Power Balance, utter nonsense, or not ?

ThisRegard

Now let me say at the beginning I'm an utter sceptic on anything like this, I have read the blurb and thought what shoite and how can anyone spend money on this. The only thing I have some faith in are copper bracelets for people with arthritis and things like that because I actually know people who swear that they bring relief, be it the placebo affect I don't know but if it helps them that's a good thing.

However I'm starting to see these Power Balance bands more and more, they're even in my CRC email this morning and I saw them in store a few weeks ago and I thought what complete rubbish when I read this is how they're supposed to work....

What is Power Balance? Power Balance is Performance Technology designed to work with your body’s natural energy field. Founded by athletes, Power Balance is a favourite among elite athletes for whom balance, strength and flexibility are important.

How Does the Hologram Work? Power Balance is based on the idea of optimizing the body’s natural energy flow, similar to concepts behind many Eastern philosophies. The hologram in Power Balance is designed to resonate with and respond to the natural energy field of the body.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/News.aspx?NewsID=1220&PartnerID=4087

Holograms ffs, does this mean that all use kids of the 80s were superkids as holograms were everywhere back then, they even had a whole set of action figures based around holograms.

So what do people think, has anyone spent money on them and feel like MTB biker Willow Koerber

I put my first Power/Balance bracelet on two weeks before the National Championships. I took 2nd place and felt amazing. Race after race I got faster and faster. I just finished my season with a bronze medal at the World Championships in Australia. I have never felt clearer, calmer or more focused. Power/Balance has taken me from good to great!

I thought this would make a nice Friday thread

mloc123

RayCun

****ing magnets, how do they work?

ThisRegard

RayCun wrote: »

****ing magnets, how do they work?

Not even magnets RayCun, but amazing holograms ! I think they reserve the magnets for the bracelets for people with joint pain.

Sport101

How many do you need to summon Captain Planet?

Seriously, is there nothing the power of a 40 EUR hologram bracelet cannot achieve? I heard you can hold your breath indefinitely underwater while wearing one of these...

tunney

I think they are great.

mloc123

tunney wrote: »

I think they are great.

do you use one while riding your planet-x bike?

tunney

mloc123 wrote: »

do you use one while riding your planet-x bike?

Yes the one with the compact and the 27 on the back.

They go well.

mloc123

tunney wrote: »

Yes the one with the compact and the 27 on the back.

They go well.

27 on the back? need to get yourself a 32

tunney

mloc123 wrote: »

27 on the back? need to get yourself a 32

Dunno if I could handle one. Would I need a new Shack jersey to use it?

Sport101

Reckon these dudes must have been wearing at least two bracelets each.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe3St1GgoHQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe3St1GgoHQ

RoyMcC

Quote - They cost only £29.99, but tests on the plastic bands suggest they improve the strength of those who wear them, to the extent that they cannot be pushed over when wearing one, but can without - Unquote :pac:


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1305593/Power-Balance-bands--A-listers-love-con.html#ixzz12QNxakZK

kingQuez

This topic appeared over in the fitness forum earlier in the week, where someone threw this vid up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Piu75P8sxTo&feature=player_embedded

ThisRegard

I was looking at some quotes on the various youtube vids and this one made me smile

it actually works. i was hit by a car today and nothing happened.

BeepBeep67

ElectraX

Lifestyle Sports in Dundrum are doing a demonstration of these on Saturday. Would be curious to try one to see what all the hype is about!Apparently it's been proven that people who don't have enough flexibility to touch their toes, put one of these on and then they can!Believe it when I see it

MrCreosote

Use these things with caution. For a lot of people they're just too powerful.

I'd been suffering from low vitality for a while, and my naturopath prescribed a power balance band. Well! Things seemed to improve for a while- I felt my energy channels unblock, and my natural energy rose. Even my aura vibrations had stopped. But it went on and soon I felt worse again! Apparently for my particular bio-field the magnetic resonance of the Power Balance band is too much. I got the local scientician to drop the magentic power, but no good.

So now I'm worse than I was at the start.

I know no medical advice allowed but please help. I've got a 10k on Sunday and I need to know if I can rebalance my bioenergy resonance, unblock my chakkras AND restore my natural harmonies by then?

