These home exercise programmes are largely a waste of time.
I was somewhat taken back to see The rise of digital fitness: can the new wave of high-intensity home workouts replace the gym?(1.)
Over the last few years there have been a plethora of fitness apps and fitness DVDs appearing. It’s a huge money making scam.
Now I can hear you saying “you livestream fitness classes across the internet how can you say this?”
OK let’s assume you bought a fitness DVD or got an app or something. Let me explain how you are wasting your money.
My books are full of such people who have said this. I always call up people who say this to me some 6 months after they say this and they are always in the same situation or in some cases worse. This is why. These DVDs are very cheap- so there is very little financial commitment. All too often you buy them for £4.99-£9.99 put them to one side where they gather dust (trust me I’ve done this!) I even know fitness trainers who have recorded exercise DVDs with no content on them knowing that the customer will never watch them but by that time they’ve made their money.
There is no appointment. Imagine this with my system on Saturday you get an email inviting you to each class that week. you get a reminder 24 hours and one hour in advance. If you don’t attend for a while you get a phone call to give you a nudge. (If you attend well you also get a phone call to say well done!) DVDs and youtube videos don’t do this. If you miss the live class you miss it. Imagine this you watch Neighbours at 5:30 pm. Then you may watch the Simpsons on Channel 4 at 6 pm. You may then watch 4–5 episodes of the Simpsons on Sky One. Before you know it the evening has gone and it’s a case of bedtime and roll on tomorrow. You’ve missed your chance to exercise.
These youtube DVDs can be filmed by anyone- you have no idea if that person is qualified. For example, I once witnessed this guy who sold supplements taking a fitness class. One exercise was a high impact exercise. One woman who had given birth some 9 months previously wet herself and it was very embarrassing for her. I asked this guy what were his qualifications and what fitness training courses he had done- he said none. That says it all, you put yourself at risk with a youtube video and this is far from an isolated incident. No ethical properly trained fitness trainer would ever get a lady who has had a baby in the last 12 months to do a high impact exercise.
If you rely on youtube videos or DVDs I promise you that in 12 months there will be very little, if any, change. Exactly the same applies to cheap gyms. They rely on people paying a nominal amount of money, not attending and thinking to themselves “It’s only £X” I’ll go next week. They never do. Gyms rely on people paying their subscriptions and not going -partly for reasons of space- we are not limited by space.
With these apps there is no routine- you do the exercise when you want. With a personal trainer or livestreaming which I do there is routine.
There is no accountability. With a personal trainer or my system someone monitors your attendance and progress.
There is no discipline- you just do things when you want to.
There is no instructor to give you personalised attention.
These apps do not hold you on track.
In short please do not fall for this scam. Please club together with some of your friends, get a personal trainer and do a group exercise programme with the trainer. I do livestream fitness classes across the internet but I give reminders and hold people on track. See the resources section below.
Bibliography
1 The rise of digital fitness: can the new wave of high-intensity home workouts replace the gym? https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/fitness/the-rise-of-digital-fitness-can-the-new-wave-of-high-intensity-home-workouts-replace-the-gym/ar-AAG0It7?ocid=spartandhp
Resources
http://www.weightlossformums.online- my live online streamed fitness classes.
