Wi Fit, fitbug, MiLife, it seems the latest word in fitness is virtual fitness. As someone who has seen the benefit of having a personal trainer for almost fifteen years, I don’t know if a computer could ever replace a hunky guy shouting at me, ‘Only five more to go. Yes, five more. No stopping or you’ll be doing another five.’ I’ve often said that computers are great for booking holidays/concert tickets, keeping in touch with friends, buying music/movies and generally wasting time but when it comes to fitness I can’t see it. My own personal trainer, Mark Anthony, tried going virtual with a range of online training programmes a couple of years ago but said, ‘At the end of the day, people really wanted the one-on-one experience.’
Surely one of the benefits of going to the gym is to socialise and to spy on the person sweating next to you on the treadmill. The benefit of a personal trainer is having someone that will motivate you to push your body further than you would on your own. The benefit of a virtual training system is what? Admittedly, the Wi looks like a lot of fun and I might even try it if I could rent or borrow it for a couple of days. I may be wrong but I think that until the computer finds a way to make training truly interactive, it’s an experiment that is bound to fail. Training via webcam anyone?
Tags: online fitness, personal trainers
September 1, 2008 at 7:28 pm
hmm what if you could download an audio file with your workout on it and listen to a trainer walk you through a workout on your iPod or mobile phone?