Beachbody: Thinking Beyond the Infomercial

Tony Horton has trained senators, soldiers, and celebrities such as Bruce Springsteen and Billy Idol. In the past three weeks, the latter-day Jack LaLanne has been to six states to promote his grueling in-home fitness program, P90X. Soon, Horton is off to Japan and France for training sessions, his first book will be published in December, and he's shopping around a reality TV show. "The first five months of the year I slept in my own bed only 50 times," Horton says. "It's pretty crazy."

P90X, flogged countless times daily on cable TV, is an anomaly in direct marketing. Most of the pills and potions seen on infomercials seem to offer physical perfection with little effort. Horton, by contrast, has persuaded 3 million people to pay $140 for his 12-DVD program by promising three months of pain and perspiration in a routine that combines resistance training, yoga, boxing, weight lifting, and a strict diet.