Well I bet you've never heard of a T-Bow or Tbow. Am I right? Thought I was! Actually, neither had I until a few months ago. We were at a Fitness exhibition in London when I saw this - Thing. Looked like a small humpback bridge in bright orange with a blue exercise mat fixed to the convex side. Gaps in the sides meant you could pick it up and carry it like a briefcase. I lifted one - not heavy; I could easily carry 2 and I'm not exactly built like Charles Atlas.
I laid it down and turned it over, curved-side down. Hmm. Footgrips. By now I was intrigued. I'm always interested in portable, versatile pieces of exercise equipment that I can load into my dogeared, faithful old car and take to torture - I mean train - clients with. (My beloved old Heap of Tin is named Milo. I kid you not; Bob's car is called Donkey!! )
All the time that I was sniffing around this T-Bow like an overgrown Labrador, the attendant was watching me with a grin. No attempt at hard-sell (which I hate), just letting me have a good nosey. When I looked up, she caught my eye and gestured at the T-Bow. "Want a go?" was all she needed to say. I wagged my tail.
She showed me how to put my feet on the footgrips and swing the T-Bow from side to side so that it rocked. It was great! And in less than a minute I was really feeling the burn and beginning to pant a bit. I could rock forward and back by turning through a right angle, balance and do squats. Wow!
Then she turned it over, curved side up, put resistance bands through the gaps in the sides and showed me seated exercises, standing exercises, lying-on-your-back exercises, lying-on-your-front exercises, sidelying exercises. My jaw dropped lower and lower. I wouldn't have been surprised if she'd shown me a standing-on-your-head exercise. I was hooked! What an amazingly versatile piece of kit this was!
Now, I have gone through all the variables of home exercise equipment. I have had a huge multigym in my back bedroom. I have had exercise bikes, walking machines, crosstrainers. I have tripped over dumbbells and banged my shins on mini-trampolines. They all look hideous and are a nightmare to dust. And if you cover them with sheets, it looks like the Addams Family moved in!
And then there are these gadgets that can be put up and taken down and stored in a cupboard after you've exercised. Well, for one thing you can never be bothered to haul them out and build them, and if you do, you're too worn out to exercise!
This T-Bow thing can be stacked, rested up against the wall or even shoved under your bed. Just take it out, lay it down and you're ready to rock! Never before have I come across a single piece of kit on which you can do your whole workout - warmup, cardio, toning and stretching - with no other accessory than a flexiband. And in such a small amount of space!
So when I got home, I happily made arrangements to sell or store all my other gruesome pieces of fitness equipment. I donated a very nice exercise bike to my mother, in the hope that she might actually use it. Not a chance. Last time I popped in to see her - hoping that, maybe - just maybe - she might be pedalling, I spotted the bike in her spare bedroom. It was polished to within an inch of its life and decorated with a hand-made lace doily. She informed me happily that it was just the right height to hang the laundry on when she was doing the ironing.
I give up.
Keep on rocking.
Carol
