With gyms offering everything from Zumba dancing to Pilates to yoga to weight training to spinning, you’d think there was nothing new under the sun in the fitness world. You’d be wrong: a novel device made of flexible plastic called SmartBells offers yet another way of getting in shape.

Every Thursday at 9:30 a.m., a small group of women aged 50 or older gather in the sunny auditorium at Benedictine Hospital and form a circle. Each holds a Smartbells, an ergonomic device with two handles whose shape and size resembles the steering wheel of a toboggan, in cheerful colors, like something you’d find on the shelf at Ikea. Led by Angel Ortloff, a licensed massage therapist whose interest in SmartBells stemmed from her desire to strengthen her upper body after surviving breast cancer, the group sways to the music, twirling the SmartBells over and around their bodies. The movements are graceful, yet also characterized by a certain tension from the stretched-out arms and hands grasping the flexible weight.

While the Benedictine class is currently the only local venue for a SmartBells workout, the device has made impressive inroads elsewhere. Inventor Paul Widerman, who began selling the device in the last 1990s, said SmartBells got a boost in 1998 when Pfizer bought 2,500 of them for its Minds and Motion Awareness Campaign, an event held in New York City. In 2000 SmartBells got a write up in New York Magazine. Currently

Club Med and two nationwide gym chains, Crunch and Equinox, carry SmartBells. And the Navy Seals use the 72 pounders in their training.

Manufactured in weights ranging from a pound and a half to 72 pounds — most people in the Benedictine class were using a five or six pound SmartBells — the device enables people of every level to stay fit, from young kids to seniors to cancer patients to Olympic wrestlers, according to Widerman, who happens to reside in Ulster County. In fact, Widerman himself was a professional amateur wrestler, who competed for USA Wrestling and worked as an assistant wrestling coat at Harvard University for five years.

Wrestling can be hard on the body: while in college, Widerman got into yoga as a way to heal injuries caused by the sport. He started combining exercise using barbell plates from Russia with the Sun Salutation and other moves derived from yoga and Eastern martial arts, developing a very effective, three-minute routine that he did four times each morning. The barbells evolved into SmartBells, with Widerman sketching out the first design in 1994.

Widerman describes what’s novel and special about his invention: “SmartBells moves the chi in the body. It’s like dancing with weights, which makes you flexible, more coordinated, strong, and energized. Instead of pushing against the weight, which is the main premise of weight training, you’re flowing with gravity.” And unlike yoga, which he said is rather static, with SmartBells “you can move in any way. It opens up creative movement in the body, which is really fun.”

Widerman calls the device “a musical instrument for the mind/body.” He said that by using SmartBells in circular movements related to yoga, martial arts, and dance as well as sports such as tennis and golf, the entire body and all major muscle groups get a workout. The muscle groups are used synergistically and harmoniously, as opposed to being isolated, as in conventional weight training. Widerman even suggested the device has “cosmic overtones,” resembling the infinity symbol and echoing the form of the DNA double-helix.

Whatever its mystical resonance, fans of SmartBells assert the device is an utterly practical, effective way to get in shape. Yet another unique aspect is that it adapts well to a workout with a partner or in a group. Ortloff, for example, says she and her husband start the day with a joint SmartBells workout, with Ortloff using the three-pounder and her husband using the six-pounder. “We do it for 20 minutes, and it helps keep us balanced throughout the day,” she says. “I encourage more couples to do it together. Since we started doing this, my back doesn’t hurt as much. I can feel the difference.”

Ironically, considering that Widerman has resided in Ulster County since 1991 (excepting a recent three-year stint in northern California), the Benedictine class evolved through no effort of his own. It was the fruit of a grant obtained in 2001 by Ursula Schwartz from the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which provides money to help cancer survivors. The two-year grant paid for a generous cache of SmartBells — currently, the cost for a device, including a DVD training video, starts at $60 — and the exercise program. Schwartz, a former dancer, actually launched two SmartBells programs at the hospital, one a wellness program for seniors (the Thursday morning class) and the other a class for people struggling with cancer. (Schwartz is currently on sabbatical and Ortloff is teaching the senior class.)

Schwartz first encountered the SmartBells when one of the guests at her New Paltz B&B happened to purchase the device from a local store. Schwartz tried it out and was impressed. ‘I liked it because it had a feeling of fluidity,” she recalled. “SmartBells are also so versatile. The Navy Seals use heavy-duty 72-pound ones, while my little granddaughter can play with me using one weighing just 1.5 pounds.”

When Schwartz discovered the SmartBells inventor lived nearby, she contacted Widerman and, having become ill, took a class with him in Stone Ridge as part of her healing. She also persuaded him to teach a small class at her B&B. Having found the practice helpful in treating herself, she came up with the idea of helping women with breast cancer heal through the use of SmartBells. The gentle movements would be particularly good for women dealing with the loss of lymph nodes, she thought.

Schwartz starts her classes with the women seated in chairs arranged in a circle and emphasizes partner work, to bring some laughter and joy into the exercise. “I encourage them to not be in competition with other people,” she said. “If they are tired, I’ll tell them, ‘just keep moving in your chair.’” She’s also taught seniors at two retirement communities on the other side of the river, including SmartBells classes in the pool.

The group approach was also helpful in a program she conducted for kids, she said. And Schwartz had used SmartBells in working with incarcerated teens brought into the mental health unit of the hospital. “A lot of them came in with an attitude. I tuned into the ones who were the worse and asked them to create something from it,” she said. “They came up with great movements and walked out with their chests out.”

Widerman, who said he’s probably taught 100,000 people the SmartBells workout, said when he was initially involved in Schwartz’s program at Benedictine he found it to be “some of the most rewarding work I’ve done.” Having never taught seniors or cancer patients, he said it was an eye opener to see their response to the SmartBells. He recalled being worried about the safety of one class of 50 seniors, all over age 70, and feeling concern that they wouldn’t be able to handle the weights. What he saw instead “was a transformation of fun and movement. The group could easily fill up an hour. It was dirty dancing, and the class went over 15 minutes into lunch.”

Widerman said the device has gone through many generations since he introduced it. It’s also evolved to meet the needs of various groups, from seniors to athletes. For the average person, he recommends a five pounder. “You can warm up, dance, stretch, and if you’re really fit, get a heavier one.”

However, he noted that progress on the device is more than just a matter of adding weight. “SmartBells are more like juggling than weight training. Once you learn to juggle three balls, you don’t juggle three heavier balls, but do four or five balls. You look more to increase your skill than add weight.” Developing new movements is just as valuable to progressing in one’s workout as adding weight, he noted.

He said the device is also great for time-pressed people like himself. “I use a five pounder. Every day I do it for three to eight minutes a day. Part of the idea when I invented them was that I don’t have time to work out two hours a day. I do four minutes of SmartBells without stopping twice, and then I’m done.”++

For more information on SmartBells, visit www.thinkfit.com.