Exercise in exactly 4 minutes per day! Really??

Just over one year ago we posted an article on the ROM machine . In case you don’t know what the ROM machine is its an exercise machine which it’s creators claim will make you fit through using it only 4 minutes a day. It claims to burn more calories in four minutes than from an hour on a treadmill. Oh yeah, and it costs $15,000 to buy. It sounds crazy but ads for the ROM machine are seen on a consistent basic in many credible magazines including Discover. Most athletes consider these claims crazy but a vocal minority staunchly stand up for the ROM including one who wrote in to Trainharder. Here are his comments below. Feel free to comment!

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About a month ago I saw ignorant comments about the Rom-machine. This was my reply:

I am a healthclubowner and a groupexercise instructor and I studied medicine psychology and have done acsm ace and afaa certifications. With all this important knowledge and more then 10 years of teaching experience you can imagine I concidered myself quite an expert on exercise and related subjects ten years ago when I saw this adverticement telling me about this ‘perfect’ exercisemachine and also telling me that I was a stubborn expert blinded by professional tunnelvision for not seeing the truth in the Rom-theory.

I am glad I wasn’t too much of an expert not to be triggered by the add and I ordered documentation. Imagine ten years ago telling that a HIT training could offer the same cardiovascular results as 30 minutes jogging.

Now ten years later the odds have changed. HIT research is booming and all the things MR. Temme (manufacturor of the ROM)has been telling the world for almost 20 years where proven right by TNO (a independent Dutch science institute) and presented at the ASCM annual meeting may last year.

If you have any respect for yourself being an expert just read your literature and know the facts found in the last few years before starting to attack people who are so vital for progression.

Come on boys and girls, try the leap of faith and jump over you shadows to discover a new world of other ways to reach the same goals.

I did ten years ago when I bought my first Rom-machine.

Sure you will not become an olympic athlete by training on the Rom(but even this kind of athlete will experience a hell of a workout)but you will have the means to reach out to 80% of the general population and give them a real option to get and stay fit enough to have a bigger change to stay healty. All other efforts ( groupexercise weight training jogging etc etc etc)have had years to prove not to be the live-lasting answer for the bigger part of the population.

Consider we are only enhanced(or if you like degenerated)apes. Have you ever seen an ape running for more then a few minutes!(eating and sleeping YES)Offering long duration exercise is a violation against our biology and as such made for failure. Not only our physiology but also our psyche is made for short intensive action. Sure we can force our body in doing something like jogging for hours but that doesn’t make it OK. The only reason a runner is feeling like walking on clouds after an hour running is our body making endorfine to save itself. The body thinks it’s in danger being eaten by a sabertooth tiger and tries everything to keep on going. TORTURE!

Biologically HIT training is the answer.

HIT training normally is a thing for trained athletes but with the Rom it’s now safe and available for everybody.

Expensive? When you compare it with a tighbuster Yes. When you compare it with other professional fitness machinery NO.

Especially when you take into consideration how much an average person spends in money and time on all kind of conventional machinery and healthclubs and never have any lasting results but an empty wallet and disappointments.

So I stopped behaving like an autistic politician not paying attention to the needs and possibilities of the majority of my members. Some experts choose to behave like religious fanatics. They own the one and only truth, I chose not to be one of them and so can you.

I jumped and I invite you to jump too,

Boris Sala, healthclub owner AND a Proud Rom owner.

PS Some suggested reading:

Triggering of Sudden Death from Cardiac Causes by Vigorous Exertion Albert et al, NEJM, 343 (19), 1355-1361.

“These prospective data from a study of U.S. male physicians suggest that habitual vigorous exercise diminishes the risk of sudden death during vigorous exertion.” Very intense exercise-training is extremely potent and time efficient: a reminder

Coyle, E.F. (2005). JAP, 98 (6), 1983-1984.

“The findings of Burgomaster et al. (2005) challenge the concept that aerobic endurance performance is only enhanced by aerobic endurance training. On the surface, this concept seems logical, but it has been long ago proven wrong both in the realm of athletics as well as muscle biochemistry.”

Although more comprehensive inquiry is necessary, present evidence suggests that, when exercise is performed above the minimum intensity threshold, the total volume of training (kcal) accomplished is an important factor in fitness development and maintenance. That is, improvement will be similar for activities performed at a lower intensity-longer duration compared with higher intensity-shorter duration if the total energy cost of the activities is similar.”

