Mandy MacNeil’s birthday present from her husband was a set of 10 personal training sessions from Leah Veprauskas, a personal trainer near her Oakland, Mich., home.
When the prepaid classes ran out, MacNeil, 38, didn’t want to continue to shell out the $60 per session cost of the in-home trainer, and she didn’t want to commit to a gym membership.
“I wanted to keep Leah, but I couldn’t continue at $60 a session,” MacNeil says. “I asked her if she had any interest in training a group of women. So I just e-mailed a group of friends.”
Now, Veprauskas works with MacNeil and six to 10 other women, they call themselves the Driveway Divas, and moves basement-to-basement or yard-to-yard twice a week, depending on everyone’s schedule.
Splitting the cost makes it affordable, about $10 to $15 a session, MacNeil says.
“Leah provides all the equipment, so all we have to do is show up,” says MacNeil, a mother of three. “You don’t have the extra expense of the gym or really even have to drive” because the women all live in the same neighborhood.
Excuses for avoiding exercise — I can’t make it to the gym or I can’t afford the gym — don’t cut it anymore. Personal training at home, around town and online offer affordable, time saving alternatives to the gym, motivation included.
As the economy slowed, the number of U.S. health club memberships dropped from 45.5 million to 45.3 million between 2008 and 2009 following year-after-year increases the past decade, according to the latest figures available from the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association, a Boston-based nonprofit trade association.
And the number of health clubs — including YMCAs, community centers, small training centers and gyms — declined slightly from 30,022 clubs in 2008 to 29,750 in 2009. The numbers are expected to stay about the same for 2010.
But the number of Americans using personal trainers in and out of the gym has jumped, from 4 million in 1999 to 6.5 million today, according to IHRSA.
“You can be fit without going to a box — that’s what I call a gym,” says California-based celebrity coach Valerie Orsoni.
For $15 a month for six months or $29 for a month-to-month program, Orsoni and her team coach clients through an online weight-loss and exercise program.
Gym alternatives
Personal fitness trainers certified by the American College of Sports Medicine: www.acsm.org.
Find free exercise videos on Camcast’s On Demand cable television service. Click on “Sports & Fitness,” then “Exercise TV.” The same service, Exercise TV, sells exercise videos online at www.exercisetv.tv that can be downloaded onto a PC or mobile device.
Apple’s App Store offers downloadable exercise trackers and video workouts.
WiiFitPlus, Nintendo’s latest, includes new exercises and training programs to be used with the WiiFit balance board. Cost is $19.99 for a disc. The program is available through wiifit.com and retailers.
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