Most fitness products fall into one of the following categories:

• Expensive Junk
• Overpriced Heap Of Plastic
• Flimsy Piece Of Shit
• Bio-mechanical Disaster
• Protruding Health Hazard
• WTF Were They Thinking Machine
• And many more…

However, once in a blue moon there happens to come along a product that is not only a great buy, but works as claimed (or as close to it) and BLOWS everything out of the water. I believe in the sea of garbage, these fitness products deserve a little recognition, so they are awarded with:

This is a seal that will GUARANTEE that the product works, and has been personally tested and reviewed by me and thus, gets my HIGHEST recommendation. Believe me, this is NOT an easy feat to accomplish, so be sure to check them out.

“But FJ, How Do I Spot A Fake?!”

Good question dear pupil. You see, I’ve made this process all FOOL-PROOF. Whenever you see that seal on my site or any other site (because companies who get awarded with this will boast about it – no doubt) you should be able to CLICK the picture and verify its legitimacy. How? Simple… it will bring you BACK to this page and you should see the questioned product in the list down below.

Signs Of A FAKE!

1. The award image is NOT click-able – (Even if the product DID get my award, the prune of a webmaster should have it linked!)

2. The award image is click-able, brings you to this page, but you DO-NOT see the product mentioned in the list below. I rate everything on my site from 1-5 stars, but even 5 stars is NOT ENOUGH for it to earn this award. It has to go above and beyond my expectations! (Did I tell you that I’m picky as hell? Yeah… go figure)

—=[ Official List Of Products That Have Received My Award So Far ]=—

• GRIPMASTER (TM) By Prohands.net
• Portable Power Jumper By Lifeline USA
• Gripad by Gripad.com
• The Stick by Thestick.com
• Powerball By Dynaflex Pro
• Manta Ray By Advanced Fitness Inc.
• Yankz! Sure Lace System By Sporting Innovations Group
• Blender Bottle By Sundesa
• BodiRocker Balance Pushup Trainer
• GYMBOSS Interval Timer
  
• Bodylastics System
• NewGrips
• FatGripz
• Mass Suit

CLICK To Read Fit Jerk’s Brutally Honest Product Reviews…

————————————————-PRODUCT AWARD FAQ————————————————-

Q — “What If You Get Bought Out…?”

Are you seriously asking me this foolish question? I would NEVER compromise my trust and sell my soul in this way. In fact, if a company probably tried “buy me out” to get my seal of approval… I’d probably rock them in the face. Then I’d b*tch slap their lawyers for letting them even consider such a STUPID idea in the first place. Who said violence can’t solve anything?

The point is… I wouldn’t waste my freaking time going out of my way, trying out, testing and PERSONALLY BUYING these products if I didn’t believe in them 100%. Got it? Good!

Q — “How Does Your Award Differ From Other Ones… Say From Bodybuilding.com?”

First let me say I have nothing against bodybuilding.com, they’re in the business of selling supplements and fitness products and they’re good at it. Now as far as their awards go, it’s judged on sales volume and visitor/customer votes. Does voting keep things fair? It’s questionable, but at least they clearly state that no one will ever buy them off. Good stuff. But here’s how “I” differ…

First, unlike their PAINFULLY sleep-inducing video that gets released, I get straight to the freakin’ point! Seriously, if I had that kind of budget, you know I’d rock your socks off when it came to doing an “awards” show. Watching it for the first minute… I wanted to poke my eye out. Here’s a little taste… (don’t say I didn’t warn you!)

Second, I scrutinize these products and review the HELL out of them before coming up with the conclusion of giving them an award. Bodybuilding’s award is based on votes… and although the award can’t be bought from Bodybuilding.com, people CAN be bought to go and place a fake vote. I’m not saying it happens, I’m just saying it COULD.

…So in the end, you decide what’s legit. You know where I stand.

Q — “I am a representative from “X” company who won your award, is it possible to include your award in print?”

Well first, congrats – It’s no easy feat! And yes, but only if you meet the following requirements. 1 – You must contact me and let me know in which publication it’s being printed and approximately when. 2 – You must print it in it’s original resolution and in color if possible… no image enhancements or cropping (resizing is allowed only under special circumstance… contact me!). 3 – Since click verification isn’t possible, www.fitjerk.com must be mentioned. Follow these 3 rules and were golden.

