iExercise: Use your MP3 player to get visual, audio workout help
September 11th, 2007If you can’t seem to get to the gym, but you still want to work out, a solution might be as close as your MP3 player.
These days, you can go on the Internet, download a workout, and crunch away wherever you find space.
The number of fitness workouts available online ranges from running music to marathon training, from yoga to strength training and bodybuilding.
Some sites, such as Podfitness, MyFreeTrainer.com, SparkPeople.com and iTrain, offer a comprehensive crosstraining program – some even offer online logbooks to track your progress. Sites such as FitPod.com and Robert Ullrey’s podcast site have free workouts designed by exercisers.
If you have an iPod Nano, you even can buy the
Nike + iPod Sport Kit, which gives you a sensor to put in a specially designed
Nike + shoe and a sensor to plug into the iPod Nano, which turns it into a pedometer. A voice on the Nano also will let you know how much time has passed and count down the minutes at the end of your workout.
When you synch your iPod Nano with your computer, the information from your workout can be transmitted to the Nike + site, which will keep track of your workouts and send you inspirational messages from athletes, such as Lance Armstrong, when you reach certain milestones.
The Apple Music Store has workouts available for $9.99 to $14.99 each, as well as iMixes of workout music suggested by other exercisers. Check out “Master the Treadmill with OK GO” and “Drive: Nike + Original Run” by the Crystal Method, as well as “All Day: Nike + Original Run” by Aesop Rock. For information, visit the Apple Music Store on iTunes, www.apple.com/ipod/nike or www.nikeplus.com.
Passion for music
Musician and exercise instructor Marina Kamen attributes the popularity of MP3 players to how easy the devices are to use.
“They’re smaller than CD players … and you can put more and more stuff on them,” she said. “The beauty of fitness audios is you can take them with you. You can’t take videos out for a run.”
Kamen has been involved in dance music and choreography for 20 years. Yet after getting married and having children, the 5-foot-3 performer ballooned to 215 pounds. Embarrassed, she began walking 40 blocks at a time in Manhattan and used her recording studio to record inspiring music for her workouts.
“It was a merger of my own issues, plus the technology, having the production studio. … The music helped me – it was like having an invisible buddy,” she said.
She eventually lost 100 pounds, and her workouts since have inspired people from all over the world to write to her, she said.
Many of Kamen’s podcasts are available through the Apple Music Store on iTunes.
“I chose a 10-minute length because, at the beginning, files took a long time to download on the Internet,” she said, adding that 10-minute workouts are good for people just getting started with fitness.
“Make it short – just 10 minutes a day is wonderful to get started.
“I tell people to just take a walk or even walk in place. Just get up and move … plug your headphones into your computer, stand up and bop in place.”
Today, Kamen’s Web site, www.marina
online.com, offers walking, treadmill, elliptical and high-impact cardio workouts, as well as stretching, body sculpting, stretching and sitting to the beat instruction, for about 49 cents a song or 99 cents to $7.99 a workout.
“When I go into the studio, I write the music and motivation for a show all in one day. There are over 300 songs on the site,” she said.
Kamen recently signed a deal with MYE Entertainment to have her music offered in FitP3 kiosks in gyms. Exercisers will be able to download workouts to a FitP3 player, then plug the player into exercise equipment at their gym. For information, visit www.myeclubtv.com.
Kamen said the kiosks will be easy to use, much like an ATM, and technical support would be available at the gym to make the technology less daunting. “Most women over 40 are technically challenged,” she said. “We didn’t grow up with computers, so we don’t understand them. Yet we’re the ones who need workouts the most.”
Personal connection
Pilates and yoga instructor Grace Lazenby noticed the rise of the MP3 player when she went to the gym.
“Everyone in the gym had an iPod,” she said. “Music is such a motivator. I was teaching a treadmill class in which everyone could plug their headphones into the treadmills and I would speak over the headphones. I had people coming up after class and asking if they could get a copy of my voice for their workouts. It dawned on me to have MP3 workouts with amazing music and great instruction.”
Lazenby developed a Web site called iTrain.com, which offers 200 workout programs in 13 categories.
“The most popular workouts are the cardio workouts,” she said. “About 50 percent of our business is for iTread, as well as iClimb and iCycle. Then iSculpt Ballet and iSculpt traditional. That follows the most popular equipment in the gym – the treadmills, ellipticals and cycles.”
The site also features workouts geared specifically for teens, including iTEENTRAIN hip-hop and boxing programs, as well as a couple of workouts in Spanish. Exercisers can download PDF files to see how a particular exercise is done, and the company is working out how to provide video workouts, as well.
