The ROM Exercise Machine
Exercise in 4 Minutes?

The ROM Exercise Machine is sort of a space age-y looking contraption that combines rowing type movements on the front with bike pedals on the back for a complete whole-body workout in just 8 minutes a day (4 minutes on upper body and 4 minutes on lower body).

I learned about it when 4 Minute Fitness Center opened in Lancaster, California. As an avid gym rat since the age of 16 or so, I promptly scoffed at the idea that you could exercise effectively in 4 minutes a day.

And then I tried the machine.

There are some impressive research studies on it, and I'm not going to cite science here - there are plenty of sources on the internet that will give you that. Instead, I'm going to briefly explain how the ROM Exercise Machine works (from my standpoint as a chiropractor) and tell you about my experience with it.

You climb onto the ROM Fitness Machine almost like a recumbent bike. The fitness instructor hands you the huge handlebars, and as you pull them towards your chest your 4 minute workout begins.

If you work out fairly regularly, you'll get about a minute and a half into it and then start to feel like you're getting tired. The movement with the handles is to pull them to your chest, open your arms out and pull them to the end range of motion near your waist, then push the bars until your arms are straight and finally use your back and abs to push the handlebars all the way back to the starting position, which is near your ankles. Because you go through this full range of motion, you are using a large percentage of upper body muscles and making them work fully. This is how the machine gives such great results.

If you don't work out at all and are just starting, your setting should initially be very light... you should feel like you are stretching out your muscles and getting good range of motion, but you shouldn't feel like you are working too hard.

And this flexibility in adjusting settings is what makes the machine ideal for arthritis patients or people who want to lose weight. You can either go for cardiovascular fitness, or to build muscle, or just to stretch out your hamstrings and back muscles (and as I've talked about before, tight muscles cause a lot of secondary pain for arthritis sufferers).

Benefits of the ROM Exercise Machine

• Aerobic Conditioning
• Muscle Strengthening
• Muscle Toning
• Calorie Burning
• Flexibility/Stretching

Overall evaluation:

• Extremely time efficient
• Requires only a few minutes of initial instruction
• Non-impact exercise
• (Documented 6% increase of VO2 max in 2 months)

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