150,000 WOWY workouts so far in 2005!

Congratulations to everyone who is using WOWY for consistency and accountability to stay on schedule with their body transformation!

On Thursday Aug 11th we crossed over the 150,000 workouts mark, cumulative for 2005! That means over 150,000 times, people from all across the country and the world have logged in to "Work Out With You" and that's pretty cool!

Our peak so far was 248 people signed-on at the same time during a live Power 90 web cast workout with Tony a few weeks ago (shown here). It was a blast to have everyone working out with us as Tony did his thing live from the Beachbody office workout room. At the end of the telecast we gave away two autographed P90X posters and a special offer on Peak Recovery Formula.

WOWY was an idea I had one morning when I was not inclined to get out of bed to workout. I got to thinking how gyms have an advantage over us since if I am supposed to meet someone at the gym or show up for a class, I will get out of bed on schedule. But when it's just me, with no witnesses, it's easy to blow it off. The idea for WOWY was born as a way to connect people for workouts so there would be some external pressure to show up, and some motivation to log in and see that you are not alone. At any given moment you know there are other people out there, pushing play on their DVD player, working up a sweat in the rec room.

My favorite thing about WOWY is seeing how people connect to be success buddies. When we built this system and applied for the patent, we weren't sure people would get it. So we just went for it, and pretty much let it sit there to see if people would figure it out. They have, in ways we never even imagined.

We've seen people use WOWY to stay connected "virtually" with loved ones who were in Iraq by scheduling WOWY workouts together. We've seen friends create workout groups around workout times and keep each other accountable. We've seen people compete for consistency, tracking "perfection" in consecutive days without a missed session. And there are so many applications we have yet to pursue -- like getting businesses to use WOWY to track and reward employee involvement in fitness programs, or letting doctors motivate their patients to get active by leading them to WOWY for motivation.

And with the price of gas these days, I am hoping people think of WOWY as the way to keep connected socially with people for workouts. As more and more people are choosing to save the time and money they normally spend driving back and forth to the gym by simply working out at home, WOWY let's you still feel a sense of community while you're working on your transformation.

That's why we didn't close WOWY off to just Beachbody members and Beachbody products. It has a different look and feel from the rest of the site because we wanted everyone to use it, regardless of their product affiliation. I remain hopeful that regardless of what program a person is doing, they will find support and motivation within WOWY by signing on and staying accountable. I know personally how much easier it is to hit the snooze button at 5:30AM than it is to hit the play button - unless you have a WOWY success buddy who's going to be looking for you online.

OK... I've got myself kind of revved up on this all over again. Here's what I'm gonna do, right here in my blog; I'm putting up $500 to motivate people to WOWY on Wednesday August 31st and Thursday September 1st at 9PM ET/6PM PT.

On August 31st I will randomly pick someone from those logged in and working out in WOWY at at 9PM ET/6PM PT.

The next day, Sept. 1, as I log in for my WOWY workout at 9PM ET/6PM PT I will post in my WOWY greeting (the message that appears under my picture as I workout in WOWY) who won the $500... But the winner MUST log in to WOWY for both sessions to get the cash -- if they don't show for Thursday 9PM ET/6PM PT, there's no dough.

If there's no winner, I'll do it again, rolling the money over to the next challenge date (TBD) perhaps adding a little more cash to the bucket.

Let me be clear before the lawyers swoop down on me for this - there is no purchase needed -- WOWY is free to anyone who logs in, and you don't have to be doing a Beachbody program to qualify. You can be doing a half hour of toe touches, and you will be just as eligible as someone earning their chance doing Tear It Up from the Slim Series.

My goal here is to see how many people we can get online to WOWY at one time in a late workout in the middle of the week. If you plan on showing up, I would love it if you would invite someone you know who could use a motivational moment to get started with something and use the chance t win $500 t bring them to the party. I'd love to see a big WOWY number for both nights.

So if you want to maybe win $500, and no matter what, get a workout in with a hundred or more people from all over the world, I hope to see you there on Aug 31 and Sept 1 at 9PM ET/6PM PT.

And nonetheless, let's celebrate the 150,000th WOWY workout thus far in 2005, and continue our march to 200,000!