Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Things they should invent:  exercise television.  All exercise shows, all the time.  Not shows about exercising, shows where the people on TV are exercising and the viewer at home is supposed to follow along.

Why? Well, I find that for myself, personally, the only way I can get myself to exercise is by following exercise shows on TV.  I like doing this because I can exercise in the privacy of my own home, there's little to no cost for me, and the exercises presented are sufficiently random so I don't have to do the same thing every day and I don't always know what's coming. I know exercise shows aren't the best workouts in the world, but they are the only ones that I end up actually doing, so that makes them the best option.

Now I can't be the only one who feels this way about exercising.  I'm sure there are a lot of people who wouldn't mind having the opportunity to exercise in the privacy of their own homes, at their leisure.  However, in my area at least, exercise shows are only on TV at one specific time, around 6:00 a.m.  Now this happens to fit into my schedule, but I'm sure there are some people who have to leave the house early or work shifts or whatnot and simply can't make the time to exercise at that particular time of day. This is where Exercise Television comes in.

Exercise Television would show only exercise shows, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  There would be strict alternation between shows featuring cardio, strength, and flexibility exercises, so if the viewer watches for any 90 straight minutes they'd get all three.  There would be maybe three 8-hour cycles or four 6-hour cycles every day, so if someone wants to catch a particular show they have several opportunities, but no one episode would be shown two days in a row so viewers don't find themselves doing the exact same thing every day.  The channel could pad out their programming by buying up old PBS exercise shows that are all retro 70s or 80s but still perfectly good exercise.  They could show commercials only between the shows so as not to interrupt anyone's workout.  If necessary, they could even become a pay channel - I'm sure people who are interested would pay something like $5 per month to be able to exercise at home at any time of the day.  What would be better is if whatever gov't department or agency is responsible for getting Canadians to exercise (those demons who came up with Canada Fitness!) subsidized this channel and made sure it was broadcast on every television service.

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