You’ll never guess the most underestimated workout tool…

I was convinced by my lovely wife to make a post about the misrepresentation of this valuable workout tool. Yes, that awkward-looking, hit-yourself-in-the you-know-what tool. No, actually it’s one of the most effective upper body toners that you can find when you don’t attribute a lot of time into lifting weights. Sure, it’s only five pounds ( 2.5 for the “girly” one haha), but the mechanism makes it feel much heavier. The trick is to use it the right way. Time for the explanation.

First of all, the guy in the picture isn’t even using it the right way, and doesn’t even look like he needs to use it. The box it comes it actually has an instructional video that I randomly wanted to watch to see how to use it…and guess what it told me how to use it. I use the shake weight like a pull-up bar. In other words, I use it for convenience. My “work out” consists of 60 seconds of shaking this thing and then move on with my day. Some people that’s unappealing and some people it is. I just want to put the information out there because it sure has helped me when I just didn’t want to give 1 hour out of my 6 hours of “unwind” time. Oh let’s a look at another picture.

…This woman is also holding it the same way and it’s not right according to the video. Don’t the models want to use it the right way? The center of gravity is way off and the balancing muscles aren’t in use and…anyway let’s look at a picture where it is completely not being used the right way. You may be more familiar with these types of pictures.

courtesy of SNL

And there you have it, the common interpretation of the shake weight. Whenever friends come over and see the little device in the corner of my living room, this is how it goes.

“Hey, isn’t that the shake weight?”

“Yep, that’s the shake weight?”

“Do you use it?”

“Yep, all the time.”

After a few moments..

“..can I try it?”

Sheltered in the confines of my living room, people are willing to try it and usually after the 60 seconds (if they make it) they tell me exactly where they feel the burn – upper body (biceps, triceps, pectorals, neck, chin, and upper abs). Granted it does look a little funny when using it thanks to social media, but I use it when I would rather spend an extra hour with my wife or on the computer writing a blog post. So I took the liberty to take some photos of myself using this thing. Please don’t laugh.

The key to using it is to not move your arms…sounds kind of confusing but that’s how it works. Instead of moving the weight back and forth with arm movement, you cannot move your elbows can can only “vibrate” the weights back and forth. There are two weights in a shake weight, and they are attached by springs. If you vibrate the handlebar, you can cause the weights to move towards or away from you. Get the movement right and the weights will move back and forth without you moving anything above the elbows. Do that for 60 seconds and you will feel the burn for the first time. Alternatively, if you go to the gym and lift weights, this won’t really do much except like a stretching exercise.

So if you have an unopened Shake Weight christmas present that you were planning on re-gifting, now you know the way to use it and it actually works. Just do it alone and not in front of a camera. Hopefully this tidbit will help you get out of the workout slump if applicable.

Cheers,

thetastyorange