Q — “I am a representative from “X” company, how do we make our product eligible for your award?”

Simple… you make sure its AWESOME, then contact me and send me a unit for review. There is no hard checklist where I tick off random notes and come to a conclusion that it gets an award. However, there ARE certain things that I look for:

1. Price & Value For Money
2. Performance Relating To The Claims You’ve Made
3. Innovation (Is it the same old shit? Or did you take a chance, push the boundaries and raise the bar?)
4. User Variability (Is it just for high-caliber athletes or can anyone use it to get results?)
5. Product Usability (Is it easy to use/follow or do I have to follow a complex routine?)
6. Company PR & Service (Were you helpful? Did you make sure that FJ received the product in good time? Did you follow up after the review – whether good or bad? Did you offer other products that I could review?)

Q — “What if I buy a product that won your award and it sucks?”

Are you kidding me? Did you read what kind of ridiculous process it must go through in order to deserve one? I doubt this will ever happen. BUT… in the rare instance that it does, I’d first stop freaking out. Then I’d check to see if you got a flawed product. Maybe it got damaged during shipping. Contact the company stating your concern and they should replace it for you. If not, give ME a shout. If you follow those two steps and you are SURE it’s ineffective… then oh well, suck it up. That’s life princess… every thing’s not perfect. But again, I HIGHLY DOUBT this will ever happen.

Q — “I found a company showing off your award, but it’s a FAKE PICTURE! What do I do?!”

First, you need to make 100% sure its a fake (check the list above). You also need to realize that webservers aren’t perfect. This means my page “could” be down for a few minutes (no worries – it reboots quickly). If however you are totally 110% convinced that it’s a “fake”… email me ASAP! Don’t email the company directly, or even talk about it. Let me deal with those award-faking tools.

———–
© 2009 – 2012, By FitJerk. FitJerk.com is a division of Flawless Fitness Media – All Rights Reserved – No part of this post is to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face. All images are copyright of their respective owners.

Tired Of Looking Ordinary? Click Here And Get FJ To Design A Fitness Plan Just For You! FREE Initial Consultation.

Product Name: Power Wheel
Company: Lifeline USA
MSRP: $59.99 Click For Lowest Prices On The Power Wheel
In The Box: Power Wheel, Dvd Rom, Instructional Manual, Product Catalog

Fitness gadgets are mostly useless, un-necessary, waste of money and more often than not, LESS effective than simple body weight exercises or free weight exercises. So why in the world did I bother to spend a good 1.5 weeks with the so called Power Wheel by Lifeline USA? Because as far as ab “machines” or “gadgets” go, this one has been talked about the most — and is being used by players in the NHL and NFL.

So I figured hey, football and hockey players are one thing, let’s see if it can keep up with a gymnastics and martial arts workout. For those of you who are totally clueless… Watch the movie Stick It, it will give you a whole new perspective on gymnastics training (and that shit’s not fake, I can personally vouch for the legitimacy of what the movie portrays).

So back to the product in question– The PowerWheel. At first glance this thing seems like nothing new, there are PLENTY of ab wheels out there that claim to effectively help you train your abs, but this is where all the similarities end.  Let’s take a closer look at the wheel itself and what you get in the box.

First Impressions:

Right off the bat, the VERY first thing you’ll notice is the size of the wheel, it’s actually pretty big… Much bigger than I thought. It’s more like a black rim (Look mom, my abs are ridin’ twelves!). At first I was a bit unsure about this, but after a fair bit of use I not only got used to it, but started to enjoy it and started applying it in funky situations by thinking “outside the box”. Well, more like outside the house… The big wheel works perfectly on less than ideal surfaces such as wooden decks, concrete floors and most importantly, GRASS! On a nice day you can take your sturdy Power Wheel outside and do up a kick ass workout because it’s a joy to use.

