Time is Money ...

I recall posted something about this a while back, but I can't find it on my blog; no doubt I gave it some clever title I can't remember. However, through the miracle of YouTube, there are videos now, so an update ...

Behold the ROM. A honkin' flywheel exercise machine that gives you a full upper body workout in four minutes. (Also four minutes for the lower body, but you have to do those on alternate days. Look at the picture of the guy's face above. Doesn't that seem like the expression of a man having a heart attack to you?)

Sounds pretty amazing, doesn't it? Four minutes a day and you get everything you need, aerobics, muscles, the whole package. What's not to like?

Ah, but I hear you saying things. Like "What's the catch?" And "Bullshit!"

Well, the first catch is that the beast is a tad more expensive than the home gym on the Chuck Norris infomercial. What, um, does a tad equal?

How about US $14,615?

No, that comma is in the right place. That's fourteen thousand, right enough. Not, of course, including crating and shipping ...

You can get a free DVD about it from the maker, though, and it comes with another DVD on how to put it together once it arrives.

Americans being like we are, there are -- ahem -- similar machines now available for a third as much. Five grand is still a bit pricey, but, hey, it is a knockoff.

As for how good it is?

You can check out a couple of the videos online here, or here, and see that you can really work up a sweat doing push-pull against resistance really quick.

As to the claims made on their site -- look here -- there is some spirited discussion about that. Here's a place to get a little back and forth.

Or this review, which is not at all impressed -- a rowing machine, squats, a few free weights and dumbbells will give you the same effect. Yep, it will take longer. But it will be a whooole lot cheaper.

I understand there are some rich folks and well-known actors and such who have this toy, based on the idea that their time is worth a lot more than most, so if they can cut their workout from thirty or forty minutes to four minutes, the thing pays for itself pretty quick.

If I were making ten million a movie, I could justify this device, no problem.

My time, alas, isn't worth that much ...