I here is a small open-source project I've been working on lately. I'd love to hear your thoughts and improvement ideas :)
GitHub: [github.com/Vincenius/workout-lol](https://github.com/Vincenius/workout-lol)
I’ve been lifting for about six months, and I think this is the longest stretch I’ve been able to go without getting bored with it, because I’m at a gym this time and have access to a ton of equipment.
Variety can really make a difference, and some will say it’s good for your muscles anyways to do different exercises that are targeting the same muscle groups.
And the point of apps like this is that it makes it easy to say “today is push day, push is chest and triceps, show me chest and triceps exercises.” What’s wrong with a novice saying that?
You're not going to like this, but lifting is about finding joy in the grind (like a lot of life). Gains are often incremental, but add up over time. For me, lifting is my alone time to listen to music and think. The lifting part is automatic.
Only real risk is people getting confused or frustrated as to why they're not making any progress. "Doing a bunch of stuff" is very different from training.
Progressive overload is the thing that needs drilled into the newbie's head. None of this is complicated, but doing a bunch of random stuff every time you enter the gym is a really good way to feel like your doing something all while accomplishing very little.
I've been lifting for almost a decade at this point. My philosophy on it boils down to: it's grueling, so... if you're going to do it, you should get the most bang for your buck. That said, changing up the routine in a structured manner is definitely a good idea very once and awhile (if only to deload for a bit).
Do the thinking every 4-6 weeks as you rotate the plan - but also repetition lets you track some progress (reps / weight / how hard set was).
But it's detrimental to a progressive/scienctific-like approach to lifting.
We want to know that over time we're getting progressive overload. That means you need consistency to watch that 1) The weight goes up for the same reps, or 2) the reps go up for the same weight (or 3, both). Unfortunately exercises are not direct replacements for each other meaning you cannot simply do the same for a variety of (eg:) bicep curls.
Once someone gets past what linear progression can achieve (see Strong lifts 5x5 app for example) then we start to do periodization or other plateau breaking patterns.
Like many things, knowing the name or term of what you’re looking for is the gateway - without that you’re stuck floundering.
Simply do 5 sets of 5 reps of the following exercises in groups. Do 2-3x per week as your schedule allows. You can super set the push/pull exercise, but not the leg. Take no less than 1 minute rest between the PP supersets, or the leg sets.
1. Bench press , Row, Squat
2. Overhead press, Pull up (weighted if need be), Deadlift
3. Bicep curl, Tricep press, calves
4. Abs, core, or lower back (1x per week)
Other details
- if the workout takes longer than you have time for, you can break up the 1-4 across more days (eg lift 4 or 6 days a week with pattern of 1&3, 2&4, 1&3, 2&4 (1&3, 2&4)
- add some weight every workout, even if it's the minimum 2.5 plates, or buy 1.25 micro plates to bring to the gym - once you are unable to add weight every workout, start to try and add weight every week - Every 12 weeks take a 1 week deload where you do 3x 10 reps of the above with about 50% of what you can actually lift
If you're a "hard gainer" continue with the above and for a 12 week block try the following tactics.
1. Eat a costco rotisserie chicken each day (or equivalent calories + grams of protein in any other food)
2. Add a Liter, Half Gallon, or Gallon of milk (progressively experiment starting small), Or equivalent calories and grams of protein
If you follow the above consistently for a year or two you will be ahead of something like 95% of gym goers. You might be behind optimal, but you'll be way ahead of most people.
Or you know, you could go into a couple of fitness forums and see which programs pop up again and again.
check out fitness progress posts and you'll see some great looking bodies. the comments will be like "which routine pls" and the answer will be "huh? I just go to the gym consistently"
But many people aren't going to follow those routines. It's my impression that deadlifts and squats aren't good exercises for this use case because of the danger they present.
