Tyler Hass on Exertainment

The latest issue of Tyler Hass' Power Rings newsletter asks, "What is Exertainment?":

Okay, I made the word up, but someone had to do it. The term infotainment, which describes the conversion of news and entertainment, is now an accepted term. Even my spell checker did not complain. The combination of exercise and entertainment is the future of the fitness industry. Right now, the first baby steps are being made in this direction by mainstream companies. They are adding TV screens to treadmills, CD players to stationary bikes and mandatory lattes to aerobics classes! I think they are headed down the wrong path. First of all, how effective of a workout is a guy getting when he is sitting on a bike and reading the newspaper? My guess is that his life and well-being are not dependent on his fitness level. Secondly, they are trying to disengage your mind from the workout. Unfortunately, becoming fit is a process that requires full physical, mental and emotional engagement. I don't mean emotional engagement in a hippy, new-age way. I'm talking about toughness, perseverance and commitment. If you can't decide whether you want to train or watch Will and Grace , and the only solution is that you must do both... then fitness might not be for you.

I agree, but with some qualifications... When I started off trying to get my game back, exertainment was a great ice breaker. It wasn't until I had established a good base, and discovered for myself that exertainment (and moderate aerobic exercise) wasn't going to take me nearly far enough that I abandoned it for more committed workouts.

So this raises the question: does exertainment serve as a good stepping stone to more productive workouts, or does it keep people from fully embracing their commitment to fitness? Personally, in my exertainment phase I liked the TV and resented the exercise for distracting me from enjoying it as much. The TV was the carrot, the exercise was the stick. Once I turned off the TV, the exercise became the carrot. But I have no idea if this was because the exercise habit had finally taken hold naturally, or because the harder workouts were more rewarding and producing more obvious results (and were too demanding to do in front of the tube), or because the TV itself was keeping me from embracing the exercise for its own sake.

But the bottom line is this: if you are able to focus and enjoy whatever is on the TV while you exercise, then you're just doing aerobics, and really should mix in some intervals. If you're already doing intervals and still enjoy TV at the same time, you aren't doing your intervals hard enough.