(Medicine and science in sports&exercise)

http://www.hitfit.ca/content/images/H.I.T-Research_Paper2.pdf

http://www.fastexercise.com/pdf/High-Intensity_Exercise_on_the_ROM.pdf

http://www.fastexercise.com/pdf/Effects_on_Muscle.pdf

23 Responses to "Exercise in exactly 4 minutes per day! Really??"

Drew Baye says:

August 8, 2008 at 5:28 pm

While it is true that much less exercise is required than most people believe, IF the intensity is high enough, there is no justification for the price of the ROM machine.

The same or better results could be achieved just as efficiently and just as safely (with proper coaching) with nothing but adequate floor space and a barbell or dumbbells with enough weight, which costs only a very small fraction of what the ROM machine costs.

One minute of deadlifts, one minute of pressing, one minute of squats, and one minute of chinning, done with little or no rest in between, would produce better cardiovascular improvements and MUCH better strength improvements than the ROM machine.

Or, try alternating between squat presses (simultaneously performing a squat and pressing movement) and chin ups or pull ups for one minute each for a few minutes.

Or, with no weights at all, just alternate between chin ups, push ups, and bodyweight squats for a few minutes.

All more effective than the ROM, all a small fraction of the cost.

Gym and personal training studio owners who have bought the ROM have been duped. There is nothing about the machine that justifies the price, nothing the machine can do that can’t be done better with no equipment at all or very inexpensive equipment.

Apparently, the person who’s comment you quoted didn’t benefit much from all that education he claims to have, or he’d have known better than to waste his money on the ROM machine.
LS says:

August 8, 2008 at 6:18 pm

Great fitness advice Drew! I’m going to try it out.
Christopher says:

August 9, 2008 at 9:00 am

The Rom and or HIT Machine is based on highly flawed, psuedo-science.

Quackery of fitness.

4 minutes. Give me a break.
Chris says:

August 13, 2008 at 8:57 am

What could it hurt to try it and find out for yourself? I don’t have access to a ROM, but I have friends who swear by it.

A few ways to measure a workouts effectiveness:
1. Do you have more energy throughout the day?
2. Are you losing bodyfat/leaning up? Are your clothes fitting looser?
Christopher says:

August 14, 2008 at 3:24 pm

I don’t need to ‘try’ it to understand the physiological effects of very short isotonic or isometric resistance training. I know what it does and doesn’t do.

Who cares? The principle is the same, whether I use a fancy looking machine or some dilapilated rusty peace of equipment – stress and recover. No gear is going to get YOU fit…you get fit by YOU doing the excercise.

Also the aerobic development of your cardio vascular system cannot happen with 4 minutes of training, that’s impossible. Your anaerobic system takes less time however, it still takes much, much longer than 4 (I can’t even beleive I am typing this)…minutes.

The HIT machine and or training theory is 100% based on flawed marketing rhetoric and the worst part is, there are suckers out there who will beleive it will work for them.

No level of fitness or strength or speed will come from minimizing the time and efforts needed. NOT one single solitary Gymnast in the Olympics would even consider it…they spend hours per day, not 4 minutes, but 4 – 8 hours per day. As do every other strength, speed or other ‘fitness’ requiring endevoured athlete.

And if you want to use the argument that everyday people are not Olympians – that is also a flawed argument. The principles are NO DIFFERENT to a middle aged person or a young unfit or a fit any age person….no, the average person cannot afford or would not want to workout 8 hours per day, but they will also get virtually NOTHING from 4 minutes of excercise.
Martial-Arts Fitness says:

August 20, 2008 at 5:51 am

Sweet great Weight training write up!

Very impressive that this blog is syndicated through Google and is it something that is just up to Google or you actively created?
Colleen Carney says:

September 24, 2008 at 12:38 pm

We have had a ROM at our fitness training facility for 3 years. It has been one of our best investments.
For the last 14 months, we have also staffed two off-site corporate locations with ROM training for their employees. We do fitness assessments every 90 days and have had tremendous results, brought health care costs considerably for the company.
Members/clients of have lost weight, lowered cholesterol, changed body composition, etc.
ROM is strongly recommended for all our athletes/triathletes.
Christopher says:

September 25, 2008 at 5:49 pm

Codswallop.

Your name ‘Colleen Carney’ links right back to a ROM machine.

