Exercise Anywhere - Product Review and Giveaway!

Last night on The Biggest Loser, all but two of the teams were locked out of the gym for a week. At the weigh-in the team that lost the least weight was one of the teams that was allowed in the gym. How did the other teams manage to lose so much? They worked out outside. They were taught that a gym just isn't necessary for exercise, that you can exercise anywhere. Along that same line, I received a set of Nuru's Exercise Anywhere knowledge cards this week to review. How many times have you been out of town, or in a hurry, and would like a good workout, but just don't know what to do? With this set of 30 cards, focusing on six major body parts, you'll no longer have that excuse! The cards were a little smaller than I had imagined, (2 1/2" x 3 1/2") but once I put them on the included ring, I thought their size was great because you could actually attach them to your key ring and they really wouldn't get in your way. They are about the size of a wallet photo, made of a durable, waterproof, ultra-thin stock. The first couple of cards explain the principles of strength training, recommendations on how to develop a good, healthy, routine, how to stay motivated and there's a glossary with a few of the terms used consistently throughout the deck. I wanted to be fair in my review, so this afternoon, in lieu of my normal workout DVDs, I decided to put on a CD of workout tunes and use the cards as my guide. I worked out my back, biceps, and chest, and even threw in a few squat thrusts (instructions are on the cards) to get my heart rate up. Did it work? Well, my arms are quivering right now! I'm not used to chin ups, and didn't know I could do them at home until Exercise Anywhere suggested I do them on a sturdy (sturdy being a keyword here) table. Wow! I'm going to incorporate those into my weekly routine! For my chest I did push ups, decline push ups and triceps push ups. For my back I did reverse flys, (I used my 5-pound weights for these, but as the cards suggests, you could easily substitute whatever you have handy such as water bottles or canned goods.) back extensions, and bird dogs. And for my biceps I did chin ups, as mentioned previously, and I did towel dumbbell curls. All-in-all I felt I got a very good workout for those body parts. I don't think an advanced weight lifter would find any value in the cards, but if you are a beginner or intermediate these exercises will definitely get you in shape. And if you travel, or are on the go a lot, they would be the perfect tool to help you get in shape on the road. My only suggestion to improve the cards would be to make tabs that stick out on the sides of the them so it would be easier to find the exercises for a specific body part. I'm going to use the post-it flags on mine to help me mark the different sections. In addition to the Exercise cards, Nuru also makes cards to help you with Understanding Your Car, Emergency First Aid, 30 Drills & Tips to help you improve your Golf Game, and Personal Finance. Contest Now that you know all about Nuru's Exercise Anywhere cards, would you like to win a deck? They were nice enough to send me 2 extra decks so I'll be giving away one deck to two separate winners! To enter: Just leave me a comment telling me why you would like a set of the Exercise Anywhere cards. (Please be sure there is a way to contact you. I.E. leave your email address if you don't have a Blogger profile or it's not on your OpenID site.) Additional entries can also be gained by doing any of the following, just leave a separate comment for each along with the URL or ID:

• Blogging about my contest on your blog.
• Tweeting about the contest.
• Stumbling this post.

Contest ends March 3, 2009, at 11:59 PM and is open to U.S. Residents only. Winner will be drawn by Random.org and announced on Wednesday, March 4.