Find fit (and unfit) videos on YouTube

By Lisa Ryckman, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Peppy and prurient, professional and pointless: You can find it all under "fitness" on YouTube.com.

There are about 53,000 exercise-related videos on YouTube - so many, in fact, that you could probably spend weeks sitting on your tuffet, eating Snackwells and watching them and still barely scratch the surface.

Apparently, a lot of people out in cyberland are doing exactly that. Some of the videos have hundreds of thousands of hits; they tend to be either ab-specific workouts or - surprise, surprise - mindless segments featuring busty babes in short-shorts.

Many of the videos are pretty self-serving and not particularly useful to the average exerciser, some posted by the person who's in the video and others by somebody else. Some are homegrown workouts by folks who are video stars in their own minds, and others are snippets of commercial DVDs somebody wants you to buy.

But it is possible to find some real fitness instructors/personal trainers who can explain how to do the exercises they're demonstrating. Most last for two to three minutes, but it takes mere seconds to figure out whether a video is worthwhile, depending on what you want.

Here are some picks for the top fitness (and I use that term loosely) snippets on YouTube, based on the couple hundred I managed to look at before my brain started to implode.

Funniest video series

* Mr. Fitness and his Fitness Blog of Video, a kind of Borat of the workout world who does biceps curls with a large house cat.

VIEWER COMMENTS

* suppercart: that's the biggest cat i've ever seen that hasn't been in a zoo. i'd definitely get a pair of falconer gloves to handle that thing. you're very brave, mr. fitness.

* BlairRemingstone: Glorious!! What is your number so I can hire you to get rid of these horrific love handles.

Most bizarre

* Mariko Takahashi's poodle workout: an entire class of what appear to be real poodles led by a freaky-looking human poodle woman.

VIEWER COMMENTS

* raiichii: ok that is just creepy i CAN NOT belive that that is actually a show

* Amdog11: Mariko Takahashi is a disgrace to the whole animal population! Poodles should not be made fun of that way!

* hensanity: she scares me. the picture of her when she was fat also scared me.

Most blatantly geared for males 17 to 24

* Fitness Girl seems ready to explode out of her top at any moment.

VIEWER COMMENTS

* Furtzkissen29000: wow she is really hot and strong; i'm not so strong

* NocturnalBeast: She's gorgeous!! Everything about her is utter perfection.

* SoulSound5: ok who let all these degenerates in here to comment?

Best videos by a real trainer

* Atlanta personal trainer Corey Ritter does a slick-looking segment that offers a home exercise of the week and nutrition tips. (How to eat well at Waffle House - it can be done!)

VIEWER COMMENTS

(For Show 18 - Reduce body fat using dance)

* ElasticIllusion: dance rulezzzz but aww man did you have to microwave that meal!! That sorta ruined for me!

* hardtimes38: Dance looks like an amazing form of fitness. I can't wait to get started!!

Best videos by a real trainer who's also a model

* Chris Comfort, a Ford fitness model and personal trainer, comes up with some winners. He really knows what he's talking about, and although the moves might be tough, he's extremely easy on the eyes.

VIEWER COMMENTS

(For "Burning fat with weight training"

* rgvhen: Together with a good diet, this is a solid way to shape and tone build up your body in the most efficient way.

Best video of exercises most people will never be able to do

* Fellow Ford fitness model Tara Stiles specializes in yoga, and her arm-balances video is tops for un-doability. "Don't be upset if you fall over, because I do it all the time, and so does everybody else," she says.

VIEWER COMMENTS

* fiercefairy101: i remember doing this in my yoga class, but she is so good she makes it look easy, but it's not.

* baka86: when she "fell over" i heard my own back snapping in two.