My new personal trainer

Let me show you him: Tom Morley from ExerciseTV. This shaggy-haired, Owen Wilsonesque yoga dude is helping whip me into shape, 20 minutes at a time in my own family room.

Available 24 hours a day on digital cable via Time Warner, Comcast, Cox, and Bresnan, ExerciseTV is a free, on demand channel with a huge catalog of workout shows--from tae bo to yoga to pilates to dance to walking. I found it quite by accident and am now a devoted fan. I found myself talking up the channel in person and in comments on other blogs, so I had to tell you about it here on The Full Mommy.

Being able to choose the style of workout I want (toning? cardio? stretching?), at the exact time I want to do it and for the precise amount of time I have (workouts range from 2-minute minis to 30- or 40-minute classes) is ideal for me right now.

There's even a batch of kids' classes. My six-year-old daughter loves Hip Hop Hoop--yes, it's a hula hoop workout and she rocks it--and my three-year-old can do the kids' yoga with us.

Drawbacks: Commercials, since after all, this is a free service. There's an ad before and after each workout and some branding on the screen during the sessions. It's pretty easy to ignore or fast-forward these. The content on the channel rotates so you may not always be able to find a workout you've done previously. This doesn't bother me because I like trying new things (although I will miss Tom if he ever goes away). And finally, some workouts are just parts of longer sessions and may end abruptly. The ones that are shown in their entirety have a countdown clock in one corner of the screen--I've found that if that's not there, you're probably watching a partial workout.

I have not used the web site much, but there are tons of workouts available for download there too (for a small fee).