You know I have always wondered how people of yesteryear, like Eugene sandow, John Grimek, Steve reeves, Jack Lalanne, Joe Louis, Charle Atlas, and many others that i could mention could possibly get into such fantastic shape without all these gadgets, gizmos, and late night exercise machines being touted all over your favorite TV stations.

I mean let's look at what is happening here! You have got Ab dolly, Ab rocker, Ab lounge, Abwheel, Ab-this-Ab-that, and I am not saying that they may not give some results but let's face it if any one of these was a "cure all" why do they have to keep coming out with more'''? And why do people keep buying the latest and greatest thing? Well i will tell you?

SALES AND MARKETING! These infomercials have it down to a science. You will notice all the hard bodies that promote all these gadgets and here you are back home watching from your tv saying that if I buy this i can look like him/her and this will solve all my problems right? Wrong!!! First of all how do you know the people that you are looking at on tv actually got all their results from the product that there promoting? You Don't.

But psycologically, your saying to yourself, this is the one, this is what finally is going to do it for me. This is what i have been missing out on. They hit all your "Emotional Triggers" and "Hot Buttons". And you make the purchase and and lo and behold you are no better off then where you started from.

I will give you an example: (6 pack abs). Before they came out with all this inform ation about what to do and not to do regarding situps and crunches, leg raises, etc. people were just doing normal sit-ups on a board, or having somebody hold there feet down, not maybe knowing that maybe they are putting stress on their lower back? A lot of the old time athletes had tremendous ab development and strength. How do you figure that? How could that be? How is this possible? I mean god forbid if i told you some deep breathing exercises could give you some nice ab development. And you didn't need to invest any of your hard earned money on useless gadgets and gizmos.

Well getting (6 pack abs) is more a "diet" thing then any exercise that you could possibly think of. You can do 1,000s of any exercise you want, and it will strengthen the abdominals.

BUT? If you want to see those "ABS" you have to get rid of the layers of "fat" that are covering them. END OF STORY!!!!!!! And that has to be done for the most part through proper dieting and calorie manipulation. I don't care what contraption you buy it won't help if your diet isn't right.

Getting Back To Basics: In my opinion a "Boxer" is one of the best conditioned atletes out there. Especially if you look back at the old timers going (15-3min rounds). And going back to John L. Sullivan days maybe more than that. Think about the monetary investment? A jump rope $10? no money, run in place. Start throwing your hands out like you are sparring, keep moving around, side to side, back and forth, go down to the floor do some sit-ups. some leg raises, jumping jacks, jog around the block, sprint from telephone pole-telephone pole. How much money have you invested?

How did they do this? a Jump rope, combat boots for running, some calisthenics, and a makeshift heavy bag. What no hi-tech equipment? No fancy gadgets? And these guys were in great shape? No way!!!! Oh yes they were, and you can too.

The point of all this is before you spend your money on all the things outside yourself, "think" how did people before me get into tip top shape, you already have what you need. The latest and greatest fad is not going to do it for you.

I have a set of stairs about 12 of them from the first to second floor of my house, I make it a point to run up walk down about 20 sets everyday. I challenge you to do this and then tell me you need to go out and buy a treadmill, gazeelle, cross-trainer, or whatever else you can think of? No set of stairs? Go down to a local football field and run up and down bleachers, you will get my point.

Look I am not against new technology, I am just more into common sense and "GETTING BACK TO BASICS"