Orange County Register

It’s the season of New Year’s resolutions and infomercial offers of home exercise equipment. But will the Red Exerciser DX really shave four inches off your tummy in four weeks? Does the Perfect Pullup (pictured at left) really work?

Consumer Reports tested nine gadgets and machines that are sold on TV and compared the results with a traditional workout of treadmill, sit-ups and lunges.

Here’s the results:

Abs: The $100 Ab Rocket was slightly less effective than traditional crunches. The Rock-N-Go Exerciser barely felt like a workout and costs $230. Red Exerciser DX promises a loss of four inches around the middle in four weeks, but didn’t leave testers impressed.

Cardio: The Bowflex Treadclimber TC5000 is a good way to burn calories for $2,500. The CardioTwister provided variety, but floor ab and leg exercises worked better ($200.) Tony Little Rock’n Roll Stepper for $80 was fun but requires users to balance on it.

Upper body: The Perfect Pushup ($40) and Perfect Pullup ($100) provided good workouts for beginners and advanced exercisers.

Total body: Fluidity Bar burned fewer calories than a no-equipment circuit workout of lunges, crunches and modified pushups. But testers liked the workout. It costs $240.

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