Speaking of sturdy, this thing is built quite well. The spokesperson told me that 200+lbs athletes use this on the regular… So the wheel must surely get its fair share of punishment. However, there is one minor quirk that worries me. When you receive the Power Wheel, there is obviously some assembly that’s required. Which is fine… because all you have to do is slip the wheel onto a metal rod then attach a foot pedal to it by tightening the hex screw, cool.

powerwheel2

The only problem is that the  hinges which attach the foot pedals to the metal rod are plastic… so while trying to screw them down as tightly as possible (assuming that’s the right thing to do since I don’t feel like falling on my face if a foot pedal goes flying off) the plastic started to show signs of minor crackage. See the picture for more detail.

This is a bit baffling since the rest of the wheel is superbly constructed and I don’t see why the hinges were chosen to be plastic… Making them out of metal would make more sense. This quirk might end up becoming the Achilles heel of the Power Wheel, but in all fairness the little crack (or whatever you want to call it) remained constant throughout the testing and did not get worse. Nor did it hinder the experience or break down, and let me tell you, I put it through some serious punishment.

Next is the smoothness of the wheel when everything is assembled. Give it a lil flick and the wheel will keep spinning without any stutter… All without ball bearings. Impressive. I’m glad Lifeline USA nailed this because a clunky wheel will give you a shitty workout, it’s just that simple.

The DVD has some really good exercises that you can do which range in difficulty from beginner, intermediate and advanced. Everything is explained nicely… The only thing that let me down is the production quality — it could have been SO much better. Celebrity sex tapes have nicer visual quality. It seems out of balance to have such a well built product with a slightly amateur looking DVD, makes it seem like it was either rushed or was an afterthought which makes you feel like it wasn’t meant to be a part of the bundle from the beginning. Other than that it’s all functional so I can’t complain too much.

powerwheel4

The instruction manual explains most of the workouts that are shown in the DVD along with assembly instructions… Pfft! Usually I’d never bother to look at instructions (just like any other guy around the freaking world) but for the sake of the review I had a peek. Looked alright to me… There is a diagram, arrows pointing to shit and sentences in English. The only thing that worried me was the lack of Warranty info. I contacted Lifeline USA about this and they got back to me and said they will fix this little error. If I’m not mistaken, the Power Wheel has a lifetime warranty(?). Don’t quote me on this though.

Product Claims:

The Lifeline® Power Wheel dynamically improves core strength, power and balance. Designed to fit hands or feet, the Power Wheel forces your core to adapt and stabilize with each dynamic move for the strongest back and abs ever!

The Lifeline® Power Wheel was determined to be “The Best Core Trainer in the World” by an independent research study done at the University of California Berkeley.

Real World Results:

powerwheel3

I’ve used plenty of ab wheels in the past, so the first thing I wanted to do was slip my feet into the foot pedals and test drive the unique angle the Power Wheel has over ALL the other ab trainers. Since I was at home, I figured what the hell… Let’s go bare feet… Well that turned out to be a stupid idea. It’s wayyy to uncomfortable and the rubber straps just don’t get a good enough stretch to hold your feet sturdy, It’s all wonky and lame. Fortunately things start to turn around as soon as you put on a pair of running shoes… It fits perfectly without a hitch. I guess you can’t have the best of both worlds but it would have been nice if the pedals were designed to accommodate both bare feet and shoes. I demand perfection!

With my feet firmly attached, I tried out all of the different exercises that were shown on the DVD. These include: push ups, pike ups, walking (think human wheelbarrow), alligator walk & inch worms. I also noticed that since the wheel is so damn big, it creates its own gravity… Which means you get a KILLER workout when you do leg raises. Love it.

After going through that narly little routine (and noticing the sweat dripping down my head), I decided to step it up a notch and do inch worms to handstand. Rinse and repeat. Holy shit was I dying. Good stuff.

Then it was time to detach my feet and use the Power Wheel like the traditional ab wheels and do roll outs. All aces here. The wheel itself is extremely smooth as I had stated above… This means that your abs will have to do ALL of the work and cheating is pretty much eliminated.

powerwheel_tread

Another surprising thing I found was that even though the treads on the wheel are FLAT, I had no trouble tilting it and rolling it from side to side for destroying my obliques. Good shit. For those of you who want a real challenge, do a rollout followed by a push up on the wheel… Just make sure you don’t need to use your triceps the next day or you’ll be hurtin’

Conclusion:

No point in beating around the bush here… I like the Power Wheel. It’s well built, effective, functional and challenging. At $59.99 it might be a tad bit steep, specially in this economy, but as a core trainer it could turn out to be a worth while investment. In the end it boils down to one simple question… Should YOU buy it?

