Smart Bells
Writer: Sam Hooper Samuels
Publication Title: New York Times
Publication Date: Friday, August 19, 2005
DONN GOODMAN, a marketing executive in Cleveland, met his first Smart Bell last March in a fitness class at Club Med in the Dominican Republic. It was love at first sweat.
Smart Bells are the self-proclaimed opposite to the dumbbell. Oval disks curved like a perfect Pringles potato chip with rounded cutout handles, they are pleasing to look at and conform surprisingly to the hollows and mounds of the human form, from the small of the back to the back of the head. And they're being used everywhere, from New York yoga studios to the workout rooms at the United States Navy Seals' training camp in Coronado, Calif. Three New York professional teams - the Knicks, the Mets and the Yankees - and the Chicago White Sox have also added Smart Bells to their strength-training programs, the company says.
Smart Bells come in three weights: a three-pound model that works well for youngsters or the elderly; a six-pound version for the majority of users; and a 15-pounder to awaken the inner Arnold. Cast in iron or aluminum with a glossy PVC coating that comes in an iMac-esque array of colors, the Smart Bell is an appealing object that cries out to be picked up and swung around. It's perhaps the only scrap of metal in the gym that is both patented as exercise equipment and copyrighted as a sculpture.
The weights were designed by Paul Widerman, a first alternate on the United States Olympic wrestling team of 1984. In the late 1970's, when he was wrestling at 118 pounds for Harvard, Mr. Widerman suffered spinal compression injuries from conventional weight training. By his sophomore year, the doctors gave him the unappetizing choice of drugs or surgery.
Mr. Widerman chose a third option. He took up yoga, which not only eased the pain but also changed his style of wrestling and training. He explored dance, tai chi and martial arts and found the sweeping, swooping curves of these movement disciplines more pleasing and a better workout than the up-and-down, back-and-forth style of Western weight training. Rather than lift objects overhead, Mr. Widerman sent them into orbit around his head. He learned, as he puts it, to stop fighting gravity and start flowing with weight.
In search of the perfectly shaped weight to flow with, Mr. Widerman went to work on a five-pound lump of modeling clay. The son of an airplane designer and the brother of a puppeteer, he molded the first Smart Bell by hand.
"It was a combination of a U.F.O., a Ferrari and a reclining female nude," Mr. Widerman said. He took his prototype to a wood carver, and then later to a blacksmith to reproduce it in steel. Since 2000, Smart Bells have been produced at a commercial foundry. Along with the weights, which sell for about $75 each, Mr. Widerman has devised special workout programs making use of the Smart Bells.
After he discovered the weights at Club Med, Mr. Goodman ordered a set of three, one in each weight, as soon as he got home, adding them to the treadmill, the elliptical trainer, the Nordic skier, the gravity bench, the Bowflex and the stand of traditional dumbbells already in his home gym. "I use it religiously," Mr. Goodman said. He has cut back on workouts on his other equipment to make time for his Smart Bells. "I'm using the Bowflex less. I'm also using dumbbells a lot less."
Suzi Teitelman, director of yoga for the Crunch Fitness centers in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities, has been using the new weights in a class she developed called Revolution Yoga, a hybrid of traditional vinyasa technique and Smart Bells moves. "It kind of changed my life," Ms. Teitelman said. "It just naturally flowed." She finds that a judiciously placed Smart Bell can help newer, less flexible yoga students hold certain poses. Forward bends go just a little bit lower with a Smart Bell nestled against the small of the back.
Then there are the Navy Seals. With a two-and-a-half-year training period, the Seals are believed by many to endure the most arduous physical preparation of any branch of the military. Over the last few years, the Seals have changed their training philosophy from ordinary physical fitness to what they call functional fitness, preparing their warriors for the world of soaring choppers and underwater demolition. That paradigm shift included purchasing 100 Smart Bells for basic conditioning.
"We do a lot of load bearing, a lot of climbing and take a lot of falls," said Will Guild, who served as Command Master Chief of the Seals' training operations from 2000 to 2003. "Sky jumping with 90 to 100 pounds of gear on your body, things are going to happen," he said. "A lot of the guys have shoulder problems. The motion with the Smart Bells is very therapeutic. It's one of the few things in our fitness program that feels good."
Weights With Pizazz
WHAT THEY ARE: Smart Bells, part sculpture and part exercise equipment, are the heart of a low-impact exercise program that draws on yoga, dance and martial arts. Smart Bells come in three weights and a variety of colors
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