Rip-off Fitness Fads

I was reading a health and fitness forum the other day and saw what must be the worse case fitness rip-off that I have come across. This is an exercise machine, which admittedly was a fantastic view, but it came with a price tag of USD15, 000 The manufacturers claim is the most worrying thing though - that it could get you fit with only 4 minutes of exercise a day. Four-minute routine actually consists of 2 minutes of paddling, then two minutes on the stepper. With a price tag of USD15, 000 you would expect to do a full body workout, but it all seemed possible, judging from the demonstration video was rowing and stepping. rower would be equivalent to the basic sculling Hydraulic rowing machine, which costs about GBP120/USD250 and simple stepper costs about the same amount. So, for GBP250/USD500 you could have whatever machine USD15000 offered.

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But what else is there that the real rip-off. In fact, I think something that the manufacturer does not know will actually do what they claim to do it. I'm not sure how they get away with it really, as I thought it would be advertising standards body will stop the ads, but maybe there are different rules in different countries.

expensive equipment and health clubs are not just a rip-off though. There are so many different supplements and fad diets, plus ebooks on the Internet, plus a detox diet, stupid vibration plates, etc., all of which to some extent or another will not do what they claim to do so, at least not without a lot of hard work.

But what can we do about it? People will always seek a quick fix, whether it be a piece of machinery that claims that their abs washboard in 2 weeks, or supplements that will look like Mr. Universe in a month, or a new diet fad that will allow you to lose fat and still have the energy to stand up to the end of it. Would the world be a better place if we had a list of all the ripoff fitness fads, diets and machines? Will I be sued if the product is called rip-off, or we can just give a bad review? And who are these people who keep giving good reviews? Can claims be tested? One machine is hard to give a full workout in 4 minutes, saying that the quality of work is solely dependent on the oxygen consumption during exercise and that their machine will lead to increased oxygen consumption. Sounds a bit far fetched for me. 60 minutes of circuit training, or 4 minutes on the stepper / rower. What do you think is best?