No Pain, All Gain? : A Look at ‘Toning Tables,’ the Controversial New Fitness Fad
FIGURE SALONS, a phenomenon of the pre-aerobics ‘40s and ‘50s, featured vibrating belts and other contraptions that did little more than jiggle fat. Now a new kind of “effortless exercise” salon is said to offer toned muscles via motorized tables that lift, vibrate and bend various parts of the body.
Most of these salons are in the Midwest and East, but recently about 25 have opened locally. Backers claim that the “toning tables” exercise muscles as effectively as calisthenics or weight training. Dianne Simmons, owner of the Body Craze salon in Sherman Oaks, says that using the machines for half an hour will burn 270 calories. John Europe, president of Look Fit, a toning-table distributor, compares them to Nautilus machines. “It is exactly the opposite principle. Instead of the machine providing the resistance, you do. It does the pushing and pulling.” He says that if the client maintains tense muscles in an isometric contraction while using the table, muscles will be toned and tightened.
Many experts disagree. Dr. Ronald Mackenzie, medical director of Centinela National Athletic Health Institute in Culver City, says he has not observed the machines in use, but adds: “I can’t see how a table that moves around different parts of the body would be of any help. It doesn’t make sense that people would lose inches by using it.”
But Europe says Look Fit backs its claims. “As long as the client doesn’t gain weight, we guarantee that in a certain number of visits he or she will lose a certain number of inches.”
New York-based exercise scientist Michael D. Wolf believes that those claims are “nonsensical . . . . Toning tables won’t burn fat because they don’t provide aerobic exercise.”
“The machines are similar to ones designed in the ‘30s by Bernard Stauffer for ‘figure correction,’ ” Europe says. “A side benefit in the form of rehabilitation was discovered.” Mackenzie says the tables could have therapeutic value, “especially after injury or prolonged illness,” but stresses that they have “no cardiovascular value.”
Most salons charge $6 to $8 for an hourlong session, which should be supervised by trained personnel. “Unless the client participates and maintains isometric contractions while using the machine,” Simmons says, “results won’t be satisfactory.”
Wolf says no research has been published “because the tables are another fad that will float away.” Yet salons keep opening. Simmons says: “People don’t want stress; they want results. We’re not saying ‘no pain, no gain.’ We’re saying ‘no sweat.’ ”
Photographed by Davis Factor III; hair and makeup: Jennifer K. Montgomery; styling: Carol James/Celestine-Cloutier; model: Audi England/Elite; exercise clothes by Carushka; toning table courtesy of Look Fit, Studio City
