Buying My Way To Perfection

What's with all my physically fit posts lately?  Who knows!  Anyway...

I am convinced that people will buy anything.  If enough advertisements bombard us with how amazing some new product is, we can't help but run out and purchase it.  No matter what time of day you turn on the television you are bound to see at least one commercial advertising a spectacular new exercise tool, guaranteed to give you the body of your dreams in a few short weeks.  These commercials catch the eyes of people as they think that maybe they too can obtain the chiseled bodies shown on the screen.  Commercials wouldn't lie to us after all, right?

Apparently commercials would indeed lie to us.  You have no doubt heard about exercise shoes, the latest trend in staying physically fit.  These shoes are designed with specially padded soles to tone your lower body as you walk.  "Why, that's amazing!" you might say.  "I could strengthen my legs while walking, and I walk every day!  Wait, didn't walking already do that anyway?"  The shoe companies would then answer, "Quiet you naysayers, these shoes are special.  Traditional walking won't get you the shapely figures portrayed by these television models."  Well, studies have shown otherwise.  I came across this article today.  A study performed at the University of Wisconsin showed the benefits of these fancy exercise shoes to be the same as those from regular sneakers.  Many people have said they feel sore after wearing the exercise shoes, so it must be doing something, right?  The study goes on to explain that any soreness felt is simply from the different padding provided by these shoes and it will go away once your body becomes accustomed to it.

Along with exercise shoes, many other breakthroughs in exercise technology fight for our monetary attentions.  These crazy creations allow us to wheel, gallop, ski, and who knows what our way to physical perfection.  One such product that I find endlessly entertaining is the Shake Weight.  I don't think I even have to comment on this one.  Go check out the website.  The ridiculousness of this device speaks for itself. 

The fact that all these 'exercise tools' are purchasable blows my mind.  I picture households littered with discarded contraptions that were supposed to be the keys to a movie star body.  I also picture crushed dreams and people sitting on couches drowning their sadness with another bag of potato chips.