People dropping off Christmas gifts that didn't suit them and people donating for write-offs before the new year seem to be creating a glut in second-hand goods. 

I noticed even more ab gadgets than normal, including the Ab Doer, Ab Roller, and something else I can't remember (Ab Stroker?) The price range was $2.99 to $12.99. (See: Where ab gadgets go to die.) 

There was a Denise Austin arm workout that resembled a mideival torture device. I did not know who this was until I looked her up, though she sounded vaguely like an '80s fitness diva a la Jane Fonda.

Apparently, she's part of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Remember back in gym class, when they gave certain kids the blue or red badges if they could do sit-ups, pull-ups and run the mile up to certain standards? Yeah, that President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

Maybe that's how kids first get their first impressions on what it means to be in shape. It's not finding any kind of physical activity you love, have fun at and enjoy regularly for the rest of your life. Nope. It's if you can do eight pull-ups. Not seven. Why? Because the government and their celebrity spokesperson says so.

So then they grow up and find the same celebrity endorsing a miracle exercise device. In this case, something that will "banish arm flab." Who needs a full-body workout or an activity they love doing if they can just spot reduce? Everyone knows spot reducing totally works. Right?

Or maybe they just leave it in the box for 20 years, with a VHS instructional video that had never been opened, and eventually donate it to Goodwill.

I wonder if it was the same as this one.