LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The latest workout craze is all about mashing popular culture with fitness. The trend aims to get self-proclaimed geeks off the couch.
For sci-fi fanatic Christy Black, every workout is a new adventure.
She's traveled overseas as a Viking warrior, escaped ancient temples with Indiana Jones and traveled aboard the Starship Enterprise - all while getting in shape.
"My body has changed dramatically. I had lost 17 pounds of fat, but I gained almost 5 pounds of muscle," Black said.
The craze is taking off. So-called geek-friendly gyms and online communities are popping up across the country, mashing up motivational workouts with popular culture.
Fitness expert Jim White said its appeal is helping get self-proclaimed geeks off the couch.
"Sitting and being sedentary is considered the new smoking," White said.
Followers come from all different communities. They're just looking for a place where they can all truly be themselves.
"The gym has been the realm of the jock for decades, for as long as they've been growing up and, so they feel ostracized by that environment, that they can't really connect with it," said Andrew Deutsch, head coach and owner of NrdFit.
While popular culture is what draws people in, experts say it's the personal connections that keep people coming back. More than 1.5 million people log on to NerdFitness.com each month, with message boards logging more than 30,000 members.
"It's just so much fun to go in there and watch people interact with each other and offer supportive comments and learn from each other and share their success stories and their struggles," said Steve Kamb of NerdFitness.com.
For Black, connecting to the "geek fitness" movement hasn't just transformed her. She said it's given her a whole new outlook.
"I am a much happier, healthier person. I have a sense of community that I didn't have before," she said.