I hesitate to post product reviews (you KNOW how hard it is for me to realize when I’m boring people with my weird interests!), but when I think something is really worth sharing, I like to mention products executed well.
FTR, I am unaffiliated with this company, nor get any reward or incentive for this review. I just like to share things that work for me.
I took a flier on this one: The Stealth Core Trainer, by Stealth Body Fitness, LLC. Their pitch was: “Game your core.”
So, the obvious concept is: You’re doing planks, but playing games while introducing rotation/stabilization of the platform your forearms rest on. So, like planks, only more engaging.
It was as if their marketing was aimed right at the intersection of my enthusiasms for gaming and fitness! (And that’s a dangerous sign for any business because anything that seems pitched perfectly at me almost guarantees relegation to niche success, if any!)
I was skeptical, but am delighted to have been proved wrong.
Like many, I get SO bored doing planks that, being as undisciplined as I am, I all too often end up skipping them in my functional-training workouts.This has really changed that. I’ve been doing three planking sessions a day, lately!
I think of this device as “the poor man’s ‘Icaros Home’ experience.” (Here’s an example of the “Icaros Home” VR (virtual reality) fitness experience):
The Stealth core trainer is a LOT less expensive! 😁
At any rate, this Stealth Fitness trainer is insidiously effective. I don’t know how else to say it: I’m freakin’ having fun. …doing core workouts. Who’da thunk it?!
Even the two free games on the Stealth Fitness app that complement this fitness device are sufficient to keep you “gaming your core.” But I like to support ventures like this, so I had no problem with the annual subscription that grants many more games. And for those that don’t want to go that direction, I’ve heard that almost any game that requires you to move your phone to maneuver your character around a screen can work.
As an added bonus, this device has attracted a robust Facebook Stealth Fitness group, which is nice for asking questions, participating in challenges (also supported by the app), and just sharing your successes.
Bio: I grew up a Navy brat, then enlisted in the U.S. Army Infantry at age 21. I entered as a private, earned selection for and admission into Officer Candidate School, then spent the rest of the time wearing bars. After several years training force-on-force unit combat in the Mojave with the Army's elite mechanized OPFOR, and then the joy of command while at Fort Carson, CO, which included the challenges and rewards of taking a company of soldiers to Iraq and bringing them all home safely, I left the military in search of new experiences.
Like many who leave the military, I hit some hiccups trying to figure out how to communicate to civilians that a decade of training soldiers to aggressively close with and kill the enemy was experience that would translate swimmingly into their company culture. Eventually I overcame that communication challenge. That led to several years doing the "corporate thing," pursuing a career that led from retail to IT, following my passions for computers and communications developed as a(n) (unlikely) hobby while a soldier.
In the late nineties, I had the good fortune to hire into one of the pioneer companies in the (then new) massively multiplayer online game industry. While there I saw opportunity to start my own company and used all my experiences (and no small amount of learning new skills on the fly!) to build an online payment processing company.
My first company, PayByCash, brought local non-credit-card payment methods from around the world to Internet content providers with one very simple integration. After growing for 8 years and earning the trust of the largest game content providers in the world (and most of the smaller ones as well), we merged with a VC-funded Silicon Valley company and were later acquired by Visa.
In my on-again-off-again "retirement," as a serial entrepreneur, I develop (and occasionally launch) new ventures. When not torturing myself with the responsibility to nurse my whackadoodle ideas into profitability, I spend the time with my family that I rarely had when running my first (and to date most successful) company.
And I write, sporadically and spasmodically. When not writing, I race cars and enjoy improving my skills in the shooting sports.
View all posts by Kevin H.