Gidget, Gadget or Gizmo - The Equalizer
The Lebert Equalizer Total Body Strengthener - Reviewed by Donna Hutchinson
The Lebert Equalizer was created by Marc Lebert and first hit the market in 2004 at The FAME show in Toronto. Marc is a Certified Personal Trainer and holds a BA in psychology. He is also quite involved in Taekwondo and boxing so I am not surprised that he developed a piece of equipment that would be suited for more intermediate or advanced exercisers.
The Equalizer comes with two bars and a laminated card with 9 exercises to get you started. Marc’s website has an additional 77 free exercises for viewing. It was nice that I didn’t have to spend extra money to get more exercise ideas. The Equalizer initially requires some assembly which took me about 10 minutes. Weighing in at 9lbs, the Equalizer is a solid piece of equipment. It’s marketed as being very portable, however it is assembled using bolts (allen key included) so I doubt whether trainers would spend time taking it apart. Storage for the bars shouldn’t be too much of an issue because of their slim design. The cost is probably the best selling feature at only $99.00 CDN plus tax and shipping, I would have expected the price point to be around $200.00 so its good value for the money.
The Equalizer attempts to covers all areas of fitness such as upper body, lower body, core, agility and flexibility. I found that there were many exercises focusing on dips and push-ups using just the Equalizer or incorporating it with other tools such as the stability ball. In a few pictures they used the equalizer as hurdles for plyometric training. Standing at 2.5 feet without adjustability this would be for more advanced athletes due to safety concerns.
What I really liked about the product was the ability to target the back muscles by performing chin-ups. In a home or fitness class setting these muscles can be difficult to isolate. I see the Equalizer being used with people who have stability issues as the bars would give them support. One aspect to be improved is the fact that there were so many dip exercises that were shown and chest exercises. It seemed like it was the focus of the exercises shown on the website. While I did try a variety of the lower body exercises I was concerned about the safety of the knee joint as in many exercises the knee traveled too far forward. I would also like to see Marc re-shoot some of the photos so that the technique and posture of his models mirrors what we should be asking of our clients.
With the many tools available to trainers today the Equalizer has potential to earn its place in our personal training tool kit. For the price I think trainers would find many uses for this product and continue to develop exercises. I rate it a good gizmo.
The Lebert Equalizer was created by Marc Lebert and first hit the market in 2004 at The FAME show in Toronto. Marc is a Certified Personal Trainer and holds a BA in psychology. He is also quite involved in Taekwondo and boxing so I am not surprised that he developed a piece of equipment that would be suited for more intermediate or advanced exercisers.
The Equalizer comes with two bars and a laminated card with 9 exercises to get you started. Marc’s website has an additional 77 free exercises for viewing. It was nice that I didn’t have to spend extra money to get more exercise ideas. The Equalizer initially requires some assembly which took me about 10 minutes. Weighing in at 9lbs, the Equalizer is a solid piece of equipment. It’s marketed as being very portable, however it is assembled using bolts (allen key included) so I doubt whether trainers would spend time taking it apart. Storage for the bars shouldn’t be too much of an issue because of their slim design. The cost is probably the best selling feature at only $99.00 CDN plus tax and shipping, I would have expected the price point to be around $200.00 so its good value for the money.
The Equalizer attempts to covers all areas of fitness such as upper body, lower body, core, agility and flexibility. I found that there were many exercises focusing on dips and push-ups using just the Equalizer or incorporating it with other tools such as the stability ball. In a few pictures they used the equalizer as hurdles for plyometric training. Standing at 2.5 feet without adjustability this would be for more advanced athletes due to safety concerns.
What I really liked about the product was the ability to target the back muscles by performing chin-ups. In a home or fitness class setting these muscles can be difficult to isolate. I see the Equalizer being used with people who have stability issues as the bars would give them support. One aspect to be improved is the fact that there were so many dip exercises that were shown and chest exercises. It seemed like it was the focus of the exercises shown on the website. While I did try a variety of the lower body exercises I was concerned about the safety of the knee joint as in many exercises the knee traveled too far forward. I would also like to see Marc re-shoot some of the photos so that the technique and posture of his models mirrors what we should be asking of our clients.
With the many tools available to trainers today the Equalizer has potential to earn its place in our personal training tool kit. For the price I think trainers would find many uses for this product and continue to develop exercises. I rate it a good gizmo.
posted by Donna Hutchinson @ 10:25 AM
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