
Show HN: HackerBody – A Geek’s Guide to Getting in Shape - g0atbutt
http://hackerbody.com
======
acconrad
As a hacker who enjoy fitness and lifting weights, the message "'meat head'
free" tainted my impression of this site, as if my way of working out was bad.
I happen to be someone who doesn't want "muscles on muscles on muscles" but I
am also someone who works at a desk 8 hours a day and wants to stay healthy,
and trust me, even lifting heavy weights 3 times a week does not turn you into
some freak of nature.

That said, I'm really not even sure what the value add is here for bodyweight
videos: they've been done so many times over, and with the recent popularity
of the 7 minute workout[1] I just don't see what you're trying to bring to the
table that is specifically "for hackers" other than the marketing appeal.

My suggestion would be to offer something that appeals uniquely to your hacker
audience that isn't found elsewhere. Off of the top of my head, hackers are
"lazy" (in that we aim to optimize and remove redundancy) and are convinced by
science, so if you can prove that your videos are shown to be efficient,
effortless (meaning everything but the workout is taken care of for you), and
that it delivers marketable results, then I think you might have something.

[1] [http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/the-
scientific-7-mi...](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/the-
scientific-7-minute-workout/)

~~~
g0atbutt
Acconrad, I appreciate your thoughts on the tagline, "meat head free". My goal
was to appeal to people who aren't already doing something active. HackerBody
isn't the end-all in being active but it's a great place for people to get
started.

The videos are just the tip of the iceberg. I wanted to get this launched and
get feedback before I push out new features.

Thanks for taking time to give me your feedback!

~~~
acconrad
I liked your work with Startup Foundry so I was excited to see this, and I'm
sure you're using many tried-and-true entrepreneurial principles to get this
off the ground. But the psychological UX needs to focus on the positives and
the benefits people will experience. That does not mean you have to achieve
that by ostracizing people who enjoy working out, or by convincing people who
don't work out that if you do work out you'll become a meat head.

------
pokstad
What makes a fitness program hacker friendly? That's basically reinforcing
some stereotype that all coders belong to this fraternity of brothers. We
don't. We are professionally programmers, but once I step outside of my job I
am no longer a programmer. Fitness shouldn't be targeted at a specific
profession, instead it should be targeted at people who work in similar
conditions. Office jobs vs programmers, which makes more sense to target?
There's way more people working office jobs with health issues from sitting,
but the converse isn't necessarily true about programmers. A programmer might
not work in an office, they might work at some hip startup with exercise
equipment everywhere. My employer has it's own gym with personal trainers, but
I doubt most small non-engineering offices do. You're going to hurt the bottom
line by using a "hacker" tagline to sell this service.

~~~
jplarson
A business needn't go for as broad a market as they could, and is often
rewarded by targeting (and really resonating with) a narrow niche.

Due to the name I immediately felt right at home, that this was totally for
me. "Feel Better. Code Better. Level Up."? Heck yeah, speaks right to me.

I signed up without hesitation and enjoyed a nice 26 minute break from coding.
Something aimed at "office workers who sit all day" likely wouldn't have
gotten that response from me.

(And if the "hacker" tagline really does end up weighing down this venture,
spinning off a rebranded version or two for other niches could quickly solve
that problem.)

~~~
Cakez0r
The idea of a pragmatic plan to get in shape appealed to me as a programmer,
but I read this kind of language and cringe:

"Feel Better. Code Better. Level Up."

"Being healthy will make you a better programmer."

I think the "hacker" market can be captured without being so patronizing.

~~~
grrowl
> "Being healthy will make you a better programmer."

This resonates with me more than "...Level Up.", because it's true. When I was
working out my whole body worked better, including my brain, so I appreciate
that angle in the marketing.

------
nate_martin
On your registration form, you are sending passwords over plain http.

[http://my.hackerbody.com/membership-account/membership-
check...](http://my.hackerbody.com/membership-account/membership-
checkout/?level=1)

------
sinak
My feedback: I'd love to see some examples of the kinds of workouts the
service sends before signing up.

~~~
g0atbutt
That's a great point. I'll implement that.

------
jmbmxer
No HTTPS on login or signup pages? You lost me at hello.

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Ayaz
At work, I get a lot of heat for being the one and only guy who is never
around on the seat. It's turned into a favourite joke on me with a number of
people. Despite that, I don't mind it one bit -- in fact, I joke about it
myself. I have made it a point not to sit on a chair in front of a computer
continuously. I take breaks quite often. I stand up and work/read. I roam
around the office, spend time with people from other departments, discussing
things, solving issues, etc. I learned early on how detrimental a geek's
profession is to their health and body. Not only your eyes, wrists, and your
back, but your entire body is at risk. As we read so often, our bodies were
never made to be forced to remain in a sitting posture for a considerable
length of time. Obviously, it didn't descend on me from nowhere. I learned the
value of proper ergonomics and proper health management the hard way. Bad eye-
sight, headache, migraines, yadda yadda. But I'm glad I learned it before
things got out of hand.

