There are lots of websites you can visit to get advice and lessons on fitness, and the great news is many of them are free. Some of them have exercise descriptions along with pictures, much the same way as a fitness book. But probably the easiest way to get a clear idea of how to do a particular set of exercises is to use a site that has workout videos. Is it the best way to get fit though?

I’m sure you’re aware that there are a heap of websites like YouTube that have any number of fitness training videos on them. You’ll also be able, with a little bit of searching, to find websites belonging to individual fitness trainers. If you don’t have a clear idea of what type of online fitness training you want to do then you’ll be spoilt for choice; there can be very few types of exercise videos that can’t be found online.

The problem with using a large video sharing site is that it can be hard to find a full workout rather than individual fitness videos. If you have a good knowledge of what your body needs, exercise-wise, then you can pick out individual videos and use them to create a full workout routine. This is only for those experienced enough to know all the body muscle groups that need to be targeted.

Remember also that an online fitness video can be put there by anybody.  There is no telling whether it is effective or even safe.  It could have been put on the site by a qualified trainer with years of experience; it could be from someone that doesn’t know the basics but thought they’d show off what they think is a cool exercise for the camera anyway.

Unlike random online fitness videos, you can be sure that if you watch a DVD the people on it will know what they’re doing. After all, if they don’t the production company will be left with costs that they can’t recover from sales. Plus the fitness instructors or celebrities presenting and endorsing the DVDs will have lost their good reputation.

A small but important advantage for DVDs over online videos is that you can see them much better. It’s quite hard to follow a routine on a small computer screen – often you will have to memorize the exercise by watching the video a number of times. Watch on a TV and you can see clearly what to do and follow along as the DVD plays.

So, while the idea of free online fitness training is appealing, most of the time people find it easier to get a good workout by spending a few dollars on an exercise DVD instead.