Or failing that, does anyone know a good kinesiologist in D15?

kingQuez

At this rate I might have to give up the internet..

digger2d2

ElectraX wrote: »

Lifestyle Sports in Dundrum are doing a demonstration of these on Saturday. Would be curious to try one to see what all the hype is about!Apparently it's been proven that people who don't have enough flexibility to touch their toes, put one of these on and then they can!Believe it when I see it

Just bend your knees and save €26.99

kingQuez

Better yet, pay me the 27quid and I'll touch your toes

ElectraX

Now there's an offer...and at a reduced price...cause they're selling those bands for 35 yo yos in Lifestyle!!! Sounds like a load of tripe to me too, but might head over for a look anyway! The fact that Beckham endorses them probably says it all...:p

tunney

ElectraX wrote: »

Lifestyle Sports in Dundrum are doing a demonstration of these on Saturday. Would be curious to try one to see what all the hype is about!Apparently it's been proven that people who don't have enough flexibility to touch their toes, put one of these on and then they can!Believe it when I see it

No it hasn't, whats been proven is the power of suggestion.

"Here put out your arm, I'll push down on it, look how easily I'll push it down"

Guess what happens

"Now put this on, I won't be able to push it down"

Guess what happens.

ThisRegard

tunney wrote: »

Guess what happens.

Potential customer empties their wallet while snake oil salesman laughs into his or her sleeve ?

macinalli

kingQuez wrote: »

Better yet, pay me the 27quid and I'll touch your toes

That's a dangerous offer to make on an athletics forum!

kingQuez

macinalli wrote: »

That's a dangerous offer to make on an athletics forum!

lol, very true.. but i didn't say what i'll touch them with! *goes hunting for barge pole*

opus

I spotted the Power Balance stand was right next to the Pacer's stand in the RDS on Sunday so come on pacers, own up, who bought one (or more!)???

ThisRegard

I was wondering that myself opus

I saw a fair few people milling around it and speaking to the people at the stand but didn't have the time nor the inclination to don my Mythbusters cap and pop over.

troy

Complete manure on what they are actually meant to do. My wife saw a demo and told me about them, so naturally I went to the source of all truth, google. I watched the PB demo and then found the video that kingQuez posted in #13. So later that day I got my wife to do all the same tests again but this time I used a "magic" chocolate egg instead and low and behold I got all the same results with my "magic" egg as the Power Balance band.

However there is always an argument for the placebo effect. Give a 100 people with a headache a sugar pill and a glass of water and roughly 40 will report the headache gone. The mind is a very powerful thing and if you believe that this band is helping to improve your performance then you may well see an improvement.

So should someone spend 30 euro on this? If you've got the money to waste it is entirely up to you.
Will it improve your performance? Perhaps, but if it does it will down to your own brain/body and not from the magic magnets.
Is it moral agreeable to charge 30 or 40 euro for a rubber band that you know has no physical influence on the body? I'll leave that one up to you!

Cartman78

Happened to be in Dundrum SC on Saturday, and while killing time (Mrs.Cartman was shoe shopping) I wandered aimlessly in Lifestyle sports.

The Power Balance fella zoned in on me and gave me the whole spiel; did the "strength" and "balance" tests (which I knew were complete ball-ox) and then tried to keep a straight face when he said they cost €35. Was going to tell him that repeatedly telling me that 'Paul O'Connell wears one' was not a good sales technique being that the big man has been injured for the last year or so.

As Troy mentions below, there is probably a placebo effect with these kinda things but €35 is taking the mickey. I was going to haggle him down to €4.50 (my absolute spending limit for magic magnets) but went and had a hot chocolate at Starbucks instead.

ThisRegard

Cartman78 wrote: »

I was going to haggle him down to €4.50 (my absolute spending limit for magic magnets) but went and had a hot chocolate at Starbucks instead.

Money extremely well spent, but only if you got caramel and cream with it.

tunney

Another similar prodcut discussed here

http://www.wired.com/playbook/2010/11/baseball-phiten-neckwear/

testerdesign

<spammer, banned>

gerard65

testerdesign wrote: »

<snip>

So you've got a treadmill in the bedroom? How has your performance been on the roads

Oryx

The placebo effect is stronger than just a mild thing of thinking yourself better that happens in your brain. In one test that I read about, test subjects were given a strong painkilling drug, one that has measurable effects. But the drug did not work unless the subject knew they were given it. It wasnt a case of them imagining the effects, it was that the drug did not work unless somehow their body chemistry had been primed by the brain that they were getting it. Weird or what?

