Hall of Shame!
Hey Folks, I need your help with this one. Please scan and send me your favorite deceitful, outrageous claims by advertisers of supplements/fitness products so we can give them the ridicule they deserve. Each month I will choose one particularly greedy, deceitful company and expose their product. This will be a lot of fun and maybe, just maybe, we can keep some kid from wasting their hard earned money on some useless/dangerous product. Please email me your suggestions at admin(@)scoobysworkshop(.)com. Here is the ranking system:
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A waste of space, money, and the planets resources. Probably works but there are very inexpensive alternatives which are better. |
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Basic lies and bullsh*t. Unsubstantiated claims. |
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Complete and total steaming bullsh*t! Probably dangerous. |
In my own little way, I'm going to try and shame these conscience-free product pushers into some truth-in-advertising. As a reward for being honest, I will remove products from this Wall of Shame when they either eliminate their ridiculous, un-supported claims or back them up with solid scientific studies.
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P.T. Barnum who coined the phrase "There's a sucker born every minute" would be very, very proud of Vince DelMonte who is the modern day equivalent of the 20th century snake-oil salesman. "41 pounds of solid-steel muscle in 24 weeks! And I did it while spending only 3 hours in the gym each week.", what a crock of BS! Its just not possible to put on muscle that fast without steroids and its completely irresponsible to suggest it! If someone exaggerates/lies in their ads, how can you possibly believe anything in their book? This is a perfect example of the type book that you will NOT find on my Good Fitness Books page. |
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 Watch me use this butt belt vibrator from the 50's, then watch this ridiculous Hawaii Chair. When will people learn? Passive weight loss does NOT work. We just keep repackaging the same stupid thing decade after decade and people keep buying it! |
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 Shake Weight. I sat speechless with my mouth open when I first saw their ad. I thought surely someone would interrupt it and say "Welcome to Saturday Night Live". This can't be a real commercial I kept saying as I watched in complete disbelief. They claim "Scientific studies prove that the Shake Weight™ increases upper body muscle activity by more than 300% compared to traditional weights" - what a crock of bull! |
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Sound too good to be true? It is! They wont even reveal the contents of the bottle and have never had it tested for toxicity and they expect us to believe that its "100% safe"??? |
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 Fat Loss Secret!!! What a bunch of sensationalistic, tabloid garbage! - "Shocking proof of the real reason you are fat! Its critters living in your gut! Would you trust anything living in your bowels that has teeth but NO eyes?" |
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 Ab Circle Pro I found their late night infomercial very entertaining and it gave me tons of ideas for my own mock infomercials. Because their infomercial was SO entertaining, I only gave them one thumbs down rather than the two they deserve. They claim that this silly thing provides a good cardio workout - only if you are 95 years old! Want a much better workout than the Ab Circle Pro provides? Do crunches and go for a walk! |
 The Ab Rocket. There is just no end in sight to all these ab machines. They are no better than the standard crunch, they take up room, they cost a lot of money, and their ridiculous claims cause people to stop their fitness programs after a few weeks. The ab rocket claims "Melts inches from your waistline" - WRONG! All ab exercises do is make the waistline LARGER because its making the muscles bigger. If you want the waistline smaller then you have to eat less and do more cardio. |
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 Slender Shaper Their completely unsubstantiated claim is "oscillating system helps 'melt' away unwanted fat!", what a crock of bull! This is hysterical! Its a portable version of those wall-mounted vibrating belts that women used in the 50's! Watch this very funny video of the slender shaper in "action". |
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 ROM - The 4-Minute CrossTrainer © For the low, low price of $14,615. Are you serious??? Fourteen thousand dollars for a piece of cardio equipment? How about a $130 bicycle instead? Complete bullshit, they claim a "complete cardio workout in 4 minutes a day". The only thing their USC "Study" proves is that 4 minutes a day of cardio is better than 0 minutes a day. |
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 Contour touts: "Never Do A Painful Crunch Again!". Just strap on this electrical stimulator. If it getting 6-pack abs were as easy as strapping this $200 thing around your waist, wouldn't everybody have great abs??? Wisely they have changed their marketing campaign to be a bit more honest, at least now they admit that their weight loss program requires "eat, exercise, and eStim". I have a secret folks that will save you 200 bucks - to lose weight you just need to do the first two :) |
