Is email the new Pilates?

Students at the Minnesota State University, Mankato, now have the option to check emails, do homework, watch TV, or surf the net while exercising.

This is part of the latest technology upgrade on campus: computer equipped exercise equipment.

It's easier to work out with something in front of you to keep you entertained," said freshman Cassie Pap.

Campus officials, planning a renovation of the recreation building, hit on a high-tech solution as a way to encourage students to exercise, and asked the school's technology staff to help out. When they went looking for exercise equipment with computer capabilities, they couldn't find it, so they set up adjustable stands next to 40 pieces of exercise equipment. Each stand has a computer, a keyboard and mouse.

Kent Kalm, a professor in the university's human performance department, says that it will take time for students to get better at multitasking. "I can't run and type at the same time," says fourth year student Jessie Nelson, "I'd probably fall over."

Not everyone thinks it's a great idea. Stephanie Maks has worked with CEOs and other busy people in her 20 years as a personal trainer. In the past she has to take people's mobiles away from them to get them to concentrate on the exercise they're doing.

It seems to have caught on at Minnesota though - the computer equipped machines are now so popular that students have to book places in advance. Personally, I think it's a great idea. There are only so many times you can watch Eastenders from the treadmill without wishing for something not quite so relentlessly depressing. And if it does make some people forget what they're doing and accidentally fall off the equipment during their workout, well, going to the gym is grim, we could all use a little extra entertainment.

For the full story, see Wired News.