Clients no longer have to go to the gym to work out with a personal trainer - which is a big relief for those individuals who just don’t have the time in their busy schedules. Some personal trainers are now offering custom designed workout programs for their clients that they can access from the comfort of their own home.

“Cyber training” is one of the fitness industry’s top five trends. And with today’s technology, the fitness industry doesn’t expect this fad to pass anytime soon. Online videos via email and pod-castings delivered to your cell phone and mp3 players seem to be the way of the future - putting fitness tips and your own exercise program literally into the palm of your hand!

Your personal trainer will use your personal information and current state of health to design your own custom virtual exercise program. Nutrition plans that can also be delivered to you via email and based on your personalized fitness and health goals – for example: weight loss, weight gain, muscle gain, body toning, endurance training, post-pregnancy training, etc. For the exercise training + nutritional menus personal trainers are often teaming up with registered dieticians and nutritional consultants to provide their clients with proper nutrition expertise. Then personal trainers will handle the video portion, which includes visuals of live models, music, sound effects, and stylized routines. Some virtual fitness online even comes available in a number of different languages.

In a way virtual fitness is kind of like home video workout tapes. However they are now available over the internet and you get to work with a personal trainer - just not in the flesh and blood. For most people, they don’t need a personal trainer holding their hand through the exercises - All that’s needed is a mental connection between trainer and client, which can be achieved through a number of videos, emails and phone calls.

The benefits of virtual online personal training are as follows: You can workout in the comfort of your own home – so you escape what’s sometimes considered a “competitive gym environment”. You can schedule your workouts any time of day – this is great for people who work shift work or like to workout before 6am or after 11pm. You are free to do other tasks – virtual workouts are convenient for those who can’t get to a gym because of other responsibilities – child care, home businesses, etc. Feel free to break up your workouts – doing fitness at home means if you don’t have time for a full workout program you can split it up into 10 to 15 minute segments. Virtual is less expensive - Another BIG reason why clients are drawn to virtual training is the lower cost! The virtual downloads are much less expensive than hiring a personal trainer - which could cost between $50 and $100 an hour.

Anna Fleet is a certified fitness instructor and the face and voice behind fitnessgear101.com – a site with information on exercise balls , weight lifting and more. She is pleased to announce the launch of her first online virtual fitness video , the first in a series of three to five minute instructional videos.