The site has existed for about 15 months, but has already received testimonials from around the world, some from people who have lost 40 or 50 pounds by doing the workouts, she said.
The company’s philosophy with the site is to offer anyone the chance to work out with a Hollywood trainer for a reasonable price. Most workouts are priced from $3.99 to $7.99, she said. Although workouts can be bought a la carte, a Monthly Motivator package is available for $9.99, and a Resolutions package is $79.99 for 12 months.
The instructors were chosen for the programs based on their experience and what Lazenby called “voice activation.” She said one of the main goals in attending a workout class or having a personal trainer is “the personal aspect. You want to make a connection to the trainer. You can hire any Hollywood trainer who may have worked with a lot of stars, but when you get them in front of the microphone, you won’t get the same workout they do,” she said. “We’re like the team from ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.’ We’re going to come in and change your life.”
That personal connection extends back to the trainers as well. “People enjoy getting to know you. Someone will say to me, ‘I just spent two hours with you in a workout.’ They feel like they know you, although you’ve never met before.”
The iTrain Web site offerings are updated every month, and the company composes its own music. “Fresh music every month or a new routine keeps you coming back for more,” Lazenby said.
For a new exerciser, Lazenby recommended any 20-30 minute iTread walking program, which includes instruction for walkers, joggers and runners, or any of the iClimb programs for stairsteppers or elliptical machines. She also recommended using iStretch core conditioning for 20 to 30 minutes and iStretch athletic. Collectively, she said, this would offer about a 45-minute exercise program that would not be too confusing.
She said she never would tell someone to start with the iSculpt programs or yoga, because those programs are more advanced.
Some online fitness sites
www.itrain.com: iTrain.com offers workouts ranging in price from 99 cents to $8.99. Buy programs a la carte, or choose three programs in one month in the Monthly Motivator for $9.99. A Resolutions package also is available for $79.99 for one year.
www.fitpod.com: Find free workout music and connect with other exercisers through this clearinghouse of fitness information. Registration is free. Music includes mixes of electronica in set beats per minutes.
www.pumpone.com – Get visual workouts, complete with your own music, sent to your video iPod, iPod Nano or mobile phone. Programs include cross training, conditioning, stretching, Pilates, cardio intervals, weight training and yoga. Register for free, then purchase individual programs. A sample program, “Totally Pumped,” includes 12 workouts for four to six weeks for $19 to $49.
www.ullreys.com/robert/Podcasts/index.html (Couch to 5K running podcasts) – Robert Ullrey decided to start running. He mixed workouts to motivate himself and others in this free, nine-part program, which is also available as an Apple Music Store podcast.
www.myfreetrainer.com – These video demonstrations show a new weight training exercise each day, and others provide diet and exercise tips. Also available as an Apple Music Store podcast.
The Apple Music Store podcasts: Available through iTunes, this site offers a lot of fitness podcasts that are free to subscribe to, including “Motivation to Move,” “Couch to 5K,” “MARINA’s podcasts,” “Podrunner,” “fitPod,” and many more. The Apple site and Nike have information on how the iPod Nano works with Nike + shoes at www.apple.com/ipod/nike and www.nikeplus.com.
www.podfitness.com: PodFitness offers its subscribers up to three workouts a day with a wide selection of well-known trainers. After completing a fitness profile, you can choose the trainer and type of workout, then mix the instruction with music from your own MP3 music library. The monthly subscription fee is $19.95 a month. A 10-day free trial is available on the site.
www.iamplify.com: This site includes audio and video programs on a variety of topics and features celebrity trainers, including Kathy Smith and Tamilee Webb (“Body of Steel”). Workouts include cardiovascular training, indoor cycling, Pilates, power walking, running, strength training and yoga. Programs are priced individually. For example, Tamilee Webb offers a $9.95-a-month package which includes a new video each month, access to one-hour live training sessions on the phone, a stretching and yoga class download, a 12-month fitness calendar and live teleclasses quarterly.
www.fitwisetraining.com – This site offers video workouts in MP4 and WMV formats, including workout packages for $9.99 each.
www.motivationtomove.com – Get free motivational podcasts on diet and exercise topics from motivational speaker Scott Smith here or the Apple Music Store. The Web site also offers a premium membership for $19.95 a month for access to archives, motivating e-mails, a newsletter and more.
www.sparkpeople.com – This site includes a fitness and nutrition tracker, message boards, health and fitness articles, video workouts and more, and it’s all free.
More online training sites
www.marinaonline.com
www.apple.com/ipod/nike
www.nikeplus.com
MP3 Music mp3 music