Prove any of those improvements – you can’t.
Kristen Williams says:

November 5, 2008 at 9:43 pm

I own The Santa Barbara Pilates and Fitness Studio in Santa Barbara Ca , we’ve had a ROM in our studio for the past two years. My clients love it and hate it at the same time because it’s a killer workout! I have to admit it’s a hard sell until you try it! We offer the 1st workout free to get a taste of the workout. I have teenagers to my 91 year old clients doing the ROM! My triathletes swear by it to help them build up their stamina! The ROM is really for everyone from athletes to people who want to enhance their fitness workouts to those who hate to work-out ITS ONLY 4-8 MINUTES!!! If you’re in Santa Barbara drop by and check out our ROM video so you ca see first hand what a great workout the ROM can give you! That’s me in the video and believe me it was kicking my BUTT!!! Below is a link to a quick demo video to show you how it works
http://www.creativepilates.com/four-minutes-rom-range-of-motion-machine/
Christopher says:

November 5, 2008 at 11:35 pm

>>My triathletes swear by it to help them build up their stamina!<<

Kristen,

You’ve invested in the contraption and now you enjoy justifying it’s existance by providing 3rd party recognition by speaking on behalf of others who may exist.

I checked quite a few dictionaries…well two and my own understanding of the word ‘Stamina’. I found it most commonly used to indicate ‘endurance’.

It is unfortunate that you are not actually understanding the meaning of the word stamina. To get a triathlete to move for roughly 2 to 3 hours in an Olympic distance triathlon at the top of their aerobic capacity, they cannot, nor can anyone build their stamina with a workout that lasts for 4 whole minutes.

Now the machine might give you an exercise that will develop fast twitch muscles, reflex stimulatian or get your temp up in a warm gym to make you think you are getting a workout, but there is no way you are developing endurance in 4 minutes.

I don’t care if you can pull a Boeing 747 with your teeth for 4 minutes – THAT is not endurance work.

In order for endurance improvement to happen, the athlete needs to work on building their anaerobic threshold, also known as aerobic capacity or ‘top of their aerobic limit’, for long periods of time – stimulating capillarization – growing the heart muscle and adapting the sport specific muscles to the sport specific workout (where many cappillaries carry oxygen rich blood to).

The HIT machine WILL not do anything for the individual, the individual creates the stress by making the effort. And again 4 or 8 minutes will not do it.

If you actually have Olympic distance or pretty much any distance triathlete tell you that they are increasing their endurance by working out for 4 minutes on ANY device they are also sorely mistaken.

The HIT and ROM faux science is a farce. Now the machine may be good for some things, it is gym owners and gym rats who are irresponsible for not educating themselves before selling memberships to people who know no different.
Carol says:

February 21, 2009 at 8:48 pm

Christopher & Drew,

I find it very interesting that you have the time to fight so hard against something you’ve never tried?

What if the ROM really could boost your performance isn’t that what you’re really looking for? I know it boosted mine and kept me in great shape. I was lucky enough to be able to use it over a good period of time.

Most people just want to be healthy. I was in the fitness industry for over 30 years, and believe the best exercise is the one you’ll do.

I do an exercise routine similar to the one that Drew suggested and yes it works, but it doesn’t leave you feeling stretched out like the ROM does. Not to mention very few people have the strength (or understanding of proper form or their limitations) to do such a workout. The ROM’s isokenetic resistance adjusts for muscle strength imbalances, prevents injury and works. If there was a quick gym near by I’d be using it!

The most successful people are usually the ones with the open minds.
I think you’re afraid the ROM will kick your butts or you’d go try one
Christopher says:

February 23, 2009 at 8:30 pm

Carol,

I don’t think you understand the physiological effects of run training or any endurance training. For your information an endurance base must be built before undertaking peaking training. A powerful 4 minute bout of exercise regardless of the endurance sport you want to apply it to, is peaking training, which is short lived and must be stopped once a peak has been acheived.

Whether you are a rower, cyclist, nordic skier, runner, swimmer or any endurance athlete you need to put the head down and work hard for months on end, for hours-per-day to develop the aerobic system (‘aerobic’ a word stolen by some soft exercise dance gurls in the 80s). You must do this before developing the anaerobic system.

4 minutes will do nothing for athletes 11 months of the year. But ROM will do well because there are suckers everywhere.

I am not afraid of trying something like the ROM, I know what it does already. I don’t need to use it to prove what I already know.

The ROM can not help my performance. Do you know what performance I want improved? I find it very interesting your are willing to dispense information when you don’t know the athlete.

4 minutes is not enough of any type of exercise to help anyone do anything to do with endurance.

I am not fighting hard to knock ROM at all. I am quite happy to dispel it because the marketing is full of false information.
Christopher says:

February 23, 2009 at 9:32 pm

Clarification:

Once a peak is achieved, it is achieved and doesn’t need to be pushed any further. The athlete just performs at the top of their game riding the peak. They need to recognize when the peak is over and they are sliding down the other side of it.