Sure, they might be "completely safe" when "done correctly", but somebody using an app and trying to mimic exercises they see in videos or pictures is only guessing at whether they do the exercises correctly. To build muscle you need progressive overload, but that also means that "doing the exercises correctly" gets even more difficult. With most other lifts it's not that big of a deal, but with squats and deadlifts the weights get really high. A dropped barbell with squat weights can easily lead to injury. Hell, it can lead to injury when it's even just lifted the wrong way.
And when you remove those two lifts then a lot of 'standard full body workout' regimes don't work anymore.
And while progressive overload is needed, no one is going from the bar to massive weight overnight. Also, not everyone needs to have the goal of being a power lifter. Peter Attia talks about wanting his older clients to be able to a 45lb kettlebell squat, the average weight of a toddler grandkid for example.
It's one thing to use such a tool to find new exercises to target a specific body part but then you should probably use the source the tool is importing videos from, not build a full workout just to see.
This might be useful for physical therapists or body builders though.
the deadlift is something you've done a million times whether you know it or not, though the novice is probably more uncoordinated than they realize at higher weights. like it would be a struggle if not dangerous to move a couch, for example. this is a very practical skill to develop, and you're still "targeting" the same muscle group as...
...a prone hamstring curl. how often do you find yourself prone and flexing your knees against a load? probably never, right? how do you contextualize a movement like this to someone's day to day? what i mean is, what is even compelling about a movement like this and what does it actually mean to someone just starting out?
i'm the world's biggest proponent of "keep it simple, stupid" when it comes to working out, especially as a novice. super detailed split routines are more often than not overwhelming and set people up to develop bad habits while never meaningfully addressing the core issue that drive many people to go to the gym in the first place: people suck at moving.
In daily life, the body is used to move with many muscle groups working together. By using a targeted exercise, you can create muscle imbalances and injury is more likely (especially stuff like tendonitis).
Muscle does not 'build' without eating. Size comes from calories plus progressive loading.
As for as health goes, every person (particularly those untrained) would be more healthy with more strength. More strength means less likely to injure oneself in everyday movements and less likely to have events like falls as they get older. And to loop back around to the top, squats are key part of this type of health.
High (comparative) weight + low reps builds strength (and muscle recruitment) without (necessarily) building lots of new muscle fibers. Muscle hypertrophy happens most often with lower weights and higher repetitions, plus loads of calories. A program like "Starting Strength" is not about hypertrophy.
Any exercise is potentially "unhealthy," particularly if it requires specialized movements. You can learn proper form for "base" lifts like the squat and deadlift without any equipment at first.
I've lifted for a couple of decades. I put in the muscles for a pull workout I will be doing today and the results are... dumb. "Dumbbell superman" nah not going to do that. Two types of hammer curl? Nah that's a waste of time. "Bayesian hammer curl" wtf, my eye is twitching. Two types of dead-lift only differentiated with different shaped weights? Nope that's dumb too. It's also suggesting exercises at the wrong level e.g. bands or dead-lifting a kettlebell. I'd need to put all my gym's kettlebells onto a bar for a useful dead-lift :) It also had no vertical pull like a chinup/lat-pull for a back workout which is kinda criminal.
For a beginner, they won't know it's dumb, so this is kind of harmful. They need to use a more carefully designed complete split / full-body-workout, because it matters how multiple days combine, not just a single day.
For an intermediate/advanced lifter, clearer goals are more useful e.g. PL or BB, and then planning intensity/loading/waves/deloads etc. for constant progression. What I find most useful is deep dive discussion by an expert for most effective exercises and how to get the most of out of them with subtleties about grips and cues to increase mind-muscle-connection etc. Suggestions for how to swap out exercises to work around injuries or focus on weak points is very useful. The lifter can then iterate and swap exercises in and out of their routine to keep it fresh and useful.
Just punched in my muscles for today, and I'd agree.
It's leg and core day. For legs, it gave me barbell suitcase deadlifts and barbell Bulgarian split squats. They're not bad, but they overcomplicate things, and this is especially bad for beginners. What I'm actually going to do are squats and RDLs.
