Gone are the days of classic push-ups and crunches, it’s time to work out smarter. Jonathan Smith, creator of The Spyder 360, has developed a revolutionary piece of workout equipment that combines ALL the elements of a home gym into one convenient product.

Sixteen years ago, Smith began a year of physical therapy. Two weeks into his therapy, he had an idea for push up bar that rotates (now known as “Perfect Pushup”). Then he thought, what if they could roll in any direction? This idea was based on a need as well as the time he spent in physical therapy. Smith would have to work out each day for the rest of his life, his doctor said, and he needed something more fun to do besides going to the gym to use two dozen pieces of equipment.

In addition to receiving feedback on his idea from his physical therapists, he had two roommates throughout college who were into athletics, weight training, body building and nutrition. What he learned while listening to them and going to the gym with them validated his idea more and more as he went along.  Fast forward 15 years and you have The Spyder 360, a product that is fun to use and also has importance in physical therapy applications.

The Spyder 360 is also offered with additional equipment to use in tandem to increase the intensity of your workout, depending on the Kickstarter package you choose to purchase. The Spyder 360 Base Assembly can be used on any surface; they will NOT damage wood flooring or leave oil residue on carpet. The Handle Assembly can be removed to allow for easy foot engagement, which then makes lower body exercises more comfortable with the handle out of the way. Resistance Bands attach to the base assembly by clipping onto the Resistance Band Ring from any angle. Wrist and ankle straps give you the ability to anchor the bands to yourself. The level 3 package includes two five-pound weights and two 10-pound weights that can be added to The Spyder 360. No other fitness product in the omni-directional rolling device space allows for this, and none have handles either. The weights have a metal core and a rubber shell, so they’re soft to the touch, won’t damage floors and are comfortable hold.

These capabilities make it so The Spyder 360 translates into resistance training, weight training, strength training and endurance training. The applications reach from the NBA, professional boxing, physical rehabilitation, home use, and circuit training, amongst others.

The possibilities are endless, but here are five specific exercises you can do with The Spyder 360 to get a full body workout.

• Oblique twist with resistance: Attach a resistance band to The Spyder 360 and loop the other end to a heavy object, perhaps a 50-pound weight. Start in the kneeling position, with the anchor point on either your left or right, place both hands on the handle of The Spyder 360 and roll away from the anchor point in a straight line. Keep your back and arms straight as you pull away from the anchor. This targets your abs and obliques, so no more sit ups or crunches!
• Forward leg slide with circle return and resistance: Connect a resistance band to the Spyder 360 and ensure the anchor point is behind you. In a standing position with one foot on the base of one Spyder 360, step forward with your stable foot until the band is at tension. Slide the Spyder 360 forward about 18 inches. Then, when you slide the Spyder 360 back, create an arcing movement until the Spyder 360 is back where it started, next to and slightly behind your stable leg. The resistance band will fight your efforts and attempt to spin your body around, working the connecting tissues in your stable leg’s hip, knee, and ankle. Strengthening these tissues and joints can reduce injuries in athletes.
• Ab roll with front resistance: Attach a resistance band to the Spyder 360 and loop the other end to the supplied Door Anchor. Start in the kneeling position, with the anchor point in front of you. Place both hands on the handle of the Spyder 360 and move far away from the anchor point. Remember you will be rolling forward toward the anchor point so the tension will decrease and then backwards away from the anchor point, but you want there to always be tension on the band. Roll forward toward the anchor point and backwards in a straight line. The resistance increases core, shoulder, back, and arm strength. You can of course move the Spyder 360 in any direction, this is just a simplified movement.
• Push-up with side resistance: Using two Spyder 360s, attach one resistance band to each and loop the other ends around two heavy objects, like a 50-pound weight or heavy equipment. Move the Spyder 360s away from their respective anchor points, and hold each Spyder still while you do your push-ups. The resistance engages your legs, arms, back, and core even more. The objective is to keep the Spyder 360s still as you perform your push up. Switch it up by grabbing the Spyder 360 to your left with your right hand, and vice versa. Uncross your arms and the tension will come from across your body. Now do your pushups for full body engagement!
• Plank shoulder press with resistance: Attach a resistance band to The Spyder 360 and loop the other end to the supplied Door Anchor (or anchor it around a heavy machine or weight). Start in a plank position and hold one Spyder 360 to your side, about shoulder height, with the handle in your right or left hand. You can have your knees on the ground if you prefer. Drive your hand “up” or forward since you are in the plank position. Since you’ve taken your legs out of the equation, this exercise focuses on your shoulder, back, and lat. This is a simplified motion of this exercise.

