McClatchy Tribune Newspapers

HOW DO DIGITAL WORKOUTS WORK?
Personal trainers record audio or video of their workout instructions and make them available through a Web site.
Exercisers pay a fee to download the MP3s or videos to their iPods or other MP3 player, or burn them to a CD.
Fees range from a few dollars a workout to a monthly subscription fee.
BENEFITS: For much less than it would take to hire a personal trainer, exercisers can work out under the instruction of experts who help celebrities get their enviable bods.
DRAWBACKS: With audio alone, it's sometimes hard to figure out exact poses and forms, especially for yoga and Pilates.
To help avoid injury, Zeena Dhalla, owner of The Athletic Club for Women in Newport Beach, Calif., suggests shelling out for a personal trainer at least once and have him or her do the downloaded workout with you.

PODFITNESS.COM
Cost: A $19.95 subscription will get you two downloads a day.
Overview: Here you'll find a celebrity trainer bonanza. In each trainer's profile, you'll find their qualifications and an impressive list of celebrity bodies they've whipped into shape.
Workouts include weight training, Pilates, yoga, elliptical, stretching, pre-natal, walking, running and yoga.
Plus: You can mix the audio instructions with your own playlist, so you hear music you like.
Minuses: Downloading a workout seemed easy enough: Fill out a profile detailing your fitness level and experience, choose a trainer, select a workout. Then the site will mix the workout audio instruction with the playlist you've created.
Switching between workouts and trainers was clunky, error messages were plentiful, and pages were slow to load and refresh.
At press time, this site was not compatible with Mac OS X.

ITRAIN.COM
Cost: Individual downloads start at $3.99. Memberships are $9.99 a month or $79.99 for the year.
Overview: Co-founded by fitness expert Grace Lazenby, the audio workout programs include treadmill, cycle, stair climber, strength, row, stretch, yoga and Pilates.
Plus: Workouts come with printable PDFs that illustrate poses. Short audio samples of workouts are available, and downloading chosen workouts was a breeze.
Minuses: The music was so bad, it was distracting. Songs reminded me of early boy bands, “The Sims” and bad electro-pop.

Erlina Tulabut | Squeeze OC