Click start and then run. Fitness help from your PC. I'm Fred Fishkin with Bootcamp, a report on computers and technology. One of the best known names in exercise equipment, ICON Health and Fitness, is using technology to motivate, using a virtual personal trainer to control treadmills, exercise bikes and other equipment over the Internet. The specially designed equipment plugs into your computer... .and a Web site called iFit.com iFit's Dick Sandhaus...

"This is a treadmill that's run through the Internet. You log on, you plug your computer into the treadmill and the Web site, iFit.com actually functions as a virtual personal trainer. It runs your treadmill, plays motivating music for you and you actually hear the voice of a personal trainer telling you what to do, what's coming up. It's actually going to control the speed in various step increments and the incline of this thing ... "

(sound) Sandhaus says it's more than just a gimmick...

"People who have personal trainers are I think something like 70 percent more likely to achieve their fitness goals than people who simply buy a device and end up with it in the closet serving as a very bulky, expensive clothes rack."

The plan is to add scenery to the computer screen display as well.