A balance board is a great tool for exercising your core strength and balance. If you find it just a tad boring though, the Gyroboard should offer similar benefits all while opening up a lot more possibilities.
Made by Gyro Enterprises out of New Zealand, the fitness machine takes the standard balance board, then equips it with various mechanisms that let the thing simulate the movements of board sports more accurately. It can tilt front to back, rock side to side, spin around in circles, and even hop up vertically to give you a trampoline-style boost.
The Gyroboard is billed as an “all-in-one sports board training tool” that combines the “best features of balance, wobble and rocker boards.” Designed for sports training, general fitness and physical rehabilitation, it’s supposed to deliver a workout similar to what you can get when doing tricks on a snowboard or a skateboard. It comes in three models: a square deck (for injury rehab and general fitness), a flat skateboard deck and a standard skateboard deck (for more advanced users).
A built-in braking mechanism allows you to control the speed of the deck’s rotation, which can be adjusted from the bottom of the deck. The tilting angles can also be adjusted, along with activating locks to keep the deck from spinning (useful for novice users). The four legs and decks are detachable with no tools necessary (they are held by push pins), making the whole thing easy to transport when thrown into a bag.
All three Gyroboard models retail for the same $300 price. They’re available now.