Brandon and Hudson White, the brothers better known on YouTube as the Buff Dudes, regularly look to the past to see what insights can be gleaned from old-fashioned exercise techniques when it comes to building strength and muscle. In a recent video, they decide to try out some of the best-known fitness gadgets from the infomercials of the ’80s, ’90s, and early ’00s – aka the ‘worst fitness gear ever made’.
First up is the Slim Suit, an ’80s product which purported to help you lose weight without any kind of physical activity involved, by simply wearing it for prolonged periods of time. But there’s no miracle technology involved here. “It’s a sweat suit,” says Brandon. “The weight they’re losing is just water, and that’s just it. And that can be kind of dangerous.”
Next up is the Body Blade, a floppy rubber baton advertised by boxing legend Lennox Lewis which, frankly, looks like it has a completely different use in the original commercial. There are some perks to this one, however. “It doesn’t feel like you’re getting a crazy workout when you’re using this thing, but you definitely are getting a lot of stabilization and more of that isometric hold in there to be able to control that inertia,” says Brandon.
The third gadget from their unofficial list of ‘the worst fitness gear ever made’ is the Exercycle, first produced way back in the ’40s. “They don’t make them like this anymore,” says Hudson. And it turns out, that’s because the bike’s motor creates all of the movement, meaning there is absolutely zero stimulus placed on your lower body muscles.
Finally, there is the iconic Shake Weight, the modified dumbbell which makes working out feel like jerking off. “If you did this for six minutes straight, you’d get tired, you’d get worn out for sure,” says Brandon, although Hudson points out: “I don’t think you need a Shake Weight to do this motion for six minutes.”
Watch it below: