Let’s face it: For the 99.9 percent of us not named Brock Lesnar or Arnold Schwarzenegger, working out can be kind of dull.
That’s an issue that a new Kickstarter campaign, hailing itself as “the world’s first interactive core trainer,” hopes to solve. Called Stealth, it’s a home gym device that promises to sculpt you some killer abs by letting you play games on your smartphone.
“My goal was to take the plank — one of the most boring, but effective exercises — and gamify it,” creator Howard Panes, a professional fitness trainer and serial entrepreneur, told Digital Trends. “We call it Stealth, because the idea is that it’s so much fun that you don’t necessarily realize what an aggressive workout you’ve having. All you’re fixated on is the game that you’re playing.”
Stealth works by giving you a piece of exercise equipment, reminiscent of an inverted Bosu, into which you place your smartphone. On your smartphone, you then load the Stealth gaming app and — using the phone’s in-built accelerometer and your own core as a makeshift joystick — complete various game challenges by tilting your body.
“We hear a lot about fitness-tracking wearables at the moment, but often people forget to wear or charge them,” Panes continued. “Nobody forgets their phone, though.”
Having already blown past its funding goal of $20,000, you’ve still got 58 days to pre-order Stealth on Kickstarter. A Super Early Bird edition will set you back $99, and promises to ship next July.
“Nothing can take the place of a real coach: a motivator, a mentor,” Panes said. “No technology can ever replace that. What we can do with the Stealth, however, is to let people train at any time. This is something you can do on your own and know that you’re making improvements at, because you’ll see your score getting higher. I think this is something that can genuinely improve your quality of life.”