The Spyder 360 has been used by gym owners, body builders, those in physical rehabilitation, beginners, and experts alike. You could say there’s a love/hate relationship between the equipment and its users in that they love its versatility but surprised at how hard it can make you work.

“I thought it was a single use piece of equipment, but I found out it was truly a total body work out,” said first-time user Janice Vantrease. “After I used it I felt like I worked out muscles I didn’t know I had.”

Experts in the fitness world especially appreciate The Spyder 360’s multi-use capabilities.

“Running a Crossfit gym, the key is diversity and changing the pattern so your body doesn’t recognize a rhythm,” said Crossfit gym owner James Hurlburt. “The concept of the product being able to change direction, having multiple uses and facets, was appealing to us because that’s the whole premise of what we do. The Spyder 360 challenges the body in a way that promotes growth and development.”

It’s important to start slow on a soft surface like carpet or astro turf. Since it’s a full-body workout, five to eight minutes is all you need for the first few days. Don’t over-do it on your first, second or even fifth day; you won’t forget it if you do!

Jonathan Smith is the founder of the health and wellness company The Spyder 360 ™ and creator of The Spyder 360™, which is available for purchase on Kickstarter through March 17, 2017 at 40 percent off retail prices.

We have always known there is a connection between exercise and our mood, but more and more frequently reports and studies find that there is solid scientific proof behind the links between physical activity and how happy we feel.

A natural aid to fight depression, exercise has been proven to lift our mood, boost confidence and reduce our risks of suffering from depression and anxiety. So how exactly does this work, and what can you do to benefit from the powerful mood boosting properties released from exercise?

The science…

What we are sure about is that exercise releases powerful mood boosting endorphins. If you’ve dabbled with exercise in the past, you’ll know all too well of the feeling you experience immediately afterwards. You’ll often feel uplifted, jovial and in some cases a little giddy. The post exercise feeling is often described as ‘euphoric’ and this is because of the endorphins released.

Endorphins trigger a positive feeling in the body, not too dissimilar to that of morphine. When endorphins levels are high, you feel as if a weight has been lifted, your mind feels clear and at peace and you feel blissfully happy.

When we exercise endorphins are released, giving us an immediate high that can last for hours afterwards, and increase your general mood. This is why many people swear by exercising in the morning, as it sets them up well for the day, leaving them happy and motivated.

Furthermore, our self-esteem is boosted when we exercise. People who exercise regularly often have better self-confidence, and a general feeling that they could take on anything, making them more driven and experimental.

Those who suffer from anxiety often find exercise greatly calms them down. If you’ve ever felt uneasy, stressed or anxious often the answer is to take 30 minutes of exercise, which works to clear your mind, reduce anxiety and boost your mood.

Anxiety is reduced through exercise due to the endorphins released, but also the reduction of the immune system chemicals, which when high can cause us to feel stressed and uneasy. It also raises our over all body temperature, which induces a calming effect.

Exercising regularly also helps us sleep. When the body and the mind have worked hard many of us find it far easier to fall asleep at night, and experience more Rapid Eye Movement sleep, or REM (the deep sleep in which we recover and restore), and so when we are sleeping well, we feel more relaxed and are able to get more out of each day.

Putting it into practice…

The benefits of exercise for reducing depression and anxiety are clear, but what types of exercise should you be doing and how much? The general recommendation is 30 minutes of exercise per day to extend our life expectancy, but what about for reducing depression and increasing our mood?

To really benefit from all the mood boosting properties exercise has to offer, you should aim to do around 45 minutes to an hour of physical activity five times a week. When it comes to exercise it’s also important to bear in mind the impact it has on the body, so if you’re carrying out moderate to high intensity exercise it’s also important to rest too, so as not to overwhelm the body.

The more energy you can put into it, the more you’ll get out, and on your rest days don’t opt to sit around all day, go for a gentle walk in the sunshine instead to also benefit from vitamin D which can lift your mood too.

