Does anyone own one? have exp?


I've been seeing this in magazines, I've seen the demo in person, not done it though.
Their website really doesn't explain why it works so i am also skeptical.

11/11/2010 1:04:07 PM

Quote :

"Power Balance is based on the idea of optimizing the body's natural energy flow, similar to concepts behind many Eastern philosophies. The hologram in Power Balance is designed to respond to the natural energy field of the body. The Mylar material at the core of Power Balance has been treated with energy waves at specific frequencies. The resulting Mylar is believed to resonate and work with your body's natural energy flow to help enable you to perform at the best of your ability."

11/11/2010 1:05:34 PM

http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/comment/powerbalance.htm

Given the fact that they are manufactured for $1 and sold for much more should give you an indication that they are a scam.

11/11/2010 1:10:38 PM

Well magazines like shape, ESPN etc. are featuring it in their mags.

11/11/2010 1:11:43 PM

ever heard of a placebo effect?

11/11/2010 1:12:24 PM

^^ by "featuring," do you mean "allowing the company to pay for ad space"?

11/11/2010 1:16:08 PM

no i have and i've read stuff online about it as well.

Not trying to be rude but I honestly don't need more opinions on why its a hoax. I already am a skeptic. I am wanting info from those who acutally tried it/own one.

11/11/2010 1:16:44 PM

we're all college-educated here

therefore, finding someone on here who has used it and has good things to say about it will be difficult

11/11/2010 1:17:57 PM

how about you link some of those features articles

11/11/2010 1:18:07 PM

There's a guy that comes into my bar that sells a version of those bracelets. He sells the really expensive kind though (I think they're somewhere around $150). I did the demonstration and it was legit. I just don't see how it's going to make that much of a difference in my everyday life. I know several people that have gotten them and I'm up for wearing it for a couple weeks just to see what it can do, but I'm not shelling out the money for one. And being that I've messed around with the one that is really expensive, I definitely wouldn't buy one of the cheaper versions.

11/11/2010 1:20:44 PM

^ What exactly is involved in this demonstration?

11/11/2010 1:21:46 PM

they are only $30.00

http://www.powerbalance.com/press

looks like lots of pro athletes wear them. but could be endorsements

11/11/2010 1:26:00 PM

Quote :

"The Mylar material at the core of Power Balance has been treated with energy waves at specific frequencies"

they shined a flashlight at it?

11/11/2010 1:28:34 PM

^^ i guess the kind you are looking at is only $30 but there is another kind a lot of the pro athletes wear that is more expensive

pretty sure both are a scam. especially because similar bracelets have been around forEVER. i remember a friend's parent having one in like 2nd grade and thinking it was retarded then.

^ lol



[Edited on November 11, 2010 at 1:29 PM. Reason : .]

11/11/2010 1:28:37 PM

Spells

Does anyone cast them? have exp?

11/11/2010 1:29:06 PM

^^^ or put it in the microwave

[Edited on November 11, 2010 at 1:29 PM. Reason : .]

11/11/2010 1:29:06 PM

Scam all the way.

Had a guy at my last gym try and sell me these once and I politely said no. He then tried to explain how it worked and it took all of my energy not to laugh in his face. He was a nice guy outside of that...but he was either extremely naive or just trying to earn a slimy buck. All the vagueness in the description of how it worked basically left me wanting to ask: "ok thanks for the infomercial lines, now how does it work?"

http://nathan-lee.com/blog/2010/07/18/fake-powerband-scam-power-balance-is-snake-oil-in-bracelet-form/

http://nathan-lee.com/blog/2010/07/21/how-to-spot-a-fake-power-balance-bracelet/

[Edited on November 11, 2010 at 1:36 PM. Reason : .]

11/11/2010 1:30:34 PM

Quote :

"What exactly is involved in this demonstration?"

All the shit you see in the commercials. Balance and strength stuff.

I know the whole thing might be a scam, but the demonstration was legit. I still didn't see a practical reason for buying it though.

11/11/2010 1:34:17 PM

No it wasn't, in blind tests they don't do anything.