I don’t know if it ‘must’ be stopped…the peak will come to end depending the quantity of racing and how conditioned the athlete is.

It is actually detrimental to the aerobic system or the aerobic base to carry a peak too long. And just as that is the case, so is using short term, anaerobic exercise minimally beneficial when there is not an aerobic foundation in place.

So to take a newb into a gym and have them do 4 minutes of exercise hard several times per week will show immediate results and perhaps a sharp result, but they will also plateau quickly. THis is where people quit training, they expect the icing on the cake all the time. Just as you can’t ice an under baked cake, you can put much peak training on an underdone aerobic base.

Long term vision is required – not the short term, get it now attitude.

So stop selling short term fixes, they never have and never will work. And all you are doing is perpetuating the myth that people can get something from nothing.
Thew says:

March 13, 2009 at 1:02 pm

Come try it .. We will make a believer out of you. So far over the last 3 years now we have never had anyone use the ROM and Say.. OMG that’s a Load of …. Instead they leave and go about their day feeling revived and alive.. So what ever you think does not matter.. As 80 % of Americans are over weight and out of Shape even if 1 % uses the ROM that 1 % will be healthier that the rest of you who sit around knocking things you have never tried.. They said we could not walk on the moon.. Now look out into space.. It’s full of our impossible dreams.. ! Grow up.. Come to our studio and try it free.. Ill bet you lunch and dinner you have never had such a full body cardio workout like the ROM.
Thew says:

March 13, 2009 at 1:19 pm

ROM Studies Taken from the Manufacture’s web site.

3 Studies and a review of minimum time requirements for effective aerobic capacity (V02max) improvement See the link below.

http://sbpilates.com/studies/

1. Study conducted with ROM machines at USC ( University of Southern California ) shows the effectiveness of 4 minute and 8 minute per day exercise on the ROM as equal to or better than 20 to 45 minutes on a treadmill 3 to 5 times per week.

The USC study was conducted by Robert Girandola Interim Chairman, Department of Exercise Sciences.
University of Southern California (USC) at Los Angeles, California.

2. Study conducted in Japan at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in the Department of Physiology and Bio mechanics. This study shows the superior effectiveness of high-intensity interval training versus moderate intensity endurance on VO2Max (aerobic capacity) and on anaerobic capacity.

Study conducted by Izumi Tabata, Kouji Nisimura, Motoki Kouzaki, Yuusuki Hirai, Futoshi Ogita, Miotohiko Miyachi and Kaoru Yamamoto.
Department of Physiology and Biomechanics, National Institute of Fitness and sports Kanoya City, Kagoshima Prefecture, 891-23 Japan

3. Study conducted by Dr.Angelo Tremblay Ph.D. in Quebec, Canada at Laval University. This study showed the superior effectiveness of high intensity interval training (HIIT) over medium intensity endurance training (ET) for fat “burning”. The high intensity. short duration test protocol of the 15 week study resulted in 9 times as much subcutaneous fat loss versus the medium intensity long duration protocol training over a period of 21 weeks.
Christopher says:

March 16, 2009 at 8:24 am

Thew,

I am neither out of shape nor an American couch surfer. Most of the visitors to a site like ‘Trainharder.com ‘ are people who are in some sort of fair condition or better already.

Granted anyone can take a very over-wieght, totally out-of-shape couch surfer and get them to do ANY form of exercise increase and see improvements, including using the ROM machine.

It is not the ROM machine that is the problem, it is the philosophical argument. You and your internet marketing geniuses, need to understand physiology better.

But again – and this proves you have not read the comments. I do not need to try the ROM machine to know what it does. 4 to 8 minutes of aerobic exercise will be a severe drop and completely useless to any runner from middle distance up, cyclist, rower, soccer player who wish to develop their aerobic capacity – you need to learn this.

You can site all the little, short duration lab tests all you want. And for every little, short duration lab test you provide on the ROM, I can provide 100s of real-life, long term (like 20 – 30 years) athletic careers, where the results of come from long term, head-down endurance base training first. Not 4 or 8 minutes worth, but hours, upon hours, done over months and years and decades.

You cannot increase your aerobic capacity with 4 to 8 minutes of work on a machine. Cannot be done, except for a person who cannot yet move for 4 minutes….those tests you site are either bogus or inaccurate.

Also: ‘taken from manufacturer’s website’. This gives them less credibility. IF the manufacturer is willing to spew lies and put that information out in the media, then they are morally negligent.

Go back and read the comments more thoroughly. You and the company need to get a better understanding of physiology.
thew says:

September 22, 2009 at 8:17 pm

Christopher, Come try it.. Until then stop knocking something you have never used. or likely every touched!