You might find from time to time you will feel under pressure or anxious, and so this is the perfect time to get a work out in. Clear your mind and get a hit of endorphins when you feel as if everything is getting on top of you, chances are by the time you’ve finished your workout you’ll feel very different and wonder why you even worried in the first place.

Exercise of all types will help to reduce your risk of stress and there are no proven exercises that are better than the other. Whatever you enjoy the most will work the best!

Try Go Flaunt It…

Go Flaunt It is a fantastic way to up your exercise and tailor it exactly to your needs. All this talk of fitting in an hour’s exercise five days a week may have left you wondering how exactly you’d manage to do that as many of us lead busy and hectic lives.

Go Flaunt It (http://appstore.com/goflauntit) is a brand new iOS fitness app that allows you to build your very own customized workout playlists to watch anywhere, anytime – even offline.

It’s basically the Netflix of fitness workouts, bringing together a huge library of fitness DVDs from the world’s best trainers. Subscribers can choose to workout to full-length DVD workouts or chapters varying in length, enabling users to fit in fitness around their lifestyles.

The app showcases a huge range of workouts and fitness regimes including aerobics, yoga, combat sport, Pilates, mixed martial arts and kettlebell training.  It also has specialized workouts for different stages of life and varying levels of fitness, such as pre/post pregnancy and training for seniors.

Go Flaunt It provides workout videos from world-class trainers hailing from all over the globe. From celebrity yoga teachers Charlotte Dodson and Jessica James, to MMA professional coach Kevin Kearns, the new fitness app gives access to top quality training for a fraction of the price.

With the help of Go Flaunt it, you can reduce your risk of depression and anxiety, lift your mood, boost your confidence and sleep better, all from adding exercise to your lifestyle.

Reap the Out-of-This-World Benefits of Rebounding with bellicon

Bellicon Trampolines

While searching for the perfect exercise to help astronauts returning from long space voyages, NASA scientists found that exercising on a trampoline was better than anything else on earth. The human body depends on gravity to function properly and jumping on a bellicon mini trampoline engages the body in a gravitational cycle, while also providing a fun, low-impact workout for everyone from Olympic athletes, to senior citizens, to those who have never exercised before.

Unlike other kinds of fitness equipment, including spring-based rebounders and cheap imitations, the bellicon features a custom-formulated, ultra-low-impact bungee suspension system that maximizes workouts, providing a muscle-toning, core-strengthening and cardio-pumping exercise with a single, simple and easy to store device.

Combining the benefits of plyometrics (“jump training”), eccentric exercise, and core training with a world-class cardio workout, bouncing with a bellicon strengthens and tones 638 muscles. As the most effective and efficient way to build your strength from the inside out, bouncing on a bellicon effectively raises your metabolism and increases your cardiovascular and lymphatic circulation. This increased circulatory motion allows lymphocytes and antibodies, the body’s defenders, to move faster, making them more efficient at getting rid of impurities and invaders.

And compared to working out on solid ground, bouncing on gentle, ultra-elastic bellicon bungees removes seven-eighths of the impact on joints, reducing back and joint pain, improving balance and coordination, and burning more calories than running.

Producing gravitational forces two to four times greater than normal, bouncing on a bellicon provides bones with the weight bearing force needed to build-up and stay strong. As a result, using the bellicon can help stop osteoporosis and osteopenia from progressing and, if begun early enough, can help to prevent the diseases from even starting.

Need the best possible workout in the least amount of time? The bellicon easily adapts to any schedule. Whether you’re a tennis champion working to increase your agility, a new mom looking to bounce back into shape, or a hard-working professional who wants the best possible workout in the least amount of time, bellicon offers the best possible workout in the least amount of time.

Aside from astronauts, many professional athletes turn to bellicon rebounders to safely and effectively prepare for competition. The US Ski team uses rebounders to train harder without strain, while Chicago Bulls’ Joakim Noah used the rebounder to get back into all-star shape after being injured, and 2013 IBF World Middleweight Champion Darren Barker turned to the trampoline to train for his World Title bout.

Made of the finest materials and components available, the bellicon’s steel frame and polypropylene, UV resistant mat are ready to be used indoors or out, which will keep you jumping rain or shine. Available in two models, the bellicon Classic and bellicon Premium, the bungee-based rebounders are fully customizable depending on your health and fitness needs and are whisper silent too. For more information on bellicon, please visit www.bellicon-usa.com.