11/11/2010 1:38:18 PM

I need to get in this kind of business. A headband with a copper unicorn attached to it maybe. I'll just say it channels and focuses your "energy" leading to improvements in all kinds of stuff. Then "demonstrate" that it works and have nothing else to back it up.

11/11/2010 1:39:21 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gIMxjr3n5U

the balance test is retarded. obviously, you're going to be better at it the second time.

Quote :

"According to the web site, "Power Balance's Mylar Holographic Disk (the same substance used to keep static electricity from damaging electrical components) has been imbedded with an electrical frequency that restores your body’s electrical balance, promoting a free exchange of positive and negative ions and align your body’s energy pathways. The high density Disk acts much like a switch, resonating within your system and turning on your energy field while it clears the pathways so the electro-chemical exchange functions like the well-tuned generator it was designed to be. When the static Power Balance Hologram comes in contact with your body’s energy field, it begins to resonate in accordance with each individual’s biological, creating a harmonic loop that optimizes your energy field and maintains maximum energy flow while clearing the pathways so the electro-chemical exchange functions like the well-tuned generator it was meant to be." "

I don't think I could pack more bullshit sentences into a paragraph if I tried.

11/11/2010 1:39:34 PM

Quote :

"No it wasn't, in blind tests they don't do anything."

exactly. Any blind test you see for something like this fails basically.

Quote :

"the balance test is retarded. obviously, you're going to be better at it the second time."

also exactly right.

The general line you hear about things like this is that they make you do something one time *without* the trinket first. Then you do the same thing again. Whether it be strength, flexibility, or balance, you generally would do better the 2nd time regardless. However most people don't think about that. So you have that + a placebo affect going on that leads to some marginal results at best on average.


I literally have never seen legitimate proof that anything like this works. If I tried to prove something in engineering using the kind of logic these snake-oil companies do, I'd get laughed at.

also:

Quote :

"we're all college-educated here therefore, finding someone on here who has used it and has good things to say about it will be difficult"

[Edited on November 11, 2010 at 1:47 PM. Reason : .]

11/11/2010 1:42:33 PM

2009ncsu has one. i don't know if he wears it seriously or as a joke though.

11/11/2010 1:43:47 PM

scam scam scam

11/11/2010 1:44:08 PM

Make sure to get the one that has +2 to charisma.

11/11/2010 2:05:31 PM

i'll only buy it if it has +5 cocksize magical attributes

11/11/2010 2:11:04 PM

my most recent boss wears one.

He's not the sharpest guy in the world.

Nice guy though.

11/11/2010 2:19:08 PM

if you embed this, it'll give you +1 to post count

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlhvgG8lRhk

11/11/2010 2:21:42 PM

Placebo effect..


.. it's a scam.

11/11/2010 4:40:50 PM

When I did the LA Triathlon, I was approached by a vendor for a similar product, some line of titanium stickers, tapes and jewelry with similar function. I had only paused to look because I saw they had tapes and needed a good waterproof tape to cover the piercings on my forearms, but one of the guys manning the booth eagerly started pitching a demo at me. We ended up putting little round stickers all over a shoulder I had done physical therapy on the previous summer, and he kept having me do little tests holding weights in various positions once I had the stickers on.

Eventually, he even took off his necklace and DRAPED IT OVER MY SHOULDER, and then asked if I felt any difference. I told him no, and without any hesitation, he exclaims, "Wow, you must be really healthy, then!"

Never once in his entire spiel did he attempt to tell me what the stickers were made of or how they worked. It was ridiculous.

11/11/2010 4:54:52 PM

ESPN Outside the Lines did a segment on this where some school did a study to test its effectiveness. While the statistician in me probably thinks they might have not had statistically significant results since their sample size seemed low, their results pointed to it did nothing.

Whether it was a statistically sound study or not, I believe the results because the product seems like garbage.

11/11/2010 6:16:29 PM

11/11/2010 6:30:08 PM

hahahaha

11/11/2010 7:25:56 PM

It looks like they took that levitating arms trick where you stand in a door frame, have your arms at your sides, then press your arms outward against the door frame for 30 seconds, then stop pressing and put your arms by your sides again.

http://www.escapadedirect.com/levitatingarms.html

So they push down on your arms for a while, then they give you the bracelet, and you feel that extra lift making you think you're stronger.

