I'm a fitness snob, I know that. I regard mainstream gyms as inferior places to get a workout: machines, neon, TVs, magazines, iPods. People focus on how they look rather than how functional and healthy they can get.

And of course, the big enemy is the treadmill. We use electrical energy, which contributes to pollution, global warming, and habitat destruction; we zone out and go nowhere indoors, when the beautiful world is waiting for us to explore her and reconnect with what's real; and we typically jog for long, boring stretches and don't build our capacity or burn fat effectively.

Or so I thought. But today my eyes were opened, thanks to an email from Good Experience.com's Mark Hurst. He pointed me to a video showing the right way to use a treadmill.

It's inspiring. It's hilarious. Don't try this at home - unless you own 6 treadmills.

After watching the video, scroll down for my thoughts on the difference between this and the "normal" way to exercise on a treadmill.

8 reasons this is a superior treadmill workout:

1. They are working out together, rather than individually.

When most of us go to the gym, we retreat into our own little world, with little or no connection to the people around us. When we disconnect from others, we become poorer. These guys ended this session with a deeper relationship to each other, I guarantee it!

2. They're paying attention to what their bodies are doing.

Not only do we disconnect from others when we work out, we disconnect our minds from our bodies. How many people work out with headphones on, or watching TV, or reading a book or magazine. If we could leave our brains at home and just send out bodies to work out, we would.

How sad! To choose to be absent from your own life, even for an hour. It's a habit, this absenting ourselves. First the gym, then while driving, then the next thing you know we're checking email while we're on the phone, and half-listening to our kids or partner.

When our minds are elsewhere, we're much more likely to injure ourselves, too. And we miss the deeper meaning of physical activity - sheer joy and pleasure at our body's ability to move.

Watch the video again, this time imagining yourself participating. Can you feel how much fun it would be? Come on, blast the music through your speakers, get up and dance!

3. They're using full body movements, often unstable and dynamic.

When we work out at the gym, we isolate our muscles and perform completely pointless and irrelevant motions repetitively. So we develop our bodies unevenly, and gain useless strength - strength that we can't support in real life because we're not sitting or lying down with our backs supported by the machine.

Look at how much balance and awareness these guys have developed in order to play on treadmills like this.

4. They're using their own body weight.

Yes, they're using treadmills, but the main instrument for the workout is their own bodies. Throughout the dance, they support and move their body weight in several different positions, using their arms and legs.

We don't have to be dependent on the gym. Our own bodies and our natural environment can afford us a great workout just about every time. Learn how to improv, instead of being a treadmill drone!

5. They're varying the routine.

What do most people do on treadmills? They jog, consistently and repetitively, for 20-40 minutes. Same speed, same stride, same cadence. What are we practicing? Jogging on a treadmill.

By contrast, the OK Go guys perform about 40 different moves in just over 3 minutes. They are gaining skills, strength and stamina that will help them walk or run on ice, climb hills or steps, turn off a leaking water pipe in the crawl space, and run through a crowded airport without hurting anyone.

6. They're moving in natural ways - walking, running, jumping, crawling, climbing.

When we watch kids playing, it's clear that they haven't forgotten their evolutionary heritage. They engage in all sorts of natural movements effortlessly.

Do you remember the last time you saw a grownup run full out, other than a sporting event? If you saw an adult running down the street, you'd assume that a crime had just been committed. That's how unusual it is.

Yet there's tons of evidence that for fitness and health into our 80s and beyond, there's a requirement that we keep using all our movement skills, including jumping, climbing, crawling, skipping, and running.

7. They haven't bought fancy "gym clothes."

The OK Go guys don't need $200 sneakers, $500 workout suits, and armloads of wraps and supports. They understand that the gym is not the only place you can get fit - it's not the "church of fitness," so you don't need to dress up specially for church. The fitness industry wants us to believe that fitness is an activity separate from ordinary life - that way we stay dependent on gyms and machines for our fitness. But if you understand that you can be fit using the "Punk" ethic of cheap and do-it-yourself, you can unplug from the fitness matrix and be free.

8. They're playing and having fun.

I'd be hard pressed to call what they're doing a "workout." They're playing, pure and simple. They prepared well. They're exerting themselves. But as the Bob Franke song "Thanksgiving Eve" puts it:

Let your dreams bind your work to your play.

Have fun!