If you have never tried online workout videos, you are
missing out on one of the best ways to exercise and make a habit that sticks.
I’ve been using workout videos regularly since rediscovering
them in 2010 (I loved my mom’s Jane Fonda tapes when I was a kid). Videos have
played a pivotal part in transforming me from a sometimes exerciser into a
daily exerciser. Exercise has become my coach, my therapist, my meditation, my
friend, and my muse. I dedicate 2 days a week, religiously, to using online
workout videos.
Here are the top 6 benefits of using online videos!
1. Online Videos are Incredibly Convenient
When it comes to finding time to work out, truly nothing is
more convenient than working out from home with a video. But even if you travel
frequently, online workout videos are incredibly accessible. With videos,
traffic is never an issue. Neither is parking. Or weather. Or a crazy schedule
– after all, the web gives you 24/7 access to online workouts - you can do them
whenever you want. You only need a small space. And your shower is RIGHT there
when you finish!
So if you have the will, there is a way. Once you stop
letting external obstacles get in way of your workouts -- because let’s face
it, meetings, sick kids, and better offers will always find a way to derail
even the best laid workout plans -- you’ve laid the groundwork for developing a
really strong, consistent, and rewarding exercise habit.
2. It's Not All or Nothing - That Day’s Commitment is Up to You
With online workouts, you are not committed to a particular
time or effort on any given day. Sometimes it’s great to work out for an hour
and pour sweat, but some days not so much. When you depend on getting to a
class, it's all or nothing. You may have to psych yourself up to get there, and
if you don't make it, you end up with nothing in the way of activity that day.
Nothing but guilt and beating yourself up.
With online videos, you have the ultimate flexibility in
choosing what to do based on your energy level and your time frame. If you put
on a 20-minute video because you don’t have the drive that day to move for an
hour, that’s still a success. You’re going to feel so much better after 20
minutes, no matter what. And you may just feel good enough to watch another
video, because endorphins are funny like that, once you get going. But it’s
your call: no judgment, no slinking out of a class.
And you can have it both ways. When you feel like going to a
class and seeing your awesome instructor in the flesh, do it! And when you
don’t, a workout video is so easy to substitute. It’s still a win for the day.
3. Online Workouts Offer Tons of Variety when You Want to Mix It Up
The wonderful thing
about the Internet is the sheer breadth of variety at your fingertips.
Chris Anderson, former WIRED editor, calls this “the long tail.” Brick and
mortar places like a physical gym offer a fixed inventory of classes because
they have only finite resources like the amount of studio space, and the people
available to teach or attend a workout at a given time. The web has no such
constraints - it allows for the creation of vast digital archives with very
little extra overhead. Digital assets take very little space, and can be
accessed whenever, even globally. Fitness video platforms offer on-demand
access to a huge variety of pre-recorded workouts, whether from DVDs or
live-taped classes, across space and time. Access to the long tail gives the
consumer so much more choice.
The Internet gives
you access to an incredible diversity of instructors. The best instructors may live far away from
you physically and you would never cross paths in real life, but online,
they’re right there in the room with you. You get unprecedented access to
literally some of the finest, most sought after instructors in the world.
Two of my favorite
growing trends are dance workouts and fusion programs.
·
Dance
workouts have been growing like crazy in popularity. Have you tried one
yet? Dance tends to feel more like fun than exercise, so it really lends itself
perfectly to a home workout format for many people. Zumba may be the one you’ve
seen in your gym, but there are many more dance workouts available online,
everything from Bollywood workouts, to ballet-inspired videos, jazz, hip hop,
you name it.
·
Fusion
workouts are a really fun area to explore online. Fusion (or Hybrid)
workouts pull together influences from multiple styles of fitness to create a
unique blend. Fusion styles are incredibly engaging, mixing the best elements
together from different genres, and they offer a great way to get your first
exposure to other workout styles. Examples of fusion workouts include yoga
& weights, barre & kickboxing, dance mixed with high intensity
intervals, pilates combined with yoga, cardio circuits with mixed martial arts,
just to name a few. The sky is truly the limit with these combinations. They
are fresh and interesting.
4. Online Workouts offer Familiar Comfort Too
Variety is great for those times when you want to do
something new, but if you’re like me, most of the time you want to do something
familiar: take a class with one of your favorite instructors, revisit your
favorite workouts. There’s comfort in a known entity, when you know just where the
tough parts of the workout are, just where the fun parts are, just how much
you’ve progressed since the first time you did it. For workouts with
choreography, like dance videos, once you’ve gotten through the learning curve
to get to know the routines, revisiting them is just pure fun. You can work on
adding flair and technique once the basic muscle memory is in place.
I personally try not to do any single workout video more
than twice a month, except if I’m learning choreography. That way I avoid
plateaus, I never get sick of a video, and I get to revisit a lot of my
favorites. If you’ve ever heard the term “muscle confusion” -- the idea of
continually shifting the muscle groups you target to keep your body constantly
adapting and to give you a wide range of functional fitness -- I like to say my
muscles have been confused since 2010. That requires both variety and
familiarity.
5. Online Workouts are Incredibly Cost Effective Compared to Gyms, Studios,
and Trainers
Online workouts are truly the most cost effective workouts
out there, short of exercising outside for free (running outside, walking,
etc). Considering the quality and variety of the workouts you can get online,
this is just practical, economic value.
There are several different membership models available for
you to choose from online.
·
Netflix-style
memberships: Unlimited streaming for a low monthly subscription fee (typically
under $10/month, with the most expensive still under $20). Membership subsidizes
the cost of creating and licensing videos, so most sites in this category are
completely ad-free. Examples of this include
Gaiam,
Gigabody, and
FitFusion.
·
Freemium
services: In this model, you get
access to some content for free - likely with ads, plus there are additional
upsell features like premium content you can choose to pay for on a monthly
basis.
Grokker is an example.
·
Pay per
video - rent or buy: Some sites let
you pay per video, either to rent for short term access or to buy your own
digital download copy. This is a great option if you really want to own your
favorite DVD in digital form, or you want to try before you buy. Many
individual instructors offer digital downloads on their personal websites.
·
Free with
ads: In the completely free category, Youtube is king. You can get free
access to all sorts of content, though it can take some digging to find the
good stuff and you’ll have to watch ads as well as see them overlaid on videos.
You may have heard the phrase, if you’re not paying for it, you’re the product
being sold. There’s always a tradeoff when it comes to free access, but sometimes
that price is right.
Across the board, online workouts provide excellent value when
compared to
·
studio classes
- which can run $10-$75 per class
Given the low price of online workouts, you may be able to
afford both online workouts and workouts with a studio or trainer. Assuming you
make use of a service you pay for, an investment in your health is always a
sound investment.
6. Online Workouts Give you Ultimate Privacy
Last but not least, privacy is an under-rated benefit of
working out online.
·
You can wear whatever you want. Or not.
·
You can dance like no one’s watching because
they’re not.
·
You don’t have to brush your hair, or your
teeth.
·
Whatever jiggles, whatever wiggles, it doesn’t
matter.
Your space is yours. There’s no guy in stinky gym clothes on
the next bike. You don’t have to worry about bending over and feeling exposed
in your yoga class, or wearing clothes that make you feel uncomfortable.
There’s no body shaming or embarrassment in the privacy of your own space.
So what are you waiting for?
Let’s workout online!
Valerie Lanard
Guest Blogger:
Valerie Lanard is the Founder of online workout
service Gigabody.com. She is an avid skort collector, a lover of wearables,
working out, running self experiments, and building things with computers.
