Slendertone System Arms: First Impressions

While the likes of Beyoncé and Eva Longoria and Jennifer Aniston have long been poster girls for trim and toned upper arms and well-honed shoulders, you can blame one Michelle Obama for the recent "arms are the new face" craze. You couldn't look sideways out of the corner of your eyes all summer for magazine articles hollering about how to emulate her toned triceps and biceps, and all of them them featured how tos that were seriously exercise heavy. Lots of talk about weights and reps and things.

Meh.

I've been on the lookout for a lazier, more couch-friendly option, and I think I've found it in the shape of Slendertone's new System-Arms, €179.89 with a controller. This consists of two armband gizmos that hold the conductor pads which you whack onto your upper arms. Then you use the handheld controller (sold separately and can also be used with other Slendertone System products) to pick a programme to firm, strengthen or build muscle, an intensity to suit you, and sit back and watch X Factor or D'Aprentiss while the Slendertone blitzes those bingo wings.

Having just completed session one, week one on the conditioning programme to improve definition and muscle tone, I can report that it's dead easy to use and is totally painless. There is a "zapping" sensation as muscles are contracted, but it's not particularly unpleasant and feels less like getting your arm caught in an electric fence than you might expect.

Although I only had it cranked up to intensity level 23, and does go all the way up to 100, so I'm not sure at what point  the electrocution-y feeling might set in.

Don't think that you'll be able to do much during the 10-15 minutes, three times a week that you'd be using System-Arms, though: while the contractions are rhythmic, they still come as a bit of a surprise every time and it'd be very easy to upend a bottle of nail varnish or a cuppa while it's switched on.

Slendertone reckon it takes four weeks to see results, so I'll let y'all know how Michelle-ified things are looking in about a month ...