The 5 stupidest fitness trends.

By NATALIA HAWK

Generally, I’ll try anything once, even if it involves embarrassing myself. Laser-tag skirmish. Extreme lugeing. An office-chair-race competition in a crowded bar. (Because THAT was such a good idea.)

But there are some things that I would prefer to stay very, very far away from – even if it’s in the name of exercise and getting fit. Because frankly, there are some seemingly ridiculous fitness trends out there that I really just can’t bring myself to attempt.

Read through my list of the five stupidest fitness trends, and tell me – would you actually want to try any of them? I promise I won’t judge. (Much.)

1. Bubble bath cycling (also known as the Hydrofit) 

Forget about expensive creams containing caffeine and other mysterious ingredients. Bubble bath cycling is what you want if you’re looking to banish cheeky cellulite from your butt and thighs.

Apparently.

In what is surely just a troll and/or a very belated April Fool’s Day joke, someone has combined a jacuzzi and an exercise bike so that you can cycle away in a “Pod” (i.e. a giant bubble bath). Apparently, the whole thing started as a rehabilitation tool in Italian hospitals and clinics, but patients noticed such an improvement in their skin tone that it branched out into an exercise concept.

This Daily Mail article says that many Hydrofit studios have since sprung up in Paris, and that during your 30 minute session, you’re carefully supervised to ensure that you don’t just fall asleep in the hot bath… Because that would be something you could just do at home and therefore not pay 30 pounds for!

2. Prancercise

Did anyone miss this bandwagon? If you did, I feel very sad that you missed out on the few minutes of joy that the below video provides. NOTE: It’s had over 8 million views so far.

3. Face yoga

You may think I am joking, but I’m not. Face yoga is a thing, you guys. And it’s spawned a trend of people attempting to regain their facial elasticity and repair their collagen by making really odd faces in mirrors:

4. Shake Weights

I used to work at a sports store and the boys in the sporting equipment section took perverse pleasure in watching people use the shake weights. Because – warning, this is incredibly immature – it looks like someone’s participating in an activity that generally takes place in a bedroom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXHUdvvHTkw

Besides the potential embarrassment factor, I have never heard of anyone ever getting any benefit from a Shake Weight. But hey, if you have? Please leave a comment. I’m more than happy to be proven wrong.

5. The Hawaii chair

To me, the phrase “the Hawaii chair” should only ever be used in reference to some kind of deck chair with a Hawaiian-themed print. Palm trees and pina coladas and all that.

In actual fact, the Hawaii chair is some kind of hellish contraption that makes your waist swing in small hula-like circles, allegedly awarding you with abs of steel in little to no time.

The best thing to come out of the Hawaii chair is this absolutely hilarious Ellen Degeneres video of her attempting to try it out and develop said abs of steel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDnoKJYN_M8

What stupid fitness trends have you come across?

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