OP made a nice site for exploring different types of movements for a muscle group. That being said the simplicity seems geared towards those just starting out with training but the site surfaces too many (in my experience) accessory exercises and movements I wouldn't try without a PT guiding me.
If you are a true beginner and you are drawn to a site like OP's you're probably looking for a training program. You can find many comprehensive programs online [1] but when you're starting out the information is overwhelming. Whichever routine you choose keep in the back of your mind that the CDC recommends that you engage all major muscle groups in a muscle strengthening activity at least twice a week[2].
Targeting every muscle group individually takes too much time, this is why most resistance training programs include a handful of exercises that train many muscles at once. Those are called compound exercises. Look up each exercise listed in your program and determine if it is a compound exercise. Those are the foundation of your program.
You will probably fail your commitment to whatever program you've chosen in the next 2 weeks. Some days you will need to shorten your resistance workout for whatever reason. The compound exercises are the ones that you should still complete on those days. Some days you will skip the workout entirely. Still try to meet the CDC recommendation for the week by adapting your program and then recommit the following week.
Diet is a tangetial topic, but you will need adequate protein in order to progress your training.
Eventually you will notice a difference between the person you are when you're consistent with it and the person you are when you're not. At that point there's no going back. The workouts get more challenging, but regularly challenging yourself is something you look forward to.
[1]: https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-bu...
[2]: https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/adults/index.htm
If you’re new to lifting, you can just do starting strength and you’ll be fine.
I lift 6 days/week and just keep my 2-3 hour workouts in my head. I sometimes think I should write everything down to have a log of accomplishments and so on, but otoh knowing what I'm capable of at any given time is sufficient for me. I change up my weights/reps/sets whenever I feel like it and keep a mental overview of the the current week. I know how I'm progressing from how I feel and look and whether I'm gaining weight; I change exercises in or out on about a monthly basis.
Maybe it's easier for me because I work out at home so I don't have to care about packing things into a gym schedule, worrying about availability of weights/machines etc.
Oh please its not harmful to do deadlifts with a bar and then kettlebells or whatever.
> What I find most useful is deep dive discussion by an expert for most effective exercises and how to get the most of out of them with subtleties about grips and cues to increase mind-muscle-connection etc. Suggestions for how to swap out exercises to work around injuries or focus on weak points is very useful. The lifter can then iterate and swap exercises in and out of their routine to keep it fresh and useful.
And that is fine and can be found at your physio, a great yourube channel, online coach, some crossfit, powerlifting or weightlifting coaches. But that was probably not the aim of this webapp.
I have been doing it for a few months and the app makes it really easy to track. They have a premium version that lets you sub workouts or you can "donate" to the creator of the program. I gave them like $10 since I have gotten so much value out of it.
Im sure after a few months of this, you’ll find better information on how to progress, but I’d recommend this to anyone texting me “hey what should I do at the gym.”
adjust your priors, bro.
I agree. Not enough. We need more curl variations. Also, the app should make it clear that they need to be done in a squat rack.
I'll stick with squat/deadlift/weighted pullups every day - no need to complicate shit.
1) Best workout is the one you can do regularly.
2) Slowest way to get in shape is to try to do it as fast as possible.
Maybe you want to build upon dat ass or strengthen your hips to reduce injury. These are wildly different goals. One app should not aspire to do both meaningfully. However, an app focused on dat ass or injury prevention programs? Stellar ideas I think, and they can be executed on effectively.
Targeting a body part is also a weird concept. Target it to do what, and how? Why?
My goto after 15 years is lifting at a relatively low weight (kettlebells and barbell) and bodyweight progressions using tempo patterns. I used to go heavy and do fewer reps and sets because I wanted to maximize strength and minimize time working out, but learned over time that you really do max out strength and neglect a lot of other things. I was getting really strong for some random dude sitting at a desk all day, but try as I might, I was losing mobility and hurting myself despite an intense focus on form and checking in on how I was feeling and getting experienced people to review my program, lifts, and progression. To get to that point I had to learn a lot and make a ton of mistakes already.