11/11/2010 7:56:38 PM

Quote :

"Power Balance is based on the idea of optimizing the body's natural energy flow, similar to concepts behind many Eastern philosophies."

Yeah, because Eastern religion is based not on a lifetime of discipline, introspection and internal struggle but on a $30 piece of rubber.

11/11/2010 9:11:43 PM

I can't decide if this thread is sad or hilarious...

11/11/2010 9:32:07 PM

[Edited on November 11, 2010 at 10:06 PM. Reason : -]

11/11/2010 10:06:12 PM

it's a scam, you morons. the Q-Ray is legit though

11/11/2010 10:28:49 PM

I don't know how the ESPN people tested it, but the obvious way to figure out if it works is to have a bunch of people perform whatever test they use to claim it works, however with half of them give them the power bracelet and the other half give them a piece of rubber.

11/11/2010 10:35:07 PM

sounds like snake oil to me

11/11/2010 10:43:56 PM

What the hell is wrong with people who have even a 1% inkling that this MAY be real? Any time you see any bullshit like this it is fake.

FAKE.

Don't just be skeptical, be outright pissed off about it. Shoot people who try to sell this shit, set them on fire while they bleed out, and piss on their corpse. Don't give them the opportunity to spread the stupid disease even further.

11/11/2010 10:59:59 PM

Its complete bullshit.

Go on alibaba.com and 60 dollars will get you a hundred of these. All it takes is 5 minutes with any one of 1,000+ factories in China to tell you there is absolutely nothing special about these things.

11/12/2010 12:01:27 AM

Quote :

"According to the web site, "Power Balance's Mylar Holographic Disk (the same substance used to keep static electricity from damaging electrical components) has been imbedded with an electrical frequency that restores your body’s electrical balance, promoting a free exchange of positive and negative ions and align your body’s energy pathways. The high density Disk acts much like a switch, resonating within your system and turning on your energy field while it clears the pathways so the electro-chemical exchange functions like the well-tuned generator it was designed to be. When the static Power Balance Hologram comes in contact with your body’s energy field, it begins to resonate in accordance with each individual’s biological, creating a harmonic loop that optimizes your energy field and maintains maximum energy flow while clearing the pathways so the electro-chemical exchange functions like the well-tuned generator it was meant to be."

WTF? that's not even good enough to fool your garden-variety high-school dropout.


that said, a friend of mine wears one of these. he's a person who's general opinion and disposition I am inclined to respect, so I asked him to give it to me and demonstrate. It "worked" with me and a couple other similarly intelligent, equally skeptical people. Now I know the "science" behind it is utter garbage, but the fact remains that, placebo or otherwise, it worked.

We even did tests where we'd take random people at the bar and give it to them FIRST, then try again without, and any and all combination of wearing it, not wearing it, and balance/strength tests we could come up with. Fact remains that it seemed to provide a significant statistical advantage. Now clearly it's all in your head, but hell if you wear it and think you're fucking superman and it makes you fucking superman then who's to say you aren't fucking superman

I wouldn't sacrifice the wrist real-estate to wear one for free, and I'll continue to relegate anyone I see wearing one into the "general idiot" category until proven otherwise, but I can't sit here and completely deny the effect. Strange brew, the human mind.

[Edited on November 14, 2010 at 4:45 AM. Reason : asdf]

11/14/2010 4:21:39 AM

^ You should give it to them and tell them it's going to momentarily drain their energy and make them weaker and then give them a rush when when take it off and see if they still do better with it.

11/14/2010 9:30:01 AM

Ooooh good call wish I'd have thought of that...have to give it a shot next time I see him

11/14/2010 12:02:37 PM

This is a scam, but check out my website and pls buy some products:
http://www.homeopathyworks.com

11/14/2010 2:36:23 PM

Quote :

"Make sure to get the one that has +2 to charisma. "

Nice burn.

11/14/2010 8:56:37 PM

11/14/2010 9:50:27 PM

Anyone who even for one second considered the thought that these things might actually work is a fucking moron.

11/15/2010 1:26:06 AM

Look who made the thread... you're surprised?

11/15/2010 7:54:15 AM