The prisoner workout

Fitness celebrities -- as well as celebrities who are into fitness -- frequently endorse workout DVDs, books, and machines. Their blessing is, at least as far as marketers are concerned, reason enough for us to shell out our hard-earned money on the products they are trying to hawk. But, what's the ROI (return on investment)? Are people really seeing whole body transformations by using a haphazard assemblage of plastic and metal pieces? More likely than not, they aren't. So who, then, should you trust when it comes to fitness endorsement? Try this one on for size: Prisoners.

Using body weight exercises, many prisoners pass their time performing workouts that people on the outside are now looking to for ideas. Pull-ups, burpees, crunches, push-ups, and the aptly-named prisoner squats are just a few of the moves many prisoners perform to stay in shape, and they also happen to be the same moves that are being aped by us law-abiding folks.

The best part about the prisoner workout is that you can do it just about anywhere. All you really need is a little open space to move around in. After sweating your way through the routine, you may soon be sending all those expensive infomercial fitness gizmos back for a refund. Those crooks should be locked up for selling you that garbage in the first place ;)