Exercise Programs for Couch Potatoes

ByABC News
March 9, 2004, 9:42 AM

March 2 -- The Atkins Diet has changed American expectations. If we can gorge on fatty bacon and still lose weight, how else can we beautify ourselves and still remain lazy slobs?

Can you take the "work" out of workout? And if you can't, who's going to come up with an exercise regime for exercise haters? Sit down, take off your shoes, and check out these developments in modern fitness:

1. The Couch Potato Workout:

What does it say about America now that the American Physical Therapy Association is recommending a "Couch Potato Workout," a fitness plan that includes "Soda Stretches," an arm-strengthening workout, in which you use soda cans as barbells?

The association a group of more than 63,000 health professionals says the aim is for sedentary Americans to devote at least a half hour every day even Super Bowl Sunday to physical fitness.

"Physical activity does not necessarily mean step aerobics and spinning classes," says Patricia Winter of the APTA. The Couch Potato Workout is designed to loosen joints, increase circulation and, ultimately, inspire more vigorous activity.

You don't need to turn off the TV for Soda Stretches, and if they still sound too tough, here's my personal tip: Guzzle the soda for quick energy and vigorously lift the empty cans.

Other Couch Potato exercises include leg lifts, back stretches and other routines that, at the very least, help you scratch hard-to-reach spots.

2. Toilet Training:

Won't go to the gym? Now, the gym will come to you. New York fitness trainer Marc Hupert says he teaches clients how to use bathroom fixtures as gym equipment.

The loo might be the smallest room in your house, but it could provide a lulu of a workout, one that rivals that of a fancy health club.

"It's not as crazy as it sounds," say Hupert. "Two reasons people don't work out: Gyms are expensive and filled with beautiful people who only make them feel fatter."