Body Jac by Cactus Jack

What is Body Jac?

The Body Jac is a fitness device that makes doing push-ups easier using various levels of resistance bands that users can either add or remove, depending on their individual strength.

You can also customize it to target other specific muscle groups. Included inside the device is a repetition counter that also indicates the number of calories you’ve burned. It also comes with a CD and exercise chart.

Who Owns Body Jac?

Jack Barringer, aka Cactus Jack (a nickname he got from his father), is the inventor of Body Jac. A lifelong entrepreneur, peddler, and infomercial star, who’d already invented the successful One-Shot cleaning tablet, which sold over 10 million units.

He also holds several other patents for products he’s designed. Today, Jack remains the CEO of Cactus Jack’s Marketing, which he started in 1975

Founder’s Story

Jack came up with the idea for Body Jac, primarily because he was 30 pounds overweight at the time. His doctor advised that he needed to lose weight, making the cringe-worthy suggestion he does push-ups as a form of exercise.

Though anyone vaguely familiar with weight loss will know it involves a bit more than just that. Being 66 at the time, Jack could hardly even do one, in part due to sore joints. So he decided to invent a device to assist him in this, while spurred on by his body-builder daughter.

Having already blown a large proportion of the millions he’d already made from previous inventions and running low on funds he’d personally invested, Jack started to look for investors to help him take the product to market. He also felt with an investor on board steering the ship, it would mitigate any personal temptations from his side.

Is the Body Jac Still in Business?

The company officially went out of business around 2015, and the product is no longer manufactured or sold. The BodyJac domain name was listed for sale on its Facebook page in August 2020. Jack reportedly burned his investors in the venture.

Nevertheless, it proved to be another product in the long list of infomercial fitness gimmicks you’d use twice, put in your garage to gather dust, and throw out ten years later when you’re moving house.