You seem to have something against busy people working to be a bit healthier..
The Rom Machine is nothing more than a tool.. We use it to improve the lives of our clients.
And we have owened it now for over 5 years!.. So we can say it really does work!.

Stop by any time… once you use it you will get it.. And good for you if your fit and trim and have hours a day to spend working out.. Most of us barely have time to get to a gym, much less work out.. So The ROM for us allows Cardio for our Pilates Clients.. and our non Pilates Clients simply get Cardio when they would otherwise just get nothing..

Santa Barbara Pilates and Fitness
thew says:

September 22, 2009 at 8:22 pm

Links to the ROM Stuff have changed. FYI.
http://sbpilates.com/rom/
Christopher says:

September 23, 2009 at 12:16 am

Thew,

Thank you for the invite, but I will have to decline at this time. I don’t think you are catching on to the understanding of physiology – somehow you are a gym owner. It is not the machine (ROM) that we or I am against in theory, it is the science or lack of science that I am poo-pooing. I could care less if you are using a treadmill, stairmaster, erg, stationary bike or a ROM machine. Four minutes is not enough time to develop the aerobic system, the musco-skeletal system the nerve axions to drive those muscles, the mitochondria to extract oxygen from blood and not enough for capillary development. It is not enough time to do anything. Stop peddling bullshit.

I don’t need to be invited to ‘try’ a machine, it is not the machine I dislike, the ROM machine is probably wonderful engineering. Four minutes of intense exercise as a replacement for a healthful lifestyle is pure BullShit. You think you and the few people who play on your machine’s are too busy for a healthful lifestyle and somehow far too important to engage in meaningul exercise. You are being very assumptive about those who disagree with you.

The theory is wrong and is basically a lie or pure ignorance on the ROM exercise program developers. To suggest the prior comments are ignorant in the way you wrote it, is in the wrong context, which is followed by enough spelling errors to set off a grade 2 child’s spell check spidey senses, to click ‘Tools’ then ‘spellcheck’ before handing in their assignment.

I do not have something against busy people. In fact here again you are assumptive. I write a weekly article for an athletics based website, have two kids, career, write a quarterly newsletter for my running club, put on and arrange races, fundraise and try to train 8 to 12 hours per week. I think I am probably busier than your clients.

You wrote: ‘Stop kniocking something…’

I will knock it all I want and until you clean up your sales pitch, which happens to be full of false science.
Norman Salazar says:

December 14, 2009 at 9:14 am

I constantly wonder about stuff like this in the gym.. I have great form and I always pay extreme attention to all the exercises to make sure that (to the best of my knowledge) i am doing them to get the best effects.. im always scared though that if i drop my weight a bit that i wont be able to eventually get my weight high and or get bigger (since my body wont think the weight is to much and not seeing a need to grow??)
velodottore says:

January 24, 2010 at 9:46 am

People need to realise that V02max figures are like their top limit only when they are fully trained. For most athletes there is always a bit further they can push them. For the elite athlete they have to resort to other means.
Anthony says:

February 18, 2012 at 1:00 pm

What people fail to realize is that everyone cant do chin ups or dead lifts or squats, or hit the track for sprints which is why the ROM is made to service EVERYONE the young athlete , soccer mom, grand mom. and anyone else who has a functioning body. EVERYONE can stretch, get cardio and strength train to the best of their range of motion. and its better then using weights because you get the most out of your muscle through the full range not just half of your muscle . I know this hurt personal trainers but soon they will be the the VCR obsolete. Trainers are only good for teaching a specific sport not to keep the human body healthy and in-shape
Martin B. Brilliant says:

April 15, 2012 at 2:09 pm

I suppose what you do and what you buy would depend on what you want to accomplish. I’m not trying to develop stamina, endurance, strength or bulk. I’m not an athlete. I’m an 80 year old heart patient with a double bypass and four stents, and what I most want is to minimize my risk of dying from a heart attack. There are now studies that show that HIIT is as good as aerobic exercise for reducing mortality. I do HIIT at home on my own schedule using 5 and 10 pound dumbbells that cost far less than the ROM machine. I have other exercise equipment at home but nothing like I would find in a commercial gym. I could believe that the ROM machine would be a good thing for a gym, but as an individual exercising in my own home I can prolong my life at far less expense.

Oh, by the way, I believe the principle that training helps you do what you do in training. Using the ROM machine will, more than anything else, make you a more skillful user of the ROM machine. It won’t do much for your golf or tennis score.

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