Powerball

[Misery]

What do you guys think of this? Does it look too gimmicky? It looks nice to me, and one of the parkour sites I go to said it's good, but i'm still not sure. They're experienced Traceurs, not get-in-shape people.

www.powerballs.com/

[abrannan]

Those are brutal for your forearms, once you get the hang of the motion required to accelerate the gyroscope. Sharper Image used to (They may still do) sell one that recorded the max RPM you achieved. I think I got somewhere in the 9,000 rpm range at the store.

There are plenty of cheaper ways to increase grip strength, though. For example, take a sheet of the newspaper in each hand, hold it at the corner, and with one hand, wad the whole sheet up into a ball. Then flatten the sheets back out and repeat 5-10 times each hand.

[SSC]

Kind of a late response, but I'm not too familiar with those, however... if you're trying to work on your forearms, there is this one thing I have designed almost specifically for forearms and a little for biceps. It's a gizmo, where you have a handle, with a rope tied around it and the rope is connected to a weight. What you do is you hold your arms straight out, and just wind up the thing slowly, and then unwind slowly... it kills after a while. Sorry if this didn't make much sense I'm really sick and really tired...

[legend of croft]

shescreamedclaudio said:

Kind of a late response, but I'm not too familiar with those, however... if you're trying to work on your forearms, there is this one thing I have designed almost specifically for forearms and a little for biceps. It's a gizmo, where you have a handle, with a rope tied around it and the rope is connected to a weight. What you do is you hold your arms straight out, and just wind up the thing slowly, and then unwind slowly... it kills after a while. Sorry if this didn't make much sense I'm really sick and really tired...

we have something like that in our gym. it hurts soo bad after you do it maybe 2 or 3 times.

[abrannan]

So, on a whim I picked one of these up online. Man, these things are hard to put down. You just want to keep it going and going, while your forearm gets more and more tired. Pekaed at about 9700rpm on my right arm and 7700rpm on my left.

[legend]

so how do they work?

[Misery]

abrannan said:

So, on a whim I picked one of these up online. Man, these things are hard to put down. You just want to keep it going and going, while your forearm gets more and more tired. Pekaed at about 9700rpm on my right arm and 7700rpm on my left.

Is it worth getting?

[abrannan]

I can think of a lot of better ways to spend the almost $50 it costs. It's a very single-purpose piece of "exercise equipment".

Legend, it's basically a gyroscope containted in a shell about the size of a tennis ball. Once you get it started, you can speed it up by turning your wrist in a circle. The faster it spins, the smaller the circle you need to spin it to accelerate it, and the more force it exerts on your arm. Up around peak speed (15,000 rpm) it exerts about 40 lbs of force.

[Misery]

I dont understand the wrist thing.. It says it can help carpal tunnel.. Wouldn't that make it worse?

[abrannan]

Thought it may seem a bit backwards, no, it won't make it worse. Carpal tunnel is most often caused by using your hands while your wrist is in a position of weakness, (like resting your wrists on the desk while typing). This irritates the median nerve in your wrist. Strenghening the muscles and ligaments in your arm and hand actually helps relieve the pressure on the median nerve, which can improve carpal tunnel syndrome.

[Misery]

<_< I want one.

Should I get it or no?

[abrannan]

It's your money. It's your choice.