Xco Trainer
Revolutionary in form and function! The new Xco Trainer effectively builds and
tones muscle while strengthening the surrounding connective tissue and stabilizing
the joints. Provides a total-body workout. Perfect for home, clinic, gym or club use.
Improves muscle tone and definition while enhancing cardiovascular fitness. Strengthens
the entire 3-dimensional structure of muscle and connective tissue. Xco Training
produces results based on the principles of Reactive Impact and 3-Dimensional Freedom
of Movement. Its sleek design consists of an anodized aluminum tube filled with a special granulate.
The Xco Trainer, being sold in North America by Fitterfirst, caught our eye recently
as something totally different from anything at all out there. Actually from The Netherlands,
the Xco Trainer ("Ex-Co") is a tube in two lengths and two diameters, encompassing
four different weights.
The sleek anodized aluminum tube is filled with a mass of sand-like beads or grains
that are loose inside and therefore move toward one end or the other when you move
the tube sharply in different directions as a part of an exercise movement. That created
what the company calls "reactive impact," meaning there is a delayed soft-impact of
the grains inside, causing a muscle overload that forces you to react and use your
muscles dynamically. The point at which this overload occurs is at a change in muscle
fiber use, thus also bringing the connective tissue into play.
That's the theory at least. We found by the way that all that physiology gobbledy-gook
aside, it also works in balance and core exercises since the sharp shift of the grains forces
you a bit off-balance and therefore forces you to use your core quite actively.
We tried the set of nine exercises that Fitter has in a brochure that comes with the
Trainer and each time we did one we thought about what the Fitter person told us:
"Go for the 'thunk.'" That means you need to move the tube quite sharply and really
feel and hear the grains shift and sort of thunk hard into the opposite end.
We also were using the medium trainer that weighs only 1.3 pounds and is
16 3/4 inches long. We found one of our smaller testers, albeit still strong, liked some
of the movements, especially ones that forced core use, whereas some of the
movements seemed somewhat contrived and difficult to feel much good in doing.
We also created our own, using the off-balancing of the "thunk" while on a balance
board or sitting on a ball. That our smaller tester liked quite a bit.
Our larger male tester sorta shrugged and said, "What am I supposed to feel?"
The medium trainer was obviously not enough for him.
On the European website, we found quite a bit of information on using the tube for
sport-specific training such as for tennis. We can see how this sort of reactive impact
might suit training for things like tennis, golf or baseball because of the swing involved.
We also heard the European group is working on a group-exercise program. That too
could work well since a leader could combine it
with all kinds of other movements and exercises, whereas this limited list of
nine exercises is, well, limited. (If you can read or understand German, go to
www.xco-trainer.com.)
All in all, we must say the product seems like a nice idea, assuming the correct weight
is used by the right person and perhaps that user has some background or creativity in
exercise movement. It can be a great tool to add into a program for sport-specific or
core training and balance exercises. We hope for the general user there will be a
complete program or even an instructional DVD to go with it soon.