Best known for the VersaClimber, Heart Rate Inc. has played an integral role in transforming the way people exercise with a 23-year history of innovation.
How Did Heart Rate Inc. Get Started?
In 1978, Heart Rate Inc. had the foresight to know that heart rate was a valuable tool as a speedometer of exercise intensity for the average person’s workout as well as for athletic training. Heart Rate Inc. was awarded an exclusive patent to further develop a capacitive electrode used in the NASA space program to acquire high quality ECG signals. In 1980, the company completed the design and a functional prototype of a heart rate wristwatch and a portable heart rate monitor that was presented to numerous companies for funding. Unfortunately, many wristwatch, medical and sports equipment companies were not convinced that heart rate monitoring had any future. Faced with a lack of financial backing, Dick Charnitski, the president of Heart Rate Inc., and a mechanical engineer, then turned his attention to developing the VersaClimber vertical trainer introduced in 1981.
What Type of Equipment Does Heart Rate Inc. Offer?
Recognizing that no equipment had brought climbing indoors, as well as understanding the tremendous value of a combined total-body cardio and strength exercise, Charnitski created the first vertical trainer in his garage which was both a stepper and a total-body climber with variable hydraulic resistance.
Strength training with a twist.
VersaClimber didn’t rest with just vertical trainers. In 2001, the company created the VersaPulley, the first inertial, 100 percent responsive-resistance, total-body exercise machine. Designed to improve sport movement and athletic performance, VersaPulley combines speed, power and functional mobility through any range of motion with accommodating inertial resistance at any speed-just like what occurs in sports.
The resistance generated in the VersaPulley is based on patented MV2 technology, which is a mechanism that uses rotary inertia and an infinitely variable cam or cone. This produces a resistive force between five and 500 pounds that automatically matches the capability of any user. It is so accommodating that two people can use the machine at the same time and each one gets a personal, userdefined exercise.
In addition, the VersaPulley facilitates concentric, eccentric and plyometric muscle stimulation on every cycle. For the ultimate in versatility, this provides a true stretch-shortening cycle for closed chain, multi-plane, multi-joint exercises as well as for isolation or open chain movements. Exercisers can perform a multitude of exercises ranging from low force and high velocity to high force and low velocity.
Today, several models of the VersaPulley are available, including a wall mount for space efficiency, a floor model called ArmBlaster and a portable version easily placed on a football field or wherever sports training activity is located.
What is the Value of Vibration Stimulation?
Driven by a passion to further increase exercise efficiency and effectiveness, patent-pending vibration stimulation mechanisms, called Vibex, were added to the VersaClimber, to a stepping machine and to a full line of weight stack machines. The technology is based on years of Russian research that proved when vibration stimulation is added to active muscle contractions, there is a strong health and fitness conditioning benefit. The following Vibex exercise benefits are attained on conventional exercise machines with no extra effort on the part of the user:
• Increased strength gains-up to 25 percent
• Faster warm-ups and better flexibility
• Stress reduction due to massage effects
• Increased blood flow into and out of muscles
• Greater time efficiency of workouts
• Boosts in growth hormones and the immune system
• Increased agility, balance, circulation and bone density for adults over age 50
In the United States, Vibex is the first line of products that offer total-body vibration in a format for significant health and conditioning benefits. Vibration stimulation applied along muscle fibers during concentric, eccentric and plyometric contractions is essential to attain maximum benefits.
What are the Benefits of Vertical Training?
Over the past 23 years, vertical training has increased in popularity due to the multitude of benefits it offers, such as:
• Highly effective workouts – total-body climbing against gravity is a smooth, fluid exercise that engages all major muscles without jarring impact.
• Time efficiency with greater caloric expenditure – research shows that climbing against gravity elevates the heart rate faster and burns more calories compared to equipment like treadmills, ellipticals and stationary bikes.
• Better overall conditioning – pushing and pulling with the arms and legs duplicates a lateral pull and military press in the upper body, and a leg press and leg lift in the lower body, providing a high level cardio and strength workout.
• Incredible versatility – models with a seat allow the user to pedal with legs only or exercise arms and legs in a seated position. One can also stand up and step, or stand up and total-body climb without any machine adjustment.
What Advances has VersaClimber Used to Enhance Exercise?
As the product matured, numerous technological and design enhancements kept the product at the forefront of highly effective and distinct exercise. In 1983, VersaClimber was the first commercial exercise machine to offer heart-rate controlled intensity, which now has become a standard feature of all cardiovascular fitness equipment.
New VersaClimbers in 2003 were the first of any cardiovascular fitness equipment to utilize human voice interactive modules that essentially function like individual personal trainers to: guide exercisers through set-up and adjustments; recommend various challenging landmarks and virtual opponents; offer tips on maximizing performance, and provide motivating interaction. This technology makes it simple for first-time users to initiate and succeed in their workouts – without requiring the assistance of club staff.
Newly introduced models have improvements that make this machine even more ideal for all levels of users, including:
• A 10-inch step height with a 27-inch arm motion, on the 108 CM model, reduces the workload by 50 percent providing an ergonomic balance of arm and leg activity.
• Variable controlled resistance, up to 500 pounds, accommodates everyone – from those in rehabilitation with injuries to elite athletes.
• A module with bright backlighting displays time, rate, distance, step height, calories burned, heart rate, landmarks, competitors and more.
• Quick release hand grips adjust to body height.
• Padded side handrails facilitate isolated lower-body workouts.
• An optional adjustable seat offers a nonweight bearing total-body exercise.
• An arm extender option accommodates users up to 6 feet 9 inches tall.
In addition, health club owners can appreciate the unmatched space efficiency of vertical trainers – which require only 3.5 feet by 4 feet – one-half the footprint of treadmills or ellipticals. Extra bonuses that distinguish these unbeatable machines include: the sleek design and high-tech, aerospace quality bearings, rollers, and materials that are virtually maintenancefree with a life expectancy of up to 10 years.
What does Heart Rate Inc. Offer Fitness Facilities?
Today, Heart Rate Inc. can meet many needs of fitness facilities with its heart rate monitors; incredibly effective totalbody vertical trainers; unique and versatile rotary inertia resistance training; and cutting-edge cardiovascular and strength machines enhanced with vibration.
Coming soon are low-cost vertical trainers designed specifically for increasingly popular circuit training.
Proudly committed to manufacturing and assembling in the United States, the company ensures that all its products are precisely engineered, rigorously tested and supremely durable. In fact, the VersaClimber is a fitness machine that complies with U.S. FDA manufacturing standards.
With an impressive history of unmatched innovations and a leadership position in vertical training for 23 years, Heart Rate Inc. is poised to continue to deliver innovative cutting-edge and superior products. Offer your members advanced exercise technology that has become the exercise standard of the future.
Brett Collins is the Sales and Marketing Manager of VersaClimber. He can be contacted at 800.237.2271, or by email atbcollins@heartrateinc.com.
