Has your career eased you into a sedentary lifestyle? Are you keeping your mind sharp by tracking tech trends but losing your hold on physical fitness? One of the big downfalls to wired life is the ease with which we can lose touch with our surroundings but the emergence of the social web is helping to change that. Keep reading for some communities and tools that will help keep you informed and motivated in the never-ending journey to a healthy life.
Learn new exercises and proper form
Try YouTube and Wikipedia for demonstrations of proper form. One of my favorite virtual personal trainers is YouTube's Scooby1961. Scooby is a very modest and endearing fellow.
Real-world personal trainer Ross Enamait has a site full of workout information and a vibrant personal fitness community on his forums. Ross's stuff tends to be geared towards the "combat athlete", so if you're not into boxing et al you might not appreciate the tone of the forums as much as you will enjoy Ross himself.
Share motivation through social networks
- Hit Traineo or Daily Mile to log your weight, diet, and workouts and to trade stories with other motivated individuals.
- Search for #twit2fit on Twitter for an easy source of motivation and a simple way to log your workouts. There's also a Ning community built around Twit2Fit where you'll find forums and better opportunities to talk with people.
- Search photo host Flickr for photos tagged fitness or motivation. Upload some of your own!
Track your progress with gadgets and web tools
- Some new runner-oriented GPS devices can log your daily run to the web for later analysis. If you're training for a marathon you might really like one of these! Thanks @fraser for bringing these to my attention.
- For a free alternative you can track the length of your walks or runs after the fact using Google Maps mashups like Treksee or GMap Pedometer.
You'll want to keep your diet on track, too. Check up on the nutrition content of your favorite foods using any of a number of online resources like NutritionData.
Your turn!
What keeps you motivated? What are your favorite online health resources? I'm sure LouisGray.com readers can chip in with your own personal fitness anecdotes, favorite health tips, and best-loved social networks for exercise help. I'd say the one thing that really got me thinking about fitness in manageable terms was BripBlap's article titled 101 thoughts on losing 100 pounds.
Read more by Daniel J. Pritchett at Sharing at Work.