I’d be interested to know what percentage of home fitness equipment goes unused. Treadmills, stair machines, rowers, weight and resistance equipment, etc. Sometimes the best workout home fitness equipment offers is from moving it in and setting up, followed by a second rep of breaking it down and moving it out.

Enter the Mechanical Core Muscle Trainer. A sort of super-slow-mo mechanical horse/bull that “simulates the gentle back-and-forth motion experienced while riding a horse at a lazy gait.”

There’s not even a decent place to hang your clothes on this equipment! For $2000USD couldn’t you buy your own lazy horse? I get it, it’s for folks not looking to elevate their heart rate or a burning workout. I picture the late Jack Palance, who once did one-armed push-ups on the Academy Awards stage, scowling at the City Slicker who would actually buy this.

Bitness is not in the business of bashing gadgets, but they at least have to kind of sort of make sense right? Giddyup.

Wednesday nights I climb at my friends rock gym in Lincoln, RI. Last night he showed me the Dyna-flex Gyro Exerciser. It looked like a toy – like a yoyo. He got it started with a pull string and with small circles of his wrist got it sounding like a small engine winding up. When he handed it to me I was suprised to feel how it pulled and after maybe 30 seconds how much I felt it in my forearms (I had just climed a few hours too). Sold – I’m a sucker for gadgets after all, especially fitness related – right?!

When I got home I quickly opened the package and got to work. Not sure if I got it up to 13,000 rpms, which can pull at an incredible 35 pounds of torque, but I couldn’t put the damn thing down! I passed it back and forth from hand to hand keeping it going until exhaustion. When handed it off to my wife it nearly leaped out of her hand.Consider the Dyna-flex Gyro as a stocking stuffer for anyone who is looking to relieve stress, the pain of arthritis, or to build strength for sports and even music.