Tempo lets me focus on form better, find compound movements I can move through safely in broader ranges of motion, and get my heart rate up higher for more of my session rather than in exhausting bursts. I injure myself less, my mobility and strength are better rounded, and I don't need to eat like a bear to prevent wasted effort. I love it. I've turned into a fat ass recently but that's unrelated; I'd probably be more of a fat ass had I kept lifting hard and eating harder. The point is, what works well for me (and others without a doubt) is certainly not something that I'd get from most generic workout apps I've encountered. And if I did, it would have been accidental. There is usually no clear reason or philosophy behind why you're doing what you're doing; it's just another workout in the database piped into your program. Just do it, because do it.
I think the programming I do today a relatively nuanced fitness foundation, and apps rarely ever touch on these matters or how to make decisions about them. They treat exercise like a very static, linear thing. Pick the movement, pick the gear, do the thing, you exercised. But bodies are so dynamic, movements yield different results under different loads, and people have very broad ranges of goals. It isn't good enough.
Want to get huge? There are lots of ways to do that. Want to do it based on the equipment you've got? Sure, we can narrow it down a bit now. Do you have any physical limitations? We can narrow it down even more. I think you can make a useful app out of this singular goal (and some people have, I think). But a random "what gear do you have and which muscles do you want to work" app is kind of like... I mean, what does working the muscle mean? What are you actually going to end up doing, and why?
I also agree completely on the point about potential harm. I think this is another reason to build an app around very specific methodologies and goals. There's more opportunity to hone in on great explanations of safe form and equipment usage, explain methods, and generally get the beginner acquainted with effective implementation of the movements and overall strategies.
But again, I'm quite literally a fat ass and I don't really know much about this stuff. I have lifted some weights, done a bad job at it a lot for a long time, and found ways in which it worked here and there. My sense is that we need to be specific and targeted, not all-encompassing, if we want to create great programs.
-- Accountability Coach
-- Personal trainer
Of the 2, personal trainer is probably better if you are new to the gym (been lifting 0-2 years) because they will also help you nail technique/form so you don't get yourself injured swinging around ego lifts.
You don't have to pay a lot for this either - don't get the $120/hr folks at big 24 hour gyms, find a private gym where one trainer might be working with about 6-8 folks at any one time. They will queue up each set of exercises for you, check your form and then do the same for someone else while you are doing the bulk of the work.
The place I go to charges $45 per 90 minute session for this and it's great. I don't need to figure out my workout, track my weights/reps for progressive overload or anything. They take care of all of that. I just show up, do the work and get on with my day.
Lack of motivation usually stems from a lack of energy, which can stem from both physiological as well as psychological issues, which can stem from spiritual issues (the sense of self and how it relates to your environment).
If I'm well rested and in harmony with my authentic self, I usually don't have a problem finding the motivation to do things that are good for me.
I also hope the prompt to select "what do you want to use" is changed to "what equipment do you have".
I do muay thai and it's essential for clinching and is part of my training anyway.
The overall experiences are so great. And I have strong respect for apps like this where I can enjoy a lot of features without being required to create an account. I understand it's difficult in corporations where KPIs like registration rate matters. But even when given a choice, it must be challenging to design seamless UX/UI and write code which works well with both locally stored data (without an account) and remotely stored data (with an account). I hope more apps adopt this approach. There are very few examples. Excalidraw is the one that comes to mind.
Anyway I really love your app, thank you! I'll use this in the next gym session (if I finally hit the gym...)
As a non native speaker I understand you’re trying to keep the instructions brief but I have to read them multiple times to understand what to do.
You could add some physiotherapy exercises with a stick as well.
> As a non native speaker I understand you’re trying to keep the instructions brief but I have to read them multiple times to understand what to do.
I’m a native speaker and I frequently experience this reading workout instructions. Something about exercise language in general feels very clunky.
Before I started working out at all, I found it really hard to follow any workout instructions (even videos). I couldn’t tell if what I was doing felt right or if my form was off in some important way.
