You may have heard of this little gym machine.
The iGallop purports to provide you with a horse-riding experience in the comfort of your own home, and the suggestion is that if you ride it diligently for fifteen minutes a day, it will whittle away inches from your waist while you read or watch TV, having insane amounts of fun at the same time.
Being a fundamentally lazy person who hates the gym and needs to whittle inches - and who used to thoroughly enjoy horse-riding in her younger days - I decided to look into getting one. There’s not a great deal of hard information out there on the internet about it, although there are many different versions available from different manufacturers ranging from the iJoy Ride (also available in the UK) to this one from Panasonic which looks much more like a saddle, and including the giggle-inducing horse scooter (yes, this a bona fide exercise machine, but this one’s for children, folks).
The trouble is that these things don’t seem to be taken too seriously by a lot of people, and if you watch some of the videos available on You Tube, you can see why. Not to put too fine a point on it, some of the ladies seem to be having a little too much fun, and the guys can’t keep a straight face either. However, all joking aside, as a core exerciser, the manufacturers claim they help to work the abdominals, and like a lot of women, I do seem to have a problem with acquiring anything approaching a flat stomach. I’ve been having trouble with back pain, too, so I asked my chiropractor if she thought it might be useful, and she said yes, if used daily, she thought that it would.
So, at the beginning of the year Other Half very kindly bought me an iGallop, whereupon I promptly put my back out riding in his new Audi (don’t ask), and the thing sat in the spare bedroom until February, when Kim the Chiro gave me the all-clear to begin trying it out. As befits a woman with a passing interest in science, I first measured my waist - 34 inches - and on the 21st February, I began a daily routine of 15 minutes on the iGallop before my morning shower.
It is now 20th April, and this morning I measured my waist again. During the last two months I have been keeping an eye on my diet, but I have lost no weight, and yet this morning I am happy to say that my waist now measures 33 inches! Yay! Result!!
The iGallop IS fun. But no, there is no way on earth I could read while bouncing around like that. However, there is one more invaluable benefit to report - since that day in February, my posture has improved out of all recognition, and I think for that reason alone it’s worth the cost and the house room.
Go on. You know you want one!
Awesome. I kept waiting for the punchline about how it didn’t work, but it sounds like it works for you! I loved the video of the women in the store. I could see someone doing a satirical spoof on that
Jeffs last blog post..Only a fool would want to actually exercise!
Hi Jeff! Thanks for popping in!
Yes, indeed it does work for me, my back feels it when I miss a day. The videos are hilarious - in fact there used to be one up on YouTube which was downright suggestive. It was the official advert from the manufacturers. IIRC, it was withdrawn. Tee hee.
I’m glad I found this, because I’ve wanted more read on who liked it and why. I’m a disabled horsewoman, mom, wife, etc…and tho I keep up w/my kids, I don’t get to exercise like I should, and I certainly don’t get to ride like I used to…thus I’ve fallen way out of a nice toned stomach, not to mention a big loss in balance. I developed an interest in the iGallop in the hopes that it will help tone my waist, back and hip muscles up…and return my balance as I start to prep for actual horseback riding again. Sadly tho I have yet to find one in my budget. When I do on eBay, etc…they’ve been local pick up only or so high in shipping that I haven’t been able to do it.
But, alas, I’ll keep looking!
Hi Mare -
I’m sorry to hear you have fitness and balance problems, and that you are disabled. I think it would be worth checking with your doc that the iGallop would be suitable for you - not knowing what your particular health problems are, I can’t advise you.
When I first began to use it, I ached a lot and couldn’t do more than five minutes at a time. Now I do the full fifteen minute work-out starting slow and going through ‘gallop’ and finishing on the variable, which works your balance more because the speed keeps changing. I do various stretching exercises on it too.
I am still very impressed, and still use it every day. While away on holiday for three weeks I found I did stiffen up, and I was less flexible when I got home, but a week or so after getting back into the routine again, I was good.
And I did find that it helped my balance on a horse when I began riding again!