My review of the Shake Weight has been quite popular, generating all kinds of traffic for the site. And I’d like to thank all of the Shake Weight fans for visiting the site, taking the time to comment, and ultimately helping to drive traffic to HealthAndFitnessAdvice.com.

However, I am slightly disappointed that none of the Shake Weight fans have been able to provide any of the science behind the claims made by the product’s manufacturer. Or even some before and after photos. How hard can it be to take a couple of pictures, especially since so many Shake Weight fans claim to see and feel the difference in just days or a few weeks?

Certainly the Shake Weight people don’t provide any access to this info on their web site.

The Shake Weighters don’t give even a shred of data to support their claim that their gadget, “Is 7 times more effective at burning muscle energy than a regular dumbbell!” BTW, the asterisked footnote at the bottom of their home page doesn’t constitute data. Do a Google search for “muscle energy” and you will find nothing about this term in the context used by Shake Weight. There is something called “muscle energy technique,” but this is a type of manipulative treatment used by osteopaths and physical therapists to treat joint hypomobility.

Also, where is the data that shows the Shake Weight contracts muscles 240 times per minute? And how can a muscle contract when it doesn’t move through a range of motion. You know, concentric and eccentric contractions, where muscles shorten and lengthen as they are used.

Now people say the Shake Weight works, but there are still people who say the Earth is flat and that the astronauts never walked on the moon. There are people who think that raising taxes is an incentive for business and will spur economic growth. People also say that you have to try the Shake Weight and feel the burn in order to pass judgment, which of course is crap. Apply this logic to other areas of life and you’ll realize how ridiculous this position is.

Take a broomstick and hold at arms length with elbows locked at shoulder height and constantly move your arms up and down about 6 inches for 30 seconds or so and tell me if you feel a burn. Or take a can of soup and hold it like the Shake Weight dude is holding it in the video on the web site, and shake the can in the same manner the Shake Weight is shaking. You’ll feel a burn.

We are told this vibrating dumbbell “dramatcally increases muscle activity,” but compared to what? Doing nothing? Holding a live cod fish? Doing an exercise that involves actual movement? Inquiring minds want to know.,,

According to the Shake Weight site, you will, “Feel the results instantly.” Is the burn indicative of results? Can you feel results? When you go for a power walk, do you feel results? Are feelings and sensations indicative of some result, and if so is this result necessarily a good thing? So many questions, so few answers.

Here’s another question. Does anyone seriously think the guy in the ad got to look the way he looks as a result of using the Shake Weight?

And then there are the people who poo-poo the paucity of scientific proof. Poo-poo, I say. These types don’t want to be bothered by inconvenient truths provided by legitimate scientific data, they want their exercise to be easy and sweat and movement-free. However, my bet is that these same folks would insist or having real science in the picture when it comes to undergoing a medical procedure or drug therapy. Science came in handy when NASA decided to go to the moon and when the Space Shuttle was designed.

Ah, but I’m being a spoil sport. Who needs science. The Shake Weight guy has a good build, so it probably works. But I’d still like to see some science.

Some really ridiculous fitness products have been brought to market, but the Shake Weight just might represent the cream of the crop when it comes to nonsensical exercise equipment.  Based on the oxymoronic “principle” of “dynamic inertia,” the Shake Weight is alleged to give users, “lean, sculpted arms and shoulders.”

Despite the fact that the muscles of the arms, chest, shoulders and back are not moving through a range of motion the makers of the Shake Weight claim to be able to deliver muscle and strength building results.  This flies in the face of just about every bit of existing legitimate scientific data on the subject of muscle and strength building.

Furthermore, the muscles of the biceps and triceps are among the smallest muscles of the body, and “exercising” them provides very little stimulus – metabolic or strength/muscle building.  There is a lot to learn from the advertisement’s claim that users will, “feel it instantly.”

Just because you may “feel” something doesn’t mean that this something is beneficial or will result in a beneficial outcome, strength/muscle building or otherwise.  For example, bend your index finger back as far as possible towards the back of your hand and hold it there.  You feel that, don’t you?  Does that “feeling” mean that you will derive a benefit from the action? Nope.

The users of the Shake Weight do not provide any of the so-called independent scientific research that is responsible for the creation of this gimmicky gadget.  If this research is such a home run and illustrates that the Shake Weight is better than using dumbbells, the makers of this product should be featuring this information on their web site.   I did not find any research on dynamic inertia in the vast, online databases of the National Strength and Conditioning Association or American College of Sports Medicine.

Dynamic inertia is a great example of what I call, “Vapor Research;” research touted as proof of effectiveness by an equipment huckster that isn’t provided and cannot be found.

Keeping the upper body in an isometric contraction for any length of time, while holding any implement, is going to induce fatigue.  Squeeze the steering wheel of your car while you sit in traffic and your entire body will feel the effects before too long.  And this is NOT a good thing.

The submaximal isometric contraction needed to hold the Shake Weight has no dynamic or functional strength building benefits.  Furthermore, isometric contraction training only provides benefits to the muscle at the specific angle in which the contraction is held.

So an isometric contraction where the arms are held at a 90 degree angle will only offer strength benefits at this specific angle.  Certainly, taking a muscle group/joint through a complete range of motion using dumbbells is much more efficient and effective method of training.

Save your time, money and effort.  The Shake Weight gets a, “Do Not Buy,” recommendation.