Thirty minutes of torture!! (Slendertone)

Member Name: Leolover

Product:	Slendertone
Date:	17/10/01 (26172 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Works on certain bits of body, convenient

Disadvantages: doesn't work on 'fatty' bits, expensive, 'Fake' fitness

If anyone is thinking of going out and buying one of these things, I heartily advise them not to.

I 'invested' in a slendertone 'total body' machine (the one with 12 pads) two years ago, having decided I'd lived with my flab long enough, and after a short lived and unsuccessful attempt to drag myself down the gym three nights a week. The machine cost £200, a small price to pay, I thought, for a butt that could crack walnuts and thighs like steel poles (you can already tell I was expecting way too much can't you!)

When it arrived, I couldn't wait to try it out. I devoured the video (demonstrated by pencil thin, cellulite free models of course) and made sure I'd set it up correctly - you have to start on a low setting, as otherwise your muscles would go into spasm - pleasant thought.

Because I'd invested in the more expensive model, my machine came with three settings instead of just one - one for toning, one for relaxing and one that promised to banish cellulite forever - whoopee!

First things first, I thought, I'll tone up and then I can afford to relax a bit and tackle the dreaded dimples. So I strapped on the machine...

The sensation is realy weird at first - involuntary exercise, a king of spasm that tightens each muscle and releases it. On some muscles, like my stomach, arms and calves, it wasn't too bad, I could actually see the muscles contracting and it gives you a peculiar sense of smug achievement, watching your muscles work when you're not actually doing anything at all! HOWEVER - be warned -wherever there is an ounce of fat the sensation is decidedly unpleasant, like painful pins and needles. I can only presume this is because the machine is trying to get through the fat to work out the muscle underneath - no mean feat when we're talking about my legs and bum! And lets not forget, the fatty bits are the bits you're going to want to tone the most, so you h
ave to be prepared to endure this to get the kind of results you want.

I endured half an hour of this 'torture'
every other day for five months, and to be fair, it DID tone up my non fatty bits - arms, calves and stomach - because these were where the muscles were already pretty defined and easy for the machine to work. The bits I would really loved to have toned up, however, remained stubbornly resistant to the machines' attempt to bring them in line.

I never bothered to try out the celulite bashing setting - and as for the 'relaxing' setting, I could never really see the point. A hot bath and a glass of vino always struck me as being far more pleasant and relaxing than strapping myself up to a little machine and sending pulses of electricity through my bod...

I eventually sold the thing for half the price I paid for it on an onine auction site. I've now joined another gym and am actually attempting to get fit properly, rather than 'faking it'. I've finally accepted that there are no magic shortcuts to health and fitness...I'll have to do it the hard way. And now that I've made that commitment to myself, I'm actually really enjoying it.

If you do fork out for one of these machines, I hope you have better luck with it than I do! And let me know if the cellulite setting works...!!

Summary: