and long hill on a bike. That’s the type of “burn” you should feel.

Look, if you are serious about wanting to lose weight and to get in shape, save your money and do not buy this scam gadget. You can do better things with $649.00 than to throw your money away on something that will eventually find itself in the back of your closet, buried under a pile of shoes or something. Here at David’s Way to Health and Fitness, we offer you free subscriptions to access any and all of our great articles to help you achieve the body you want. We are rapidly closing in on 900 health, nutrition and fitness articles and we provide you with a plethora of recipes which are as healthy as they are delicious. You have nothing to lose by following us except unwanted body fat. If you cannot lose weight to a healthy body fat percentage by following our plan, I will fully refund you for every penny you spent.