Well here’s what you should consider. If you cannot perform at least a minimum of 10 sit ups and crunches then the wheel will be too advanced for you. Even the beginner exercises that you can perform with this thing need some degree of muscle control… And if you have none, be prepared to flop on your face.

But if you’ve worked out your abs before using the most basic of ab exercises such as crunches, sit ups and leg raises… Then the Power Wheel will help you get from a beginner/intermediate stage to relatively advanced. The best part is that I don’t think you could ever “out grow” the wheel. Roll outs can always go deeper, push ups and can always go lower and pike ups can always get snappier… So once you own the wheel, you’ll be using it for life. No question.

To Being Fit & Sexy 4 Life

- Fit Jerk

[UPDATE: Well that was mighty quick of them... Lifeline USA read the review and are taking proactive measures to correct the minor hiccups that I've mentioned. They will be updating the DVD's for their products and will start rolling out new pamphlets to go along with them. The plastic hinges issue is also being taken into consideration from the R&D department. As most of you have read, these issues are particularly minor but it's good to see that they are being resolved. It won't surprise me if Lifeline USA stays in business for a long, long time to come.]

———–
© 2009 – 2010, By FitJerk. FitJerk.com is a division of Flawless Fitness Media – All Rights Reserved – No part of this post is to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face. All images are copyright of their respective owners.

Tired Of Looking Ordinary? Click Here And Get FJ To Design A Fitness Plan Just For You! FREE Initial Consultation.

I’m going to list some of the categories that MOST supplements fall into. These are in NO particular order, just ones that manage to pop up from time to time. Some even pop up frequently… which is a shame really, because now I’m going to bust their ass about it.

The Categories MOST supplements fall into:

• Expensive Dump
• Overpriced Kool-Aid
• Vomit Inducing Fluff
• Useless Cow Dung
• Bloating Booster
• Rectal Ejaculators
• And many more…

However, once in a blue moon there happens to come along a supplement that is not only a great buy, but works as claimed (or as close to it) and BLOWS everything out of the water. I believe in the sea of garbage, these supplements deserve a little recognition, so they are awarded with my quality supplement award:

This is a seal that will GUARANTEE that the product works, and has been personally tested and reviewed, thus getting my HIGHEST recommendation. Believe me, this is NOT an easy feat to accomplish, so be sure to give these supplements a test drive.

“But FJ, How Do I Spot A Fake?!”

Good question dear pupil. You see, I’ve made this process all FOOL-PROOF. Whenever you see that seal on my site or any other site (because companies who get awarded with this will boast about it – no doubt) you should be able to CLICK the picture and verify its legitimacy. How? Simple… it will bring you BACK to this page and you should see the questioned supplement in the list down below.

Signs Of A FAKE!

1. The award image is NOT click-able. (Even if the product DID get one, the prune of a webmaster should have it linked!)

2. The award image is click-able, brings you to this page, but you DO-NOT see the product mentioned in the list below. I rate supplements from 1-5 stars, but even 5 stars is NOT ENOUGH for it to earn this award. It has to go above and beyond my expectations! (Did I tell you that I’m picky as hell? Yeah… go figure)

—=[ Official List Of Supplements That Have Received My Award So Far ]=—

• Whey Crisps By Bodybuilding Provisional Inc.
• Vitargo S2 By GENR8 Speed.
  
• Cell Rush By All American EFX
• LG5 Pro By All American EFX

Read Fit Jerk’s Brutally Honest Supplement Reviews…

————————————————-PRODUCT AWARD FAQ————————————————-

Q — “What If You Get Bought Out…?”

Are you seriously asking me this foolish question? I would NEVER compromise my trust and sell my soul in this way. In fact, if a company probably tried “buy me out” to get my seal of approval… I’d probably rock them in the face. Then I’d b*tch slap their lawyers for letting them even consider such a STUPID idea in the first place. Who said violence can’t solve anything?

