Feel the Burn: E-Fitness Sites
Are Given a Tough Workout

A "virtual" exercise regimen sounds about as practical as eating diet ice cream.

But online workouts aren't as far-fetched as they sound. Big chains ranging from Gold's Gym to Bally Total Fitness are busy creating Web sites for go-it-alone exercisers, hoping to hang on to gym members in the down economy. "This area has taken off in the last couple of years," says Bill Howland of the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association. There are also specialty, online-only personal-training services such as MyFitnessExpert.com.

We decided to log on and request workouts from five sites to see how hands-on they could be. We described ourselves as an in-shape, middle-aged man who wants an improved workout (but no Mr. Atlas look) that won't aggravate an old leg injury. We might try a triathlon later this year, we said.

We also tried to contact each site to get advice on target heart rates and the efficacy of a nutritional supplement that supposedly reduces muscle soreness.

Talk about feeling the burn. One of the biggest-name sites, Gold's Gym, gave almost no personal attention: After we paid our fee, all e-mails we sent went unanswered. Another site flooded us with pitches for vitamin supplements. A third billed us $8.50 to ship a product we never ordered.

We also found a few instances of incomplete and misleading information about professional certification. The three main certification groups are the American Council on Exercise (ACE), the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).

Each site provided a workout in two to four days. Prices varied widely, from $34.95 a year all the way up to $239.40.

The best of the five was FitAdvisor.com¹, though it is one of the priciest. The instructor spent about 40 minutes by phone going over our health, sleep patterns, diet and goals before coming up with a program, which was easy to track on the site.

One fun feature: An analyzer that breaks down nutritional values of foods just by plugging in the name, like "peanut butter." Still, FitAdvisor wasn't perfect. It billed us $8.50 for shipping travel exercise bands we never ordered. The site offered a refund.

MyFitnessExpert.com² has an assortment of useful features, but at almost $240 a year, it's expensive. We were assigned a personal trainer, Eugene, who got in touch the day after we registered. The site has several nice touches, including an internal message system for reaching Eugene, and a large library of exercises: Click on a body part, and you get detailed explanations and pictures. It sends daily e-mail reminders about workouts, and if we failed to log a completed workout on the site, we got an e-mail asking what was wrong.

Eugene's answer on the nutritional supplement was cautious: Recommending such a product, he said, was "beyond the scope of this program."

FitSite.com³, with a one-time fee of $49.99, was a bargain considering the personal attention it lavishes. When we didn't immediately respond to e-mails from Fitsite, we got a call from the proprietor himself, Michael Fulcher.

The simple, classic regimen was easy to read and realistic for the proposed triathlon. However, Mr. Fulcher, who designed our workout routine, isn't currently certified as a trainer. He says his certification lapsed because he's mostly involved in managing the business.

Global-Fitness.com⁴ provided a challenging workout via a certified personal trainer, Dani, but also shamelessly tried to sell everything from supplements, to an Ace Diet Plan, in e-mail after e-mail.

Another letdown: The free software offered to monitor your training isn't compatible with Apple computers, which happens to be what we use. The Web site also stated that its founder, Chad Tackett, is ACE-certified, although ACE says his certification lapsed two years ago.

Mr. Tackett acknowledged that the certification lapsed, and said he would update his online bio.

Goldsgym.com⁵, run by the California-based franchiser, was the least expensive at $39.95, but also clunky and impersonal. And its workouts aren't custom-tailored. For instance, under "sports programs," it listed goals ranging from the generic "athletic advancement" to the specific "cheerleading & pom" -- but not triathlon. And after we signed up, the site didn't answer our e-mails for more than two weeks. The company says queries usually are answered within a week.

Updated September 10, 2002