For a Good Workout, Try Some Channel Surfing

I'll admit it: The first thought on my mind when I walk into the gym in the morning isn't a game plan for the day's workout. It's how can I snag a treadmill or elliptical near the television tuned to the "Today" show.

My legs are content to stride away as long as my brain is occupied with exclusive interviews and snappy segments. And if Matt Lauer promises something irresistible in the next half-hour, I may go the extra mile -- or miles -- to stick around and see it.

Habits like mine are why health clubs have gotten into show biz in the past 15 years. Although once upon a time a single TV in a gym would have been a luxury, now it's odd not to find several sets and frequently a bunch of machines with their own personal TVs. Gold's Gym has recently introduced the idea of the "Cardio Cinema," where movies play on a large screen in a darkened room set up like a theater, only with bikes, treadmills and ellipticals instead of cushy seats. Increasingly, gyms are also offering equipment like Expresso Bikes, which have screens that riders can use to watch regular television programming or take a virtual-reality ride through a choice of environments (including outer space!).

If that's what it takes to get the general population moving, Pete McCall, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise, is all for it. "The perception is exercise is work; it makes me sweat," he says. "So if we have to use TVs as a puppy dog, it's a necessary evil."

Diane Whaley, a sports psychologist at the University of Virginia, says there are two goals for any exercise session: to be enjoyable and effective. And while getting engrossed in television seems to help with the former, it can take away from the latter. "You have to find out what will result in a good workout, not just going through the motions," she says.

Although Costas Karageorghis, a sports psychologist at Brunel University in London, firmly believes that distractions reduce pain during exercise, his groundbreaking investigations of the effect of visual stimulus have him worried that television can be too great a diversion. "Watching TV while you exercise is such a distraction that it diminishes the quality of exercise. When you combine video with audio, it requires more from your brain," he says.

However, Karageorghis -- who orchestrated the live soundtrack of this month's "Run to the Beat" half-marathon in London, where musicians performed along the course -- has found that upbeat programming that requires little mental energy could have an "additive effect." He favors comedies, music videos or cartoons over plot-heavy shows that demand extra attention.

"The very best thing would be edited highlights of athletes to inspiring music," he says, offering as an example "I Feel Good" by James Brown coupled with carefully selected Olympic moments. "Highlights are better than a game because you get timeouts or injuries, and those aren't motivational," he says.

The timeouts clearly didn't bother Gwydion Suilebhan, a 40-year-old playwright who was burning up an elliptical at the Dupont Circle location of Results, the Gym, on a recent Saturday while watching the Clemson-Georgia Tech football game.

"I don't care a lick about either team, but I just like to watch the action," he said. When he's exercising, he'll seek out any form of athletic competition: "American Gladiator," Arena Football or whatever is on ESPN. He said he got what he calls "the greatest workout of my life" when the U.S. women's soccer team won the World Cup.

"I got on the elliptical partway through the match," Suilebhan recalled. "It was the first soccer game I'd ever watched on television, and I would not get off the machine until the end. At an hour and 15 minutes, I should have been exhausted, but they were running around the field wildly and I was cheering and going."

Experiences like that happen because TV allows us to disassociate, says Jesse Pittsley, program coordinator of the exercise science program at Winston-Salem State University. He knew a guy who used to set his treadmill to a seven-minute-mile pace while watching football games. Several times a season, he'd cover marathon-length distances.