After a few sessions with a personal trainer/physical therapist, and just getting comfortable with the sensations and movements, I found it much easier to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing from an instruction. I had more of the building blocks that I knew were correct already.
Text is still inherently a difficult way to instruct movements though.
Actually what would be more useful than pre-selecting body weight, would be a setting to mark certain groups/muscles/appendages as injured, missing, disabled, or weakened.
The product is truly remarkable, so what technologies used under the hood doesn't matter, but I think TypeScript is natural choice, especially if you 1) start a project from scratch in 2023, 2) have complex local states like choosing equipment and body parts, and proceeding exercises step by step until completed in a single page, and 3) have complex data structure (like exercises, histories, and seamless connection between locally stored data and remotely stored data used only after registering).
edit: typo
I also always thought TS is a bit too much for small apps like this, but I get that it would make sense to use it if others want to contribute as well.
WOW!
WOW!!
WOW!!!
not only did you create something (thats step 1), you created something that works (you released a working version, clap clap), you created something with a real usecase (not the next get-rich-crypto-bro-app), AND:
from your current version, i see gazillion ways of extending/expanding the product.
Keep going - dont listen to the others :)
(if you think about monetization: Just watch a couple of these fitfluencer channels, and you will get tons of inspiration - also out of sport-channels, you will find lot of marketing ideas)
So far it's just a fun side project which I enjoy working on
- so many improvements to pick up, in all directions
- now you have an endless list of todos :)
regards
It would be great if a yoga mat were another option. Then you could link to videos of yoga moves, just as you do with other exercises.
I'll think of a way to add it :)
Definitely needs a fullscreen mode with timer and video. Plus a way to configure step reps/timer :D
_I don't know_. I want to lose weight and be in just a better physical condition. Maybe then I'm not a target user, which is totally fine! But wanted to add that feedback in case I was.
Most of aforementioned humans also likely need to move heavy objects from time to time without throwing out their back.
I read once that deadlifts are the single best exercise you can do for desk bod. If I only have 10 minutes to work out, I do deadlifts. Next I try to get abs, obliques, back stabilizers, etc., then some squats and leg work. I do chin/pull/push ups between the core and leg stuff.
For my own personal goals, I've enjoyed/had success with doing variations of Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 workout for roughly a decade, and recently made a simple (and much, much uglier) web app [1] to record my lifts, suggest one-rep max targets, calculate weight for each set, etc. It's not nearly as flexible as the tool in this post (built mostly for 5/3/1 + power lifts) and doesn't have any options except self-hosting (for now), but one can specify their full routine in a JSON-formatted config, and then do their routine.
Would you be open to contributions, instead? I'd love to at least add some design to the front-end
Generally, all the content for a day's lifts should fit on a single small mobile phone screen to make it dead simple to record a lift and then get to the next one.
Feel free to email me (address is on website in profile) or open an issue on the repo with ideas/requests, happy to chat more.
Is it a choice or a limitation of MuscleWiki that videos exclusively show men?
I'd love the same but for meal plans, if you fancy building something else
I guess I'm still busy for a while with this project, but I'll keep it in the back of my mind :)
I've been looking for an to keep track of my routine for getting my back in order after a broken vertebra. Many of exercises I'm doing can be found in this app already, and using this app is so straight-forward that I take this to test right-away.
Nevertheless, I would like to know if it will be possible to add own exercises also?
Maybe I'll add this feature in the future, but it's not the priority right now :)
I'd love to see recommendations if my goal would be to build up some muscle and lose weight, and why this would be recommended.
Then this would be very useful for me
I'm a noob. I have some stuff. Show me what I can do with it!
In terms of improvement ideas (not that you're short of additional suggestions), I've recently started going to the gym again to train for a specific sport (100m/200m sprints). I need do a lot of plyo & power work and this involves more advanced/specific movements such as cleans, snatches, box jumps, etc.
