Show HN: A better way to track fitness goals (my nights and weekend project) (12labs.com)
FitFrnd is a mobile app that helps you enjoy working out.
- Flexible goals: Set an initial fitness goal. Adjust your goal as you make progress and learn about what you enjoy doing.
- Share your success: Tell friends and family about workouts done and milestones achieved! Share on Facebook and Twitter.
- Push your buddies: Encourage friends and comment on their workouts.
- Smarts for fitness: Discover weekly patterns in your workout history, and get better at working out.
- Be a winner: Kick ass and get into shape!
FitFrnd is fun, simple and easy to use. It is your personal fitness companion and social butterfly rolled into one!
Video Overview: http://youtu.be/_i3dWPdDdD4
41 comments
[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 87.4 ms ] thread[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.li...
[2] http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html
Also, I'd love to see something a little more visual (I skipped the video because I was listening to music) like static screenshots, icons for the features, and a larger call to action at the bottom (at first glance I couldn't find where you actually talked about how to get the app).
I honestly don't know. I'm just saying, don't automatically assume nerds are the end users being targeted.
Edit: sorry, I just noticed technel made the same point below and saw your reply.
[1] www.strava.com
Thanks for your question.
Our focus is on making workouts fun and non-intimidating. It's not for the hardcore workout guy who runs 3-5 times every week and needs no motivation. It's for the large number of busy professionals, moms and dads, older folks, who'd like an app that gently helps them keep fit, feel less guilty, and re-ramp up again once they have taken a break.
The differences are: - Helping users ease into a goal rather than try something ambitious and get discouraged. The goal "Adjust" feature is emphasized so that users feel it's OK to change their goal as often as they like. Also goals are weekly, since that's how we usually think about workouts. Eg: "I went for runs 3 times the past week, and did 3.1, 2.7 and 3.2 miles". - Focus on encouragement, rather than competition. The aim is virtually create the experience of working out with your close friends. - Setting micro goals and achieving them. A 20 min walk around the office block at lunch is useful exercise.
pls see my answer to mlerner's question below..
I want an app with workouts I can share with friends, so we can try to do the same workouts remotely.
A friend of mine wanted to start strength training for rock climbing. First finding an app that creates a progressive workout is non-existant. (and if it did exist, it probably sucks) Second, there isn't an app that you can share scheduled workouts with another user and keep each other accountable.
We have been thinking of doing something very similar. For me the motivation was to make a feature so that my dad can do his evening walks with his friends who are remote, at the same scheduled time. I'll push this feature up in the list.
Durga
I've lost 2 inches of waistline. I haven't lost a lot of weight (3 pounds) so I'm assuming (hoping) the fat loss was compensated by muscle build?
Workouts: short walks with dad, and evening tennis matches with friends.
Durga
For what it's worth, if there were an app that helped me know WTF to do when it comes to building muscle tone/size, I'd happily pay for that. To an averagely fit guy (5.5 miles in 60 minutes or so, 2-3 times a week), the weights side of thing is infinitely more complex than the cardio side of things (which amounts to "keep your heart rate within this range for a long time").
Since the dynamics of weightlifting are infinitely more complex(you need to do it right to not hurt yourself, you need to push yourself a certain amount etc), trainers are probably a better option than an algorithm.
One of the ideas we are considering is building a feature in the app that lets you hire an online trainer for say x dollars a month who'd guide you and oversee your progress. It'd obviously be much cheaper than hiring a trainer in the gym by an hour. Would such an option appeal to you?
Durga
Stick to the good old 3 sets of 8 reps 2 - 3 times a week and give each muscle group a 7 day rest. No more than 6 exercises per session (keep it under 1 hour)
If you just want to do one weights session a week stick to dead lifts, chest press, squats, overhead press and pull ups and you'll see improvements. Dan Shipper wrote a decent article on this recently, just keep it simple and build it up slow and don't worry about all the complex sounding regimes.
Where you should take advice is on how to do the movements but that's what the gym attendants are for ... and if you already have a membership then 5 minutes of their time a few times a week comes for free
- provide videos of workouts that users can look at.
- users can probably take videos of their workouts, post privately to youtube and maybe have an online trainer look at them?
- Have a 15 min webcam session with the trainer where the trainer looks at your technique and provides feedback.
- Have a trainer look at your weekly logs and provide direction.
All these could potentially be done with the app, some experienced trainers, and a small fee. Thoughts?
That's before we even get into diet. Planning exercise without diet (or vice versa) is a recipe for no progress.
I'm working on an app to tackle this problem right now; I've just started development though.
If you get the time I'd love to hear what features you'd like to see in an app like this. You can respond here or my email is in my profile :-)
The evolution has been fantastic with better app design as he got more users and feedback.
I still keep telling him to hire a designer to make it look prettier, but he is nailing the functionality first! :)