Exercise on Demand

For Time Warner Cable subscribers, there's a whole world of free personal training to be found, and you don't even have to leave your living room. It's called Exercise TV. Channel 150 has been on our boob tube quite a bit lately. You can take your beatings from celebrity trainers such as Jackie Warner, Jillian Michaels, Bob Harper, Kathy Smith, and Billy Blanks, just to name a few. I think the idea is that they hook you with free workouts, and just as you're getting the hang of a particular video, they pull it from circulation in hopes you'll purchase the DVD from their web site. Every type of exercise you could ever want is there. Abs, cardio, kickboxing, yoga, weight training, belly dancing- you name it, they have it.

My current favorites are the segments by Jackie Warner, of Bravo TV's Workout fame. She currently has 3 workouts, each lasting about 20 minutes. After doing the abs routine, I was sore for days and days. As weird as it sounds, I love the feeling of really sore abs. Her upper body workout is equally brutal. Since my knee is still hurting, I haven't done the lower body workout, but I'm sure it's just as much of a bitch as Jackie is.

Tonight I tried an upper body workout with Kathy Smith. She was too peppy for me. At one point, she let out this crazy "she-wolf" howl that caused me to almost drop my dumbbells on my toes. WTF? I also did something called "Incredible Abs," which, incredibly enough, made me feel like I was going to die.

If you have a channel like this, give it a try. It's a great way to try different workouts and get outside your comfort zone.

Tune in tomorrow for a weigh-in report. I fully expect a gain, due to my poor food choices last weekend, as well as my low running mileage. I'll be attempting a 9-mile run in tomorrow morning, but I reserve the right to cut it short if my knee acts up. I'll let you all know how it goes. Until then, goodnight!