
Show HN: PeerGym – A Health Club Database Made with Elixir/Phoenix - acconrad
http://www.peergym.com/?
======
acconrad
I finished up the first round of my side project: PeerGym
[http://www.peergym.com](http://www.peergym.com) let's you search for quality
gyms in your area by membership price and amenities - the kinds of things
services like Google Maps and Yelp don't do. Most people do a particular kind
of workout (running, weights), and need special equipment (treadmill,
barbells), and you can't always guarantee you'll know what you're getting just
by the name and a few pictures.

It was mostly an excuse for me to learn Elixir and Phoenix. I've tackled auth,
uploads, geolocation/geospatial DBs, SSL and more, so it's been a lot of fun
and hopefully I can turn this into some sort of tutorial series on building
out a real-world app.

For the future I want to add reviews, community edits, and advanced filters to
make them easier to search and populate. And hopefully, accept payments if
people want to buy passes to their gyms online (or automatically renew their
memberships.

~~~
pbreit
I think it's a nice project, well executed and sorta scratches an itch. I
think if you actually want to try to get some usage, you're going to really
have to put your business/growth hat on and really try and understand why
people would use it, how they're going to find it, one or 2 key "wow"
features, etc.

~~~
nemild
It seems like the focus is more to get one's feet wet with Phoenix/Elixir
(especially as the OP refers to a tutorial series he wants to write) - not
making this site into a wildly successful business

~~~
pbreit
And that's totally fine (sort of). But sounded like author wanted to take it
further.

------
joshstrange
Are people supposed to be able to contribute to this? I'd love to update the
info on the gym I go to (Price/equipment/etc) but I don't see a way to do so.

~~~
acconrad
Yes! I wanted to have community edits available by the end of the week, but
it's been a crazy week for me (I'm a competitive powerlifter and I have a full
time software development job) so it's not out yet. If you sign up on the site
I'll let you know as soon as that feature is available, or hit me up
personally at team@peergym.com and I'll let you know when you can edit your
gym's info!

------
orliesaurus
When you have no gyms nearby you get an error msg: "SORRY BRO..." <\- so if im
not a bro but a brolady what do I do besides complain?

~~~
theseatoms
"Bro" is gender-neutral, as far as I'm concerned.

~~~
ksenzee
If "bro" is gender-neutral, I'm pretty confused about that whole "bros before
hoes" thing.

~~~
theseatoms
"Prioritize your friends ahead of your sexual pursuits."

------
grardb
How do gyms make it into the database? I'm looking at where I live (Brooklyn),
and almost every single gym listed is a CrossFit gym. There are a considerable
number of missing gyms.

Otherwise, this is awesome. I work out at home now, but when I was looking for
a gym a while back, it was extremely annoying. New York is especially bad
since most gyms are small and/or prioritize cardio equipment and weight
machines as opposed to free weights. Anything with more than one squat rack is
in Queens and/or has a huge price tag.

~~~
acconrad
So the original idea for this was that I wanted to find quality gyms in my
area with vast arrays of equipment. I specifically disregarded globos like
Planet Fitness and WorkOutWorld, which have shady contracts and terrible
policies.

So my initial feed was the 3500+ Crossfit gyms, plus an additional 600-700
powerlifting, weightlifting, and strongman gyms across the country. I knew
these places would have great equipment, great staff, and the amenities
fitness enthusiasts would need to get in a great workout.

That said, as you can see, Crossfit dominates more than 80% of my current
results. If you sort by Price you may find a smaller, niche gym in your area
that will likely be much cheaper and will accommodate your workout type.

------
weego
What does it matter what it's built in if it's not an open project?

