The Workout: Channel Surfing for Fitness

I love it when a solution to a problem drops into my lap. Or more specifically, drops into the palm of my hand.

I'd made a rather belated New Year's resolution that I was going to try to do 10 minutes of core work every day. It seemed reasonable enough. What could be so hard about doing 10 minutes of simple exercises that required no special equipment or talent? I started out enthusiastic, but after a few weeks, I got bored and started “forgetting” to do my situps. I tried to incorporate some variety – oblique work, planks - but I relied heavy on crunches, and crunches just aren't that fun. My new plan seemed doomed to failure, in spite of its simplicity.

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Then I happened to be flipping through the On Demand listings on my cable TV. I was looking for a movie, but instead I noticed a sports and fitness category and decided to do some investigating. Sure enough, there were dozens of on-demand programs with ab and core workouts. The little lightbulb went off inside of my head: That's what I should be doing instead of yet another set of crunches. I should be watching TV. Well, not just watching, doing the exercises in the programs. It was, I declared, the perfect solution.

So, for a week, instead of doing my usual sit-ups, I grabbed the remote control, and I learned a few things pretty quickly. To begin with, I discovered that it's best to get a yoga mat before starting, or at the very least, get a towel to cushion the hard floor. After banging my feet and hands on the coffee table several times, I learned to move the furniture in advance. I also learned that as soon as I lay down on the floor, my dog thinks I'm playing with her. I'm still not sure what to do about that, but she certainly provides a fun distraction.

The first episode I picked was a 16-minute floor based ab workout, and it was pretty good. The video was easy to follow, yet the exercises were nicely varied, including segments for all parts of the core. Overall, it was an effective ab routine. However, I immediately discovered the drawback of working with a video instead of a real-life, in-person trainer: Sometimes I didn't do the full set. When the instructor got to the last repetition of a particular exercise, he'd always finish by declaring “Good job!” even though I'd been just lying on the floor for a while at that point. It made me feel guilty, but only a little.

In the next few days, I cycled through several different programs. Some of them were a little too long for my liking. I only wanted to do 10 minutes of core work, and yet sometimes found myself doing more than twice that. Some of the routines I didn't care for very much, particularly the ones that focused on standing exercises as opposed to floor work. However, as my teacher always reminds me, that which we like the least we probably need the most. Of course, without an actual teacher there to keep me accountable, I sometimes found myself fast-forwarding through the exercises I wanted to skip.

For the most part, the videos were easy to do and seemed to be effective. There were times when my abs were sore the next morning. Will I remain committed and do a program every day? Absolutely not. But on days when I need to do something more than my usual situps, these TV programs will do the trick. Now I just need to get my dog to stop bringing me a squeaky toy when I'm trying to do a plank.

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