But with the powerband, all I reckon its doing is accessing that positive attitude you need to do well. If you go into a race thinking you feel shoite and wont do well, then you wont, but if you have the right head on and feel invincible, you will. The powerband is just an expensive totem that makes you think positive, imo.

Even if they wont admit it, plenty of athletes have 'lucky charms' or a lucky shirt, or shoes, that they hate to compete without. Same deal.

donothoponpop

<I've banned testerdesign for spamming, he has re-regged as biggie_p and is PM'ing posters about his magic wares. Anyone who gets one of these unsolicited PM's should report the PM, by clicking the red triangle in the top right>

baldykav

I picked up a Powerbalance band at a Tri' in France earlier this summer and had the demonstration etc, which the group I was with all went through and put it down to everything and anything from PNF Stretching to a "trick" used by the people doing the demonstration putting slightly different pressure's on you.

Although there seemed to be little science and even less literature/explanation we pretty much all bought one based on the demo', the rationale being that although we thought it was probably rubbish, what if it wasn't!!!

Personally I think it's a load of cack, how can a hologram sticker balance you? would the same go for a watch with a hologram logo on it? Or a hat for that matter! - I think that's it's positive reinforcing which in itself I suppose can have an effect.

I've previously attended lectures on sports psychology and addressing specific negative thoughts/unrealisitic thoughts etc first, doing a power balance style test (where you fall over), then reinforcing with positive thoughts, retesting in the same pattern with the you end up getting the same positive test results as the powerbalance test.

Saying that a friend of mine with a shoulder problem found it got worse when he put the band on, and cleared when he took it off so I could be terribly wrong.

One things for sure though, placebos do work! so if you believe it will make you faster then sometimes that's all people need so bash away regardless!

Sometimes for performance belief is all that's needed. Jonathon Edwards (WR holder for Triple Jump) was a devout Christian during his career and truly believed that God was helping him jump so far, the stronger his faith became the longer he jumped! It was only in hindsight when he finished his career that he realised he didn't actually believe in god at all and that he psychologically duped himself into believing that a higher power was behind his performance.

I'm off to confession.

shels4ever

Who needs a placebos when you do the hard work

Shels4ever elastic placebos bands go on sale monday

Jk_Eire

Well, hopefully this will put the nail in the head for those who continue to buy these useless products.

They've had to publicly denounce the claims they made in their advertising (in Austrailia)

http://www.powerbalance.com/australia/ca

In our advertising we stated that Power Balance wristbands improved your strength, balance and flexibility.

We admit that there is no credible scientific evidence that supports our claims and therefore we engaged in misleading conduct in breach of s52 of the Trade Practices Act 1974.

If you feel you have been misled by our promotions, we wish to unreservedly apologise and offer a full refund.....

tunney

http://www.powerbalance.com/australia/CA

"In our advertising we stated that Power Balance wristbands improved your strength, balance and flexibility.

We admit that there is no credible scientific evidence that supports our claims"

ThisRegard

Ha Ha, and they're now offering refunds too.

TFBubendorfer

Some more on this nonsense scam from this excellent site:

http://www.sportsscientists.com/2011/01/power-balance-bracelets-no-credible.html

dermo909

I was given one for christmas and thought the packaging was a little light on literature! So much so that I had to look up what it was all about. Of course google offered told me all the claims that it is a scam so I went to the power balance website. Hmmm still no explainations really about what it does!

After reading all the stuff on the internet about it I've come to the conclusion that if I believe it works, then it works. I'm trying my best to believe that it works but I'll probably take it off soon when christmas is properly over.

There's alot to be gained by positive thinking and I suppose this could possibly be a 'good luck charm' for me.

Still though, the first time out running while wearing it I took 4mins off my usual 5k time. I usually run 5k in 26mins but did it in 22 mins last weekend. The real test will be tomorrow at the waterford winter league(4m - pb 36m9s). I'll let you all know on friday!

RayCun

Apparently it sets up positive resonances in your central governor.

dermo909

I forgot to add that I am a sceptic even though I currently have one on my wrist.

ThisRegard

dermo909 wrote: »

I forgot to add that I am a sceptic even though I currently have one on my wrist.

I'm sceptic about your scepticism