“I’m definitely buying something tonight,” said Lisa Nord, an elementary-school social worker in Manhattan. Ron Barranco of Staten Island gestured at a table covered in DVDs. “Would you like them all?” he asked his wife, Joanne Barranco. “Get them.”
The heyday of Jack LaLanne and Jane Fonda may have gone the way of leg warmers and Betamax, but fitness videos have not only endured, they are back in vogue. During the recession, the fitness DVD industry has thrived as consumers opted for $15 videos instead of gym memberships, according to the research firm IbisWorld, which says that fitness DVD production revenue jumped 12.6 percent in 2012, to $264.5 million.
Joni Olseen, 58, who works in marketing in Minneapolis, has amassed a collection of about 100 fitness DVDs. “You’re working out on your own terms,” Ms. Olseen said. “I’m in as good shape now as when I used to go to the gym.”
And the programs have never before been so intense. (Try doing P90X after eating Cheerios.) Hilary Raupp, 40, had grown bored of her gym. But “I wasn’t looking for a Jane Fonda riff,” said Ms. Raupp, a homemaker who lives in Doylestown, Pa. “I was looking for a real program.” So she bought “Insanity,” an extreme interval-training DVD series that she said cost $180.
“I love it,” Ms. Raupp said, and since her old gym cost $100 a month for both her and husband, plus $8 to $25 more when they took a class, “we saved money by month three.”
You might think that working out at home without a trainer would lead to more injuries, but Dr. Thomas M. Best, a director of the division of sports medicine at Ohio State, said no evidence supports that, though he stressed that if you have a condition like heart disease or diabetes, you should check with a doctor before beginning an at-home program.
Offering further credence to the genre, professional instructors and gyms, rather than models and actresses, are increasingly headlining videos. This month, Canyon Ranch began selling its first fitness DVD, “Canyon Ranch: Strong Sculpted” ($16.99), set amid cactuses in the Tucson desert. “We really just wanted to be able to offer an opportunity for individuals to have the experience of Canyon Ranch that don’t have the financial ability to come,” said Heather Schmidt, a fitness instructor at the ranch, who is also in the new video.
This summer, Tracy Anderson, who has helped sculpture the bodies of Madonna, Nicole Richie and Jennifer Lopez, will introduce a series for pregnant women. (She’s had T-shirts made up that read: “Staying in is the new going out in fitness.”)
It will share shelf space with “Exhale: Core Fusion 30 Day Sculpt” from Exhale Spa; “Rhythmica: Dance Cardio Party” from Marc Santa Maria, the regional director of group fitness for Crunch New York; a popular series of Bollywood-theme video workouts from Hemalayaa, an instructor whose emphasis is on having fun; and “Bethenny’s Skinnygirl Workout” from Bethenny Frankel, the reality-TV star, and the yoga instructor Mike McArdle. And Ms. Fonda, the veteran, last year came out with fitness DVDs for baby boomers.
Industry executives are also beginning to offer live-streaming and on-demand subscription services. Bill Sondheim, president of Gaiam, one of the largest domestic producers and distributors of fitness DVDs, which is based in Louisville, Colo., last year introduced GaiamTV, costing $9.95 a month for unlimited access to more than 500 fitness videos.
Of all the genres available, yoga is the most popular, according to IbisWorld. That’s not surprising given the variety of styles, Mr. McArdle said.
Mr. McArdle met Ms. Frankel several years ago when she was taking his yoga class on the Upper East Side, long before she was a cast member of “The Real Housewives of New York,” and he has since trained her privately. He says that at-home practice has its advantages: “It brings you in touch with the solemnity and the quiet in your own space.”
Including trainers could improve customers’ perception of celebrity workout videos. “People don’t think they’re a serious program,” said Jill Ross, an owner of Collage Video, based in Minneapolis, which sells more than 2,000 titles, up from about 150 when it was founded in 1987.
Mr. Sondheim of Gaiam agreed. Instructors like Rodney Yee and Mari Winsor are more popular with customers, he said, than Kim Kardashian, with whom Gaiam made a workout DVD.
Perhaps because celebrities covet privacy, though, some of them use fitness DVDs. Ms. Anderson said that Gwyneth Paltrow, her student and business partner, and Ms. Lopez both used DVDs when beginning her program. “Gwyneth was like the worst dancer in the entire world,” Ms. Anderson said, “and now she’s great.”
Even devoted gymgoers use DVDs to supplement workouts. “I do it on days that I can’t motivate myself to get out and go,” said Lauren Ramakrishna, 27, a Web editor who relies on “Biggest Loser,” Jillian Michaels, Bob Harper and “Insanity” DVDs when she can’t make it from her Jersey City apartment to a nearby New York Sports Club. “It’s really about keeping things interesting and different.”
