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January 19, 2006
GYMp3 pumps out digital workouts via podcasts
JANE MCMANUS, The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News
Kevin Porterfield listens to a downloadable workout program on his iPod as he exercises at the New York Sports Club in White Plains. by Matthew Brown, The (Westchester) Journal News
Kevin Porterfield wasn't so sure about the concept of workout tapes and videos. He liked going to the gym on his own and not being tied to a routine, so he was skeptical when he first heard about downloading a friend's workout program onto his Apple iPod.
"I thought it would be a little bit cheesy," Porterfield says. "But it wasn't."
Porterfield has programmed his portable music device with a copy of a workout podcast from a new company called GYMp3. In the amount of time he would normally spend at the New York Sports Club in White Plains, N.Y., during his lunch hour, celebrity fitness trainer Greg Isaacs helps motivate Porterfield through a gym-based workout using a treadmill, weights and a stability ball.
"This was helpful because it's motivational," says Porterfield, who found out about the product through a friendship with one of GYMp3's founders. "It doesn't assume you're a pro or a novice. It's in between and really encouraging either way."
"Let's face it, we should all work out every day, but in order to reshape your body, you need to work out a little bit harder or with a little more intensity," Isaacs says.
One of the founders of the company is 34-year-old Jason Berkin, now based in California but whose family lives in Mount Kisco, N.Y. The product doesn't reinvent the wheel, it just retools it for a generation more accustomed to shopping online at the iTunes store rather than at Woolworth's.
"We are avid exercisers and a lot of fitness products are DVD driven," Berkin says. "You're tied to a house, and if you want to do a workout outside, you can't take the DVD with you."
The original ULTIMATEp3 program provides the music and encouragement through a warm-up on the treadmill and a series of targeted exercises. Each part of the body gets a workout, to a beat and instructions from Isaacs like, "Feel strong."
"We put a trainer with them, in their head and in the gym that they already work out in," Berkin's partner Alex LeVine says.
Even if gym-goers use a personal trainer, it's hard to afford one every day. This gives someone the illusion of personal encouragement without the expense. The program can't tell you that you're relying too much on your left arm as you lift, but it's an able supplement.
This is just the start. Berkin and LeVine, two former New York entrepreneurs with experience in the technology sector, already have plans for more programs in the same vein, all based on their observations of the evolution in the way people work out, from mix tapes to personal televisions to the great outdoors.
RUNp3 would provide motivation for a long outdoor run and QUICKp3 will be a series of 5-minute workouts with trainer Kathy Kaehler, who has worked with actresses Julia Roberts and Kim Basinger.
The idea is to capitalize on a few trends involving staying healthy, new technologies and the interest in celebrities and their fitness regimens.
"People obviously do care about celebrities and celebrity culture and particularly how fat or thin those celebrities are," LeVine says.
Berkin and LeVine even planned the venture to debut during the time of year consumers are looking for alternative fitness products, and they recently got mentions on "Good Morning America" and "The Today Show."
Eventually GYMp3 will use the video capabilities of the new iPods, but more to demonstrate the proper form for exercises than to provide a leotard-clad partner to work out with.
For Porterfield, the whole thing seems to come together, including the instructions that vary a little depending on the user's level of proficiency. It may let you slack, he says, "but never lets you cheat."
On the Web:
www.gymp3.com, GYMp3.
www.apple.com/itunes, Apple's iTunes.
www.iAmplify.com, iAmplify.
