Personal Trainers on the Go

AW, BL and I were pigging out over lunch at a sushi restaurant yesterday when we decided we needed a bit more motivation to shape up for the summer. So we decided to make it a bet. Each person has to set a fitness goal to be reached in 2 months' time. Our gym has an InBody 720 body composition analyzer. They've all had their readings done, but I've been avoiding getting mine done. We're all supposed to set our own target body composition measurements based on current readings. Those who don't reach their targets have to pay up to those that do. If we all do, then we've already won beautiful bodies and nobody pays out anything to anyone. The signing ceremony is supposed to be tonight when we all get together to sign off on our targets.

So I was really excited when I read about downloadable programs by personal trainers in the NY Times. Without a personal trainer, I rarely venture into the weights section (except to look for friends). I feel I have no clue what I'm supposed to be doing. If I had a trainer showing me exactly what I should be doing that would be perfect. There are three sites mentioned in the Times article that offer downloadable workouts. Podfitness.com (For some reason, it won't support Mac OSX until July. The sample workout did not sound very motivating though.) and iTrain.com are mainly audio workouts, but I have an iPod video and iAmplify.com offers video, as well as audio, workouts, yoga lessons and other special interest programs ranging from astrology to finance to travel. So far though, the video offerings are slim, but I'm hoping that as portable video player become more pervasive, they'll be more programs to choose from. Or imagine your own personal trainer, yoga or pilates instructor giving you a personalized video workout program every time you travel. That would really be cool!