Product Review: ROM QuickGym
Time is money, right? So how much would it be worth if you really could get an effective workout in only 4 minutes a day? The creators of the ROM QuickGym would like you to believe it’s worth over $15,000. A club in California (where else?) thinks it’s worth $40/month for a membership. On the other hand, the so-called “experts” will often discount it’s value simply by looking at it.
Who’s right? (by the end of this post, I will be – but I’m sure you already knew that)
First, we need to consider these important principles:
Specificity: If your goal is to get really good at doing 4 minutes of exercise on the ROM, then by all means, you need to train with the ROM.
Will it help you shoot better free throws? Make more tackles? Run a faster 5k?
No. Uh-uh and certainly not.
Progression:Once you adapt to your initial stressor(s), to make further adaptations, you need to do more and/or work at a higher intensity.
Variety: One of the arguments of the ROM is that it has a life-span of 30+ years. Therefore the “actual cost” is only $1.25 PLUS 4 minutes per day. This may be good in theory, but if you plan on doing the same activity/duration/relative intensity for 30+ years, there’s a good chance you’ll hit a plateau sometime in the first 6 months (if not sooner). So for much of the next 29.5 years, you’ll have to do something other than the ROM. This means you’ll still have the expense of $1.25/day to let the ROM sit there, in addition to whatever your other form(s) of exercise may cost.
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ROM’s Strengths:
Even the ThighMaster has a useful purpose - and because I like to think I’m a li’l smarter than the ”experts” ROM says “will feel threatened by such a perfect machine” (can it really put personal trainers out of business?) I’ll give ‘em the benefit of the doubt by focusing on its strengths first.
Tony Robbins owns one. So does Sly. Even Tom “top-gun” Cruise has one. The marketing DVD is packed with testimonials from various experts and “lay people”, all (presumably) first time users at a bodybuilding/trade show.
Upon completion of 4 minutes, when asked if they’ve ever experienced such a workout, everyone breathlessly agrees it’s the toughest workout they’ve ever done.
For the uninitiated, although BIG, bodybuilders aren’t typically recognized for their knowledge of training. Flip through an issue of Flex magazine and you’ll discover most of ‘em are still doing ever-so-slight variations of the workouts Arnie was doing back in the ’70s (plus a little chemical “help”, if you know what I mean).
Getting to the point, the greatest strength of the ROM Quick Gym is it’s marketing strategy. They do a fair job explaining why all the “experts” are wrong.
To their credit, while I was reviewing the ROM DVD, I did hear one of their “experts” admit that ‘the best exercise is the one you’ll do.’ If the ROM truly is better than any other form of exercise, it’s only because the price tag can be a strong motivator.
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ROM’s Weaknesses:
From what I can tell, the ROM is limited to a single dominant plane of movement (in the real-world, we move in all 3)
Plus, it separates the muscles of the upper body from the lower body. Ever try running with just your legs? Or how about walking with only your arms?
Like most machine-based exercise, the ROM is incredibly concentric dominant. While the ability to produce force is great, we also need the ability to reduce and stabilize forces.
And for $15,000, you could buy a cheap car and a weight set.
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Believe it or not, I would recommend this machine IF…
- You’re an actor in need a quick way to get that hot & sweaty look before shooting an action/love scene.
- You’re a bodybuilder preparing to go onstage and pose for the judges (of course you’ve spent countless hours doing “real” training up to this point).
- Space and time are both limited and you recognize that ’something is better than nothing’ in the short term (as in a hotel stay).
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Bottom line:
Can the ROM QuickGym be a useful tool under the right circumstances? Sure, but those circumstances are limited.
If a person was currently doing NOTHING, would 4 intense minutes of SOMETHING cause something to change? Of course.
I’d rather deadlift, sprint or do push-ups for 4 minutes and save the 15 grand for shiny new car.
Are you sure it isn’t Santa’s sleigh?
If memory serves, the ROM’s marketing is based on research around the Tabata protocol, which prescribes 4 minutes of intense work broken up into eight 30-second segments consisting of 20-second bursts of effort followed by 10-second periods of rest. A Japanese coach started using this protocol on some highly conditioned speed skaters about ten years ago, and it succeeded in further amping up their conditioning. But, uhm–he wasn’t using the ROM. His athletes were–get this–SPEED SKATING. ANYONE can use the Tabata protocol using virtually ANY equipment. Or none: an empty street, a stopwatch and some running shoes work great too. Puke bucket optional.
I stumbled across the ROM on a forum (the post must have been spam). I could not believe the claims that they were making. Stating that all “so called” experts in fitness have got it wrong, and that you do not need 30-45 minutes of exercise a day to keep fit, it just crazy. In the UK we have the Trading Standards Authority which would put a stop to such claims. Does such a thing not exist in the USA. Can’t fitness experts get together and just say “hey, so some interval training in the park, it’ll cost you nothing!”. I don’t get it. Maybe it is ONLY the movie stars that own them. Maybe it is really just a gimmick to have – they are bought by people that want to be seen to be exercising, but in reality they never use the machines after the first month. But hey, it looks cool, it’s a talking point at parties, and Tom Cruise owns one!
That’s a lot of money, even if it was top rated.
A guy in my area opened some “Quick Gym” franchise locations; they use they machines.
At least one location closed within the year.
After a decent enough free weight oriented setup, my fun purchase would be a Concept II. If the wife let me . . .
One of your arguments AGAINST the ROM was that of “Progression :Once you adapt to your initial stressor(s), to make further adaptations, you need to do more and/or work at a higher intensity”. Haven’t the ROM people addressed this argument by stating how the flywheel automatically adjusts resistance to meet the user’s strength/ability. ie. less fit users experience a lower intensity workout while more fit users experience higher intensity.
Also, no one has sufficiently explained to me WHY 4 minutes of excercising a higher % of muscles to a far greater % Range of Motion will not work? I mean, I am NO expert, however it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that you can shorten the amount of time needed to exercise by increasing the intensity, ie. 30 minutes of running = 60 minutes of walking. Is it so far fetched to believe that there is a workout that could further improve efficiency to further compress the time needed to acheive equal results?
I am not trying to be argumentative, I just really have found the so-called experts to be rather stubborn on these points. The answer I always hear is: “it doesn’t work because we SAY it doesn’t work and we are the experts”, no explanation given of WHY it won’t work. I am looking for cold, hard facts please, otherwise I begin to suspect motives.
After all, if people really CAN get the benefits of 45 mins strength, 20-45 mins cardio and 15 mins stretching all in one 4 minute workout, who needs a personal trainer? If I was a personal trainer, or had invested hours and years into studying my stuff I can see how I would feel very threatened by the ROM if it is as effective as it’s developers say it is.
On the other hand, if I was one of these experts, I would hope I could better answer the claims of the ROM people than just sasying “because I said so, that’s why”.
Thank you for your consideration.
The idea is not to buy one !.. It is to use one. Many studios like ours offer the ROM at about $5 bucks per session.
We augment all of our Pilates workouts with the ROM and also offer ROM walk ins for our non Pilates Customers. They all love it. 15k is not much for Fitness equipment for a Professional Studio / Gym. But for the home users its a bit spendy.
So don’t go buy one. Support your local Fitness Studios and your over all Health you will not be disappointed.
Anyone in the Santa Barbara Area is welcome to come try ours for Free.
Just call or email us so we know your coming.
Santa Barbara Pilates and Fitness.
Real world Rom Studies
http://sbpilates.com/studies/
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http://sbpilates.com/rom/
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http://sbpilates.com/category/rom-machine/