I get so many emails from Men's Health about their online "Personal Trainer" (with free DVD!) I decided to check it out. But in many years of internet shopping, never have I seen something with so little documentation at the point of purchase. On the front sign up page there is little more than a sign up form promising a DVD, and a single testimonial from some dude who now has great abs. Not even a clue as to what I am buying, or what's on that DVD, other than the usual claims this amazing online community will change my life.

Since signing up comes with a commitment of about $70, I thought I might query my pals here. Anyone used this thing recently, and able to tell me what's behind the wall? I think the email hinted at video demos of exercises? Personal training sessions? Is any of this for real, or is there otherwise anything here that is helpful and that I can't get in places like Traineo?

Thanks

I've never used that product, so I honeslty can't tell you what it's like.

But I have have used many training logs and calorie/exercise tracking products.

What specific features are you looking for? Maybe something else out there will meet your needs.

-Brad

p.s. I agree it's lame that they don't have a good description of the features.

Joe,

If you want to weight train and are looking for DVDs I have two recommendations:

a. Cathe FriedrichURL
Cathe has released several series (Hardcore, Intensity, Body Blast, Slow & Heavy...) of weight training DVDs. Each series usually has a split body routine (usually a three day split such as 1. Legs/Glutes 2. Chest, Tri & Shoulders, 3. Back & Bi and one Full Body routine). The exercises are well structured and researched - she works each muscle from all angles and does a very thorough job. A bench (they use a step), barbell and dumbbells are the equipment that will suffice for most workouts. If you dont mind an all woman class, her videos are very good. They are also a bit pricy. I find them worth the price for the production quality and the effectiveness. Try the split-weight-training DVDs in any one of her series. Or maybe just try one Full Body Weight training DVD and see if you find her good. I think she is awesome. I learnt more about form and the muscles in my body / right combination of exercises to pick for a body part from Cathe as compared to any other source. Message me on traineo if you want help choosing. She also has Step / Cardio and Weight combined routines that may not be suitable if you dont want choreography so make sure you pick the "gym style" ones. You will find video previews and detailed breakdowns of her workouts at her site. She also has a forum where you can ask her or her customers for buying advice: URL

b. Jari LoveURL
I like Jari's Get Ripped To the Core and Get Ripped Slim & Lean Workouts. These are both full body routines that adopt a low-weight-hi-rep approach. Dont let the term low-weight fool you. These are very effective wrokouts that do a thorough job of fatiguing your muscles. You can get them at Ross in the US for around $6 each I hear. You can also buy them for a bit more at amazon.com. Jari has a male exerciser in her "class." Previews of the videos viewable at her site as well as www.collagevideo.com.

Joe,

I love the magazine, it has great, easily digestible articles. Having said that, I fell like there is enough information in the mag, and here on this and other websites, so that I have no need to pay for another service. Just my $70 worth................

Mark

I've used (am using) Men's Health Personal Trainer. My understanding, though, is that it's around $30 for 3 months and $9.97 a month. Overall it's great for spitting out workouts and recalibrating them with your results. Tells you to do X number of reps at X weight. You plug in your results for the week and get more workouts.

The infuriating thing is that there is next to no customer service or website improvement. For example, users have been begging for a feature allowing them to permanently swap out certain exercises (when, for example, their gym doesn't have the piece of equipment). It seems like they will have to address this or risk losing a lot of subscribers.

But, if you can put up with some kinks like this and a lack of responsiveness (nothing like Traineo!), you might find it worth it. I'm hope they improve or that a better alternative comes along.

The demos they have on how to do the exercises are great, btw.

Sounds to me like it is just more stuff to spend money on. You have this site and the motivations therein which basically gives you exactly what you might get with this product.

If I recall correctly from the last time I got really into fitness and lifting, magazines are primarily used for advertising and there are a few decent articles in them but they are mostly on technique... Men's fitness in particular looks like it is mainly for the vanity of trying to look good and it made me feel a little uncomfortable that there were calanders of half naked dudes in the classifieds... (my guess was that this magazine appeals more to homosexual men-not that there's anything wrong with it...) I felt that I got some better lifting techniques and better articles (and even some interesting adverts!) in Muscluar fitness and some of the more straight forward muscle building magazines. I would suggest these if you are into the magazines. I never wanted to become a pro body builder but it was helpful to read the same articles that would appeal to them and it was even helpful to look at their bodies in the magazine and be able to comprehend what muscles I was working out when I excersized and where they were on my own body.

The best resource I have found is the Body Sculpting Bible for Men. It covers all of the basics, gives you a really healthy outlook on lifting and a manageable routine where you can see real results if you keep up with it.

The magazines in my opinion are just like Cosmopolitan Magazine... Every month the cover has the same subjects on it: Best sex ever, who's the best/worst dressed, gossip, gossip, etc... there are only so many ways to tell the same story. The truth is if you find something that works, stick with it and you will be able to set a goal for yourself and see results on your own without any fancy BS.

Ha, this is really funny! As a gay man (homosexual? so clinical sounding!), I'm always bummed that Men's Health seems to assume that all of their readers are straight (How to Please Her Every Night, etc.) That said, they do seem to reinvent the squat every month...

i agree with Mark - each week the cut out series is packed with good information. another good magazine is Men's Fitness

What's different about Men's Health Personal Trainer is two things:

1) It gives you a plan to follow (actually a choice of 3 diets and 10 workout routines) so you don't have to figure that out.

2) It's smart. You tell it what you ate and how you worked out and it adjusts your meal plans and/or workouts for the following week.

So it's much more than just a tracker, it's actually more like what the name says it is-- a personal trainer.

Hmm... Didn't seem to smart to me. I finally quit.

It never changed the ab exercises I was doing--the same ones, same reps week after week. You also have to pay extra for the diet function. It would be one thing if they actually updated and changed the site (it's been the same for years, with the same complaints from users--check out their discussion boards where there are years worth of complaints about the fact that you can't switch out exercises that you can't do due to injuries or lack of equipment at your gym. I ended up doing a lot of work to get my own routines (which I can do for free).

I still haven't found the right alternative. I wish those guys would fire one or two of the chimps that pump out the weekly emails inviting you to join (even if you're a member) and hire one or two web-geeks to monitor and IMPROVE their site occasionally.

Anyone find a good alternative to MH Trainer? I'd be willing to pay a bit for a well-done website.

I used it about 3 years ago for several months. It was effective in how it recalculated weights and reps based on the inputs of the last workout. I liked that. But like a lot of things, I felt it got stale after a few months. No interaction, very little customization, felt like it was the step-child of Men's Health. No updates, no info about the programand future plans.

So my verdict is that it was neat and interesting for a few month then it got boring and I decided to save $10 a month instead.

It's also amusing how the only time you can get "live" assistance is when you call to cancel. Other than that, you'll get emails telling you that they're working on it... Just a moneymaker for them because they keep tricking people to sign up and never improve it...

I never used the Personal Trainer, but I was a Men's Health subscriber for several years.

I did finally catch on that they were just recycling the same old articles over and over. In the course of a year, they also published contradictory articles which made it very confusing.

They are not as bad as Men's Fitness, Flex, or other Weider publications though.

In general, I would stay away from magazines. Their prime interest is not your health -- it's selling more magazines to inflate their ad rates. You're better off reading forums like this and buying books by trainers or gym owners whose business is making their clients healthy and happy, so that they keep coming back.

The library is a wonderful source for magazine consumption for me... it's a nice mile walk for me to get there and the new Seattle library is amazing:



That being said, I also find switching it up to some of the other magazines for a change of pace is not bad, fitness and runners world are a couple of my favorites.