The point is… I wouldn’t waste my freaking time going out of my way, trying out, testing and PERSONALLY BUYING these supplements if I didn’t believe in them 100%. Got it? Good!

Q — “How Does Your Award Differ From Other Ones… Say From Bodybuilding.com?”

First let me say I have nothing against bodybuilding.com, they’re in the business of selling supplements, and they’re good at it. Now as far as their awards go, it’s judged on sales volume and visitor/customer votes. Does voting keep things fair? It’s questionable, but at least they clearly state that no one will ever buy them off. Good stuff. But here’s how “I” differ…

First, unlike the PAINFULLY sleep-inducing video that gets released, I get straight to the freakin’ point! Seriously, if I had that kind of budget, you know I’d rock your socks off when it came to doing an “awards” show. Watching it for the first minute… I wanted to poke my eye out. Here’s a little taste… (don’t say I didn’t warn you!)

Second, I scrutinize these products and review the HELL out of them before coming up with the conclusion of giving them an award. Bodybuilding’s award is based on votes… and although the award can’t be bought from bodybuilding, people CAN be bought to go and place a fake vote. I’m not saying it happens, I’m just saying it COULD.

…So in the end, you decide what’s legit. You know where I stand.

Q — “I am a representative from “X” company who won your award, is it possible to include your award in print?”

Well first, congrats – It’s no easy feat! And yes, but only if you meet the following requirements. 1 – You must contact me and let me know in which publication it’s being printed and approximately when. 2 – You must print it in it’s original resolution and in color if possible… no image enhancements or cropping (resizing is allowed only under special circumstance… contact me!). 3 – Since click verification isn’t possible, www.fitjerk.com must be mentioned. Follow these 3 rules and were golden.

Q — “I am a representative from “X” company, how do we make our product eligible for your award?”

Simple… you make sure its AWESOME, then contact me and send me a bottle/container for review. There is no hard checklist where I tick off random notes and come to a conclusion that it gets an award. However, there ARE certain criterias that I look for:

1. Price & Value For Money
2. Performance Relating To The Claims You’ve Made
3. Innovation (Is it the same old shit? Or did you take a chance, push the boundaries and raise the bar?)
4. Consistency (Is it a one shot pony or does each serving kick just as much ass as the previous?)
5. User Variability (Do my friends who are highly active and do pro sports experience similar results when taking your product?)
6. Product Variability (Is it just for “bodybuilders”? Or can it be used in many different sports & activities?)
7. Product Useability (Is it easy to use/follow or do I have to follow a complex cycling system?)
8. Company PR & Service (Were you helpful? Did you make sure that FJ received the product in good time? Did you follow up after the reivew – whether good or bad? Did you offer other products that I could review?)

Q — “What if I buy a product that won your award and it sucks?”

Are you kidding me? Did you read what kind of ridiculous process it must go through in order to deserve one? I doubt this will ever happen. BUT… in the rare instance that it does, I’d first stop freaking out. Then I’d check to see if you got a flawed product, many times you might have just gotten a bad batch. Contact the company stating your concern and they should replace it for you. If not, give ME a shout. If you follow those two steps and you are SURE it’s ineffective… then oh well, suck it up. That’s life princess… every thing’s not perfect. But again, I HIGHLY DOUBT this will ever happen.

Q — “I found a company showing off your award, but it’s a FAKE PICTURE! What do I do?!”

First, you need to make 100% sure its a fake. Check the list above, or sometimes you need to realize that webservers aren’t perfect. This means my page “could” be down for a few minutes (no worries – it reboots quickly). If however you are totally 110% convinced that it’s a “fake”… email me ASAP! Don’t email the company directly, or even talk about it. Let me deal with those low lives.

———–
© 2009 – 2010, By FitJerk. FitJerk.com is a division of Flawless Fitness Media – All Rights Reserved – No part of this post is to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face. All images are copyright of their respective owners.

Tired Of Looking Ordinary? Click Here And Get FJ To Design A Fitness Plan Just For You! FREE Initial Consultation.