Outside's Online Fitness Plan

Not all of us are self motivated enough to train for, say, a marathon, or to lose that 25 pounds that formed around your waist after college. So, the good people at Outside Magazine have decided to make it easy for you and offer interactive workout plans put together by “some of the world’s leading coaches and fitness experts.”

For a fee, you can get “comprehensive fitness regimens” and use the online resources to log your progress and stay in step with your goals. For instance, a “Beginner Marathon Training Plan” is $24.95 and is 30 weeks long. Compare that to buying a book on marathon training — a similar deal. The website is designed to keep you engaged with new information and challenges for each coming day with “emails that detail your next workout and help you stay on track,” as a press release puts it. In an increasingly computer-centric world, I think that for some people this sort of program could become a new standard for home workouts and training for big events. outsideonline.com/fitness

—T.C. Worley