First issue. I click an icon on the right yet the menu it controls opens on
the left.

~~~
overcast
Often times people are curious on what it's built with. It was one of the very
first questions asked when I showed my recent project.

------
DrScump
Some suggestions:

1) signup: state your password constraints up front, and when a chosen
password doesn't qualify, the "oops" message overlays the email address. Then
rather than have the "Your account was created" in tiny type at top, have it
overlay the "Create your free account" button.

2) having signed up, there is no indication of where to go; there is no sign-
in directive. (Note: the _Google map_ has its _own_ sign-in button which could
get confused for your site sign-in. And I received no emailed confirmation.

3) Aside from Crossfit, the only nearby gyms that show have very little data
to show _why_ they qualify,

e.g. [http://www.peergym.com/gyms/catalyst-
athletics](http://www.peergym.com/gyms/catalyst-athletics) has almost no data,
yet it qualifies, while 24 Hour and Gold's do not

4) rather than a blanket "who's best" concept, you might consider having
categories. Somebody looking for Olympic lifting will not want a conventional
gym, and vice-versa. Maybe something like:

\- bodyweight exercises (martial arts, yoga, aerobics studios

\- "basic" gyms (some cardio equipment, perhaps weight machines, and at least
dumbells or kettlebells)

\- "common" chain-type gyms like 24 Hour or Gold's that have a lot of cardio
equipment, machines, and free weights but not necessarily an Olympic or
Powerlifting platform

And searchable by feature set, e.g.

\- showers and lockers

\- instructor-led group classes, like spin classes

\- childcare

\- pool

\- spa

etc.

(I'm not saying you should _recommend_ chain gyms, but they do have the basics
that satisfy a majority of patrons... crowdedness aside)

------
zachshefska
This is great.

Reminds me of my first node/angular project
[http://gymnear.com/](http://gymnear.com/)

~~~
acconrad
Cool! I like that project, how did you source your feeds - directly from
Google Places?

My data is sourced in-house specifically because I didn't want to include
globos that had crappy policies or insufficient equipment.

~~~
zachshefska
Yeah exactly, all the data is provided from Google Places API. I had hopes of
somehow tying in other API's (facebook, yelp, etc.) to get more data (mainly
reviews) for the different gyms. But, configuring the database for that was
over my head at the time.

I think the idea of having an in house database that users could add
information (type of gym, type of equipment, etc.) could be very powerful.

Your project seems to be heading down that route. I would love to help
contribute!!

------
molecule
Clicking on 'Price' under 'Sort by' results in the error message:

> Sorry bro! We couldn't find any gyms in your area, so head up to search bar
> and try again.

when there are gyms displayed for same area when sorted by location

edit: looks like it's triggered when area's gyms don't have any associated
prices

~~~
acconrad
This is correct! You're likely in a smaller demographic where I don't have a
lot of price information. I haven't fully fleshed-out how I want to handle
this, originally I wanted to order by any that had a price (lowest to
highest), and THEN show the remaining gyms which have no price info (as by
default they are listed at 0 dollars in the DB, I think).

~~~
molecule
Not displaying 'Price' as a sort option, or no sort options, in this case,
would solve the problem and be good UX.

------
tixocloud
We're building a real estate research tool to help people find the right home
based on their lifestyle.

This could be really interesting for us if ever there's traction. I'm
particularly interested in ratings and reviews and the filtering capability.

~~~
pmatev
If you like this, you might be interested in my current startup Membi
[https://membi.co](https://membi.co). It's a similar tool, for discovering
sports and fitness venues in your local area. We're currently based in London,
UK but growing quickly. Happy to have a chat if you want to know more.

~~~
tixocloud
Just checked it out and agree that it's interesting. Are you guys focused on
UK venues only?

~~~
pmatev
For now yes, but will be hopefully be expanding to other locations in the near
future

------
steveeq1
I keep on hearing about Elixir/Phoenix. What is the advantage of putting this
on Elixir vs something like Rails or Laravel?

~~~
legutierr
You get the whole Erlang VM and toolchain. So, improved scalability, faster
runtimes, compiled code...

This discussion fleshes out some of the benefits:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9427371](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9427371)

------
kennydude
For me up in the North of England, I only get two gyms. Both are in London
which is not feasible in the slightest to get to.

~~~
acconrad
My apologies! Most of the 4300 or so gyms are located in the US (where I'm
based) so unfortunately I don't have a very vast network at the moment, but if
you let me know where in north England you are I can see if I can find a few
for you! Sign up and send me a message at team@peergym.com and I'll get you
hooked up!

~~~
kennydude
Newcastle-upon-Tyne

