Shake Weight Review-From a Fitness Expert Who Has a Shake Weight

shake weight review

One-sentence summary: the shake weight is not a scam or a waste of money, it just doesn’t work as good as the marketing claims it to.

Now I just couldn’t resist buying this contraption at Bed Bath And Beyond out of sheer curiosity. In addition, it’s heavily marketed to a niche that I’m deeply involved with-women who want toned arms. So I had some valid reasons for “testing” it out (or maybe this is me justifying the purchase).

In any case, I hope you find this rapid-fire review helpful.

Here are the pros:

1. It’s small and portable: You can easily fit it in virtually any piece of luggage. This makes it an attractive option if you want to be able to exercise while you travel.

2. It’s made from sturdy materials: I purposefully abused my shake weight in every way possible to see how much wear and tear it could take. And I must admit that it took the beating without incident. Moreover, I meticulously inspected the gadget to asses durability and was surprised at how sturdy it’s built.

3. Doesn’t weigh much (also a negative, though): At 2.5 lbs, you can take this thing anywhere without feeling like you are carrying a sack of bricks.

4. Doesn’t require batteries: Again, further enhancing portability since you don’t have to lug around batteries or worry about batteries dying.

5. It comes with a DVD: Although the DVD has many shortcomings (to be discussed later), it’s still something. So you don’t have to worry about figuring out how to use the shake weight once you buy it.

6. IT DOES WORK YOUR ARMS (BICEPS AND TRICEPS) AND SHOULDERS: I was very surprised here. I honestly thought this thing would be a dud, but it wasn’t. I did make my arms and shoulders get very tight. Having said that, just because these muscles became “tight” doesn’t mean they were getting worked properly.

You see, tightness is an indication of increased blood flow. But the true indication of a great workout is intense burning which is the product of lactic acid and muscle damage-key ingredients for results.

In all fairness, however, my arms do have above-average endurance because I have been exercising them for a very long time. So a beginner might actually be able to achieve a burn with the shake weight-it’s possible.

Here are the cons:

1. You can only use it with a limited range of motion: Because of the way it works, the range of motion is no more than a couple inches. And full ranges of motion are necessary to completely work all the muscle fibers in your arms.

2. It only works when used with one arm at a time: The only time I felt anything was when I used it with one arm at a time. And I seriously doubt that even a beginner would feel anything when using both arms. Now the problem with exercising with one arm is that it’s extremely inefficient. You can reduce your workout time substantially by working both arms at the same time.

3. The DVD is only 6 minutes: You will not be able to tone your arms by doing 6 minutes of shake weight exercises. I’m sorry, but this is the truth.

4. A lot of the exercises on the DVD use it as a dumbbell: As opposed to using it with the “dynamic inertia” effect (i.e., the shaking). Since it only weighs 2.5 lbs, it’s pretty much rendered useless as a dumbbell. This just isn’t enough weight to work your arms properly.

5. The DVD only focuses on the upper body: There really isn’t any advice on how to position your feet or how to properly align your posterior chain when doing the exercises. And having solid posture is very important when doing any type of exercise-even for your arms.

So should you buy the shake weight? Well, I would argue that it depends on your expectations. If you think it’s going to magically melt off your arm fat with only 6 minutes a day, then you will be sorely disappointed. However, I do think that it has many other valid applications which I will discuss in the second part of this review.

I will also critique some of the marketing claims used to promote the product and provide a more clear image of what to expect.

Click here to read the second part of the review.