No need to sweat it out

A rash of new fitness trends promise you a great bod without your having to move an inch.

There is this hot new fitness trend in the UK called the Human Touch Board. The aforementioned board is shaped like a surfing board and promises those who use it a surfer's body (those great abs and all) without ever having to go near the sea.

The other promise that this board makes, and to many that would be the greater promise, is that those using the board will have to do little to strain their bodies to get fit. The board does all the shaking and shimmying that is required to keep even the fattest slob fit.

The Western world which is said to be in the grips of an obesity epidemic seems to be also in the grips of another epidemic; that of coming up with fitness equipment/footwear that will do all that is required to not only help you lose weight but also shape that body into something that would give supermodel Gisele Bundchen, who made her millions by modelling lingerie, a severe complex.

To some, this desire to lose weight without even breaking into a mild sweat may seem paradoxical. After all, it was this very reason of not wanting to put one's body through the paces that has contributed in no small measure to the burgeoning obesity epidemic.

And now that very principle of convenience fitness equipment that promises health and a sleek, sexy body is being touted as a panacea to combat the malady of fat.

These columns have chronicled some of these new fitness fads like the FitFlops, the footwear that promise great legs and butt; the Masai Barefoot Technology, again footwear that promises many wonderful things; and the PowerPlate, which only demands that you stand on it and it does everything else for you without a murmur of complaint.

Time-poor and calorie-rich, as many people in today's world are, they will see these fitness fads as a boon for their messy lives. But for those who would fall under the category "extremely lazy", a mournful warning: you still have to get on that board, or you still need to wear those FitFlops and walk in them to achieve the desired result. Is that much too much to expect, lazy bones?