Would really be amazing to expand the workouts to involve different kinds of training (e.g. strength vs power vs speed vs stability ...). Will look into the project later and see if I can contribute somehow, and happy to discuss further if you're interested :)
Feel free to check out the repository and let me know if you have any questions :)
The way you phrase things on the site, I was left with the impression that you were in fact stealing the content while at the same time asking for donations, which is morally questionable at best.
I had to dig around in their copyright section before I found this:
> Some content may be used free of charge without prior consent. The .gif files, text, videos which can be found on youtube.com and muscle information can be used with the MuscleWiki branding and with links back to musclewiki.com.
I was even in contact with the people from MuscleWiki (super cool people) and they said it's fine for me to use their data if I keep my product free and don't generate profit
This was actually the website that inspired me for workout.lol :D
- It is not obvious how to get back to equipment selection: the history does not change, and it was not apparent that those step numbers are buttons.
- With JS off, there is an empty page in the beginning.
- The website does not allow to select forearms after choosing just "bodyweigh[t]" and "pull-up bar" as equipment, even though musclewiki.com shows chin-ups as an exercise for forearms.
Static stretching is essentially worthless, and can actually be detrimental to performance: https://journals.lww.com/acsm-csmr/Fulltext/2014/05000/The_E....
The thing to do for weight lifting is do some light warm up cardio (5-10 minutes on your favorite hamster wheel variant - elliptical, treadmill, bike) to get your core temp up, then do a few warm up sets before big compound movements to improve blood flow to the target muscles and lubricate the joints.
Before doing your working sets on bench/squat/deadlift, do a few sets at a much lower weight. Like this:
Warm-up set 1: Start with the empty bar and warm up for a few reps there.
Warm-Up Set 2: 40-50% of your first set x 5 reps (if the empty bar falls into this percentage- skip this step).
Warm-Up Set 3: 60-65% of your first set x 3-5 reps
Warm-Up Set 4: 70-80% of your first set x 3 reps
Warm-up set 5: 85-90% of your first set x 1-3 reps
Warm-Up Set 6: 90-95% of your first set x 1-3 reps
Now do your working sets.
If you aren't lifting that much weight (bench press for example) you can skip a few of these and start at say 60-65% of your working weight.
I found this article interesting [0]. It's about a fitness site from 1999 (https://exrx.net), that is still an incredibly dense and useful resource for fitness and nutrition. Makes me miss the 90's internet, but also I think shows we often hugely overcomplicate UI/UX.
[0] https://www.newyorker.com/culture/rabbit-holes/the-internets...
I've been doing 3 days / week GZCL with this for a year: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.braindead.g...
It's a 2/5. It works, kinda. I suffer from moderate ADHD and need an app that requires little decision-making. Big buttons, pre-programmed workouts, etc. It does that pretty well.
co.braindead.gzcl doesn't do several things I want: --Tell me what to do with no ambiguity (GZCL often has "accessory exercises" that are a free-for-all. No, I need the app to tell me exactly what to do. Which exercise, how many reps, what weight, what rest interval). --Explain what's going on. What is "TM"? Why is it always zero? --Facilitate deloading weeks + make reasonable calculations and / or expose the calculations --be FOSS --allow data export --offline-first
Is there anything out there that does this, or a significant subset?
By doing the same exercises over and over, you build adaption (muscle growth) which forces you to increase weight or reps to raise difficulty over time. Eventually you get very strong muscles and are moving a good amount of mass.
By doing too many variants, you just waste time and never truly “adapt” to movements.
I think there is a fundamental issue with the flow. The first step should be to choose the fundamental benefit the person is looking to achieve
Upper / Back / Lower / Cardio or similar high level categories that even novices can understand. I hesitate to say push pull or as this is industry specific
Upper - I want a bigger chest or more defined shoulders
Back - I want a wider back or a more defined back
Lower - I want bigger glutes, defined abs, clearer separation between butt and legs, bigger legs
Cardio - I want better overall stamina
Next equipment that I have
Next a visual representation on the skeleton of what this looks like in terms of targeting
Next excersizes
My thoughts while using:
- Hmm, I want to get a full body workout, maybe spread across multiple sessions per week.
