Getting Groovy With The Gravitron

It sound like something Luke Skywalker would drive to work in, but get to know it and you'll find that the Gravitron is as clever as it is big when it comes to upper­body workouts.

But I was wrong, and he was right. The heap of scaffolding that had won his heart was the Gravitron machine and if you're interested in upper-body strength and toning, then to know the Gravitron is to love it.

The idea is simple. Working with your own bodyweight is a great way of building strength and hauling yourself up and down is a natural movement that combines many muscles at once. There's just one catch. It's all very well singing the praises of pull-ups (or chin-ups ­call them what you will) and dips, but we're not all built like marines, and some of us struggle to complete a single rep. On any other weight-lifting exercise the answer would be to lower the weight and work at an easier level until we got stronger. Working with your own bodyweight, however, makes this a tad tricky since shedding our own pounds means more than just slotting a pin into a different figure. which is where the Gravitron comes in.

The Gravitron works by the same sort of weights and pulleys as all the other weights machines, except that here they are set up as counterbalances acting against your bodyweight which means that the more weight you select on the Gravitron, the less weight you actually have lift to get your body to perform dips and pull-ups. You get the same range of movement as the real thing, but you get to choose just how hard it is to do. Perfect.

There are two basic exercises:

Dips - The triceps and shoulder exercise par excellence, dips tone those upper arms a treat. Although people tend to fuss over their biceps, it's the triceps that make up two-thirds of your upper arm muscle.

First, set a weight on the Gravitron. Remember that however many kilos it says on the metal plate you select, the figure you will lift is your weight minus that figure. The more weight you select, the easier it is for you to complete the exercise.

Now kneel on the knee pads facing the machine and hold the lower set of hand grips which should be at about waist level. Smoothly lower your body by bending your elbows until your upper arms are parallel with the floor. Straighten your arms to return to your original position. That's a rep.

Pull-ups - The pull-up has a bit of an image as a hard man's exercise which makes it all the better watching grannies doing it on the Gravitron. The principal muscles worked are the lats of your back, and the biceps as you bend your arms in the last part of the pull. You start exactly as for the dips, but this time reach up for the bars above your head. Pull up until your head reaches at least hand level and let yourself slowly back down. That's a rep.