Slendertone – Week 1

Now that the package had arrived, it was time to properly trial the Slendertone Abs belt. When I opened the box, my immediate thought was that this was packed properly. I guess for a piece of equipment that costs over £100 you’d expect that anyway but I’m pleased that it met my expectations.

It took us a good half an hour to unpack everything and start to assemble the belt and equipment together. The full instructions were much more detailed and made a lot more sense than the Quick guide, which required some guesswork!

Attaching the patches to the correct points on each side of the belt meant having the correct waist measurements to begin with. So we needed to grab the tape measure and compare the results to where exactly the patches needed to be placed.

Finally the belt was ready, the control was set and then I realised it needed to be charged up for at least a few hours. This was a little disappointing as I was all set to give it a go, however patience was needed as it was already late, I decided to wait until tomorrow evening after work to trial it for the first time.

I waited for at least an hour after dinner to put the belt around myself as I thought doing this on a full stomach wouldn’t be a very good idea! The belt itself was very lightweight. You’ve got to remove the padding around the three patches every time you want to use it, which was a bit fiddly as the patches themselves tend to come off with the padding unless you’re careful.

(Before the trial began)

I wrapped the belt around my waist and got a freight at just how cold the patches were around my midriff! It’s only for a moment and once it’s on, it’s on. Sort of like when you first get into the swimming pool, jumping in is always better than lowering yourself slowly!

I started off on a low setting as advised by the instructions and hardly felt a thing. So I increased it slightly, there’s a button for each side of the belt that can stimulate more if required. As it increased, the feeling was quite unusual and a little uncomfortable at first as it felt like a slight pressure or a very miniature person poking at your body!

The timer lasts between 25-30 minutes depending on the setting you choose to have it on. The higher the programme, the more intense the impulses become. After the timer had stopped, the belt automatically finished and I removed the belt from my body slowly.

My immediate thought was I’d worked my core muscles as they felt slightly tight and stimulated. After that first session I believed that on a higher setting, this could produce some results closesly matched to an Abs class/session at the gym. It’s still early days to give definitive answers that it works, however I am more optimistic now, than I was before trying on the belt.