- Click on muscles? But... I'm not trying to do some advanced accessory lift. I need a whole body workout. Big compound lifts building a foundation of fitness and form for life. I guess I'll click on all the muscles...? Why am I even clicking on muscles? I'm not a professional who is targeting something. I just want to be healthy.
- Wow, it recommended 15 exercises for a single workout? That's.... insanity.
I'm guessing this is only intended to be a single-use workout tool for someone who is already doing a set routine with a bigger philosophy around it. "Oh it's an upper body pull day, I need this tool to figure out an example of 2 things I could fit into my existing routine" and not "Here's a weekly routine targeting multiple muscle groups with rest days and here's how to follow it". Perhaps the author of the tool thinks "routine" and "workout" are the same thing, but this is a workout tool, not a routine tool (a routine combines multiple workouts under a philosophy of achieving progress, and this tool just doesn't do that).
Looks nice but I don't need help customizing the fine details of my routine, I need something that actually understands routines at a higher level, and understands rest vs work across multiple work days to maximize results.
What it actually does is schedule (distribute) the desired muscle groups across days according to your specification of:
- volume: # sets to do on each workout day of that muscle group
- frequency: # days between workout days of that muscle group
I am afraid I do not have a website or write-up but the code is here: https://github.com/fabkury/caltre. I have been actually using this script for years and it has made my gym scheduling effortless. I can just focus on the "meta parameters", e.g.:
INPUT:
muscle group,`X sets per training day`,`train every X
days`
back,9,4
chest,9,4
quads,8,4
biceps,7,3
shoulder,6,4
abdominal,4,2
calf,4,5
anterior forearm,5,6
posterior forearm,5,6
day 1:
chest 9
biceps 7
day 2:
quads 8
abdominal 4
day 3:
back 9
calf 4
anterior forearm 5
day 4:
biceps 7
shoulder 6
abdominal 4
day 5:
chest 9
posterior forearm 5
day 6:
quads 8
abdominal 4
day 7:
back 9
biceps 7
day 8:
shoulder 6
abdominal 4
calf 4
day 9:
chest 9
anterior forearm 5
day X:
...
Criticisms: On the first page, I can barely tell if something is "selected" or not. Also, the exercises suggested are kind of...random. I've been lifting for a couple of decades, and I've never heard of a "Dumbbell Laying Silverback Shrug".
Overall, I think that this is a neat way for a near-beginner with analysis paralysis to get a list of suggestions for a WoD, and become introduced to movements that they haven't tried before. I think that it would be better reducing the specificity of movements to muscle groups, reducing the overall number of movements in the database, and focusing more on "movement patterns" (e.g. squat, hip hinge, push, pull, etc.)
This was created by the students I had supervised this fall. It is very similar catering to more TRX crowd, though Workout.lol has a very beautiful UI :)
As for exercise selection, it returns a lot of niche moves and exotic variants. Which makes it interesting but probably not a good fit for someone who would be most likely to use this app, ie. isn't an intermediate+ body builder already. Occasionally the recommendations are just bad (crunches).
Certainly a welcome addition for someone looking for variety though.
- Put heavy compound movements before isolation - tiring themselves before compounds is what I see a lot of beginners do.
- Consider encoding exercise selection in URL so it can be bookmarked/shared.
- Dip bars?
I wouldn't target weight lifting at all. These people already know everything. Most of them can't hold a horse stance for more than 30 seconds but they can squat with 200 lbs on their back. I used to be one of those people. All bulked up and weak as fuck.
Don't encourage people to lift weights until they can lift their own weight.
I don’t think just showing arm for ‘bodyweight’ is accurate. How about full body instead?
Btw, this might be useful for physical therapists (Not personal trainers, but the doctors who rehab you).
One minor thing, I didn't understand the behaviour of Pick button: https://webm.red/view/mUVG.webm
am I laughing at my workouts now?