I also try and follow a 7-minute workout routine every morning. Apart from
that, I'm an active tennis player -- although, after having joined a work-
from-office job (since a year), I've been getting less time to be on the
courts than I'd like.

------
cheez
As a "geek", I can vouch for the bodyweight fitness that this guy is
recommending. The toughest part is working out regularly. The main benefit of
choosing BWF is that you can literally do it anywhere. I even did it on
vacation. The things I've found that help are:

1\. Subscribe to fitness-related forums on reddit or find friends with whom
you can compete. Huge motivational boosts here.

2\. Try not to let yourself get depressed when you have weeks upon weeks of
really tough work with no end in sight. This happened to me recently and I let
go of my habits which I had built up over months. It's seriously killing me
and my mood is suffering. It's a vicious cycle.

3\. Eat well. Doesn't mean eat like a rabbit (you'd be surprised, you don't
even need to eat remotely like a rabbit.) Like Scooby said in his videos: eat
a little less, exercise a little more and lay off the carbs.

In as little as one month, people noticed the difference to the point where
they said I appeared even more intimidating than usual (I'm pretty tall). I
want to get to the point where I do this continuously for at least one year.
But man, is it hard.

~~~
oneandoneis2
Weeks? You mean years! :)

I actually find the "no end in sight" aspect of BW work to be really helpful:
I don't have to worry about what happens when I "run out" of exercises, there
will always be another progression: Pullups are getting too easy? Try one-arm
pullups. Pushups getting too easy? Work on handstand pushups.

etc. etc.

The important thing is to ensure that you feel like you're making progress on
each workout: Adding reps, moving to a harder version, or just improving form.
Stagnating is an absolute killer.

~~~
cheez
Great points :)

But I was referring more to work-work, like coding...

------
dangowango
What's wrong with meatheads? As if getting in Bodybuilding-shape didnt require
the same dedication as programming. I'd even say true bodybuilding is far more
demanding than being a programmer. Not necessarily requiring as much math, but
nobody in his right mind would compare against that.

Also, this program will not help you get in shape.

------
arikrak
There are 5 fields to fill out to sign up? At the very least, provide a
Facebook or other one-click sign in option.

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kdevrou
It's a nice start although it is hard to tell without signing up. There needs
to be more available prior to committing.

Not sure where your TOS came from but there seems to be a lot of focus on free
trial that moves to a subscription after 30 days. This is a valid choice for a
business model but it seems like it will limit your growth.

From a technical standpoint it looks like some of the routes for authenticated
users are available to unauthentic folks like me. Also, ssl is a requirement
even for early stage projects, pick one up asap.

All that said, you o have a nice bootstrap based layout that looks nice which
is more than many projects have.

Lastly, being from Grand Rapids I do like the 'Made in the Mitten – By geeks,
for geeks.' slogan.

------
oneandoneis2
Lost my interest at "A New Workout Every Day" \- that's the antithesis of
useful training:

"Exercise is physical activity for its own sake...Training is physical
activity done with a longer-term goal in mind...random exposure to a variety
of different movements at different intensities...is Exercise, not Training,
since it is random, and Training requires that we plan what we are going to do
to get ready for a specific task." \- Mark Ripptoe

It also removes the ability to accurately track progression, which is
something that tends to matter to the geek with a fitness app. AKA your target
market.

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mightybyte
As a hacker who codes all day and likes to understand how things work, I don't
find this particularly enticing. I'm not particularly interested in paying for
something when I don't even know what I'm going to get, how it works, what
it's track record is, etc. Furthermore, you're going to have a tough time
competing with all the stuff I can get for free or the much more well known
things that I can pay for.

~~~
g0atbutt
HackerBody workouts are 100% free. We require people to make an account
because we're launching some really cool stuff soon that requires one.

~~~
high5ths
It would be great if you said this somewhere prominently before needing to
sign up for an account. Once I saw the "refund" section near the top of the
Terms and Conditions, I closed the window, assuming that you'd be asking for a
credit card number.

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eglover
Are the videos necessary, how about photos and a timer for low
bandwidth/speed? Just a though. ;)

~~~
nbody
I'm on the opposite side, several times I tried apps that give only 3-4 frames
per exercise and sometimes (if they are not shoot with an appropriate angle)
they are not enough to make clear what you have to do.

~~~
eglover
[http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3575489574](http://www.speedtest.net/my-
result/3575489574) 250MB/day limit.

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kordless
As a fellow weight loss geek, I recommend dropping gluten and milk from your
diet.

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zrail
Out of curiosity, where in Michigan are you based?

~~~
g0atbutt
In Holland, MI (30 min from Grand Rapids).

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jkscm
Why do you show different exercises everyday? Technique is important
especially for bodyweight exercises.

How can you call it "HackerBody" when bodyweight exercises are so much less
effective than Weight lifting?

~~~
nbouscal
[citation needed]

There are pros and cons to bodyweight and free weight depending on the desired
outcomes. Neither strictly dominates the other.

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buckbova
Will there be an API for this?

~~~
g0atbutt
Eventually it's possible. Building the core first.