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 $48 Strike Trainer I am somewhat speechless after watching their promotional video. I had to check out the website several times to make sure it wasn't someone's idea of a joke. You gotta watch their video, its a hoot! $48 for a piece of foam that you stick to the wall with a suction cup. A Richard Simmons aerobics video is much more effective than this thing. |
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 $215 Red You can swivel your way to health! NOT! Its an overpriced barstool! They claim this thing gives you 6-pack abs - what? You would see much better results from walking than from using this overpriced dust collector. |
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 $4230 PowerPlate. Their completely unsubstantiated claim is that "Just 10 minutes on the Power Plate® is equivalent to 60 minutes' conventional exercise. And, you don't even need to exert yourself – just 10 minutes, 2 or 3 times a week can be enough." What a crock of sh*t. With this product you can vibrate your way to health, ya right. A modern version of those '50's wall mount vibrating belts. This product might be useful in some situations for some people but lets cut out the ridiculous claims people. $4230?? You can buy a lot of fitness for $4230. Probably a better use of that money would be to hire a personal chef for a few months to prepare you nutritious, low fat, well balanced meals. |
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 LoveHandler They tout: "The best way to sculpt your abs, trim your waist and lose your 'love handles'" - I don't think so! Remember folks, there is no such thing as spot fat removal! The only way to trim your waist and lose love handles is thru eating less and doing more cardiovascular exercise. |
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 Foldaway elliptical strider. Here is a good example of a completely ineffective piece of cardio equipment. To lose weight you need to get your heart rate up and to get your heart rate up you need to do work. In an effective piece of cardio equipment, there is a method of converting your work into heat somewhere in the device. In a simple bike, it is a brake pad scraping on a rim making the rim hot. In most modern exercise equipment there is a generator which turns your work into electricity which is then dumped into a resistive element which gets hot. In these modern devices, the electrical resistance can be varied which changes the intensity of the workout. You will note that this device has no method of converting your work into heat. Sitting on the sofa and flapping your arms would give you about the same workout as this device. |
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Anator-p70 from MuscleTech claims: "The most powerful DNA-activating muscle size and strength product ever developed!" . Huh? What the heck is DNA-activation? They further go on to claim: "Genetically triggers rapid and dramatic muscle growth". Proof please! They claim:"Anator-p70 is the result of over five years and over a million dollars in research at the University of Nottingham by Team MuscleTech™ and the leading authority on muscle metabolism research, Dr. Paul Greenhaff". OK, if you have done a million dollars of research then show us the results published in a reputable journal supporting your claims! If you take a look at Dr. Paul Greenhaff's web page you will see that he did research funded by MuscleTech but in his list of publications I don't see any articles supporting any of the above claims. MuscleTech, am I missing something? If so point me to the research supporting your claims and I will gladly remove you from this "wall of shame"! |
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Lets start with this online offer which touts "25lbs of muscle in 8 weeks!" just $37. Although they don't come out and claim that you will make this kind of gains, it is implied. It is just not possible to gain 25lbs of muscle in 8 weeks! |
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 $1999 "core trainer". There are much less expensive ways to train your core and they don't take up half the room! To their credit they don't make any unreasonable claims. |
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 $99 The Ab Lounge. "Testing proves the Ab Lounge 2 is more effective than standard bent knee crunches". Oh really, what testing? How was it done? Hey folks, you do not need any piece of equipment to exercise your abs - just a carpet. |
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 $89 Ab chair delux. "In just minutes a day, you can transform flabby abs into sexy swimsuit abs". Really? Prove it! The only thing that will get rid of flab is diet and aerobic exercise. |
ANR Muscle Maker You know, I made the following mock infomercial but many of the above products are even sillier than mine!!!!!! In particular, the "strike trainer" I find even more ludicrous than the Abduminator :(