Everyone is very complementary so can I be allowed to be the debbie downer? As a web app, it's neat! Functionally, not a fan as yet.
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.
Yeah, the idea is great ("what can you do with the equipment you have") but that also kinda promote a bit of fuckarounditis (https://leangains.com/fuckarounditis/) by asking the user "what muscle do you really wanna target", instead of emphasizing a better approach of lifting overall which is strong "functional" compound movements such as the big 6 (bench press / squat / deadlift / pull ups / rows / overhead press)
> I can understand you may not like the 'troll' / provocative way of writing tho, it's not for everybody
Not the other commenter, but some feedback: while I’m not a fan of the writing style, and I’m ok with that, my issue is really presentation and information density.
It takes a rather dedicated reader to find useful information in between paragraph after paragraph of ranting. And since I’m not skilled at lifting, I’m more interested in hearing what you think is useful than wading through a dozen ways to belittle what people are already doing.
I think you could increase your reach by making the problem/solution clearer. I’m just starting to dabble with weights, and I’m actively seeking good resources. I’m not inclined to add your blog to my research plan based on this.
Hoping this comes across as constructive and in the spirit it was intended.
I'm not the author of the article. But if you want a provocative answer:
In general your attitude is wanting easy shiny articles instead of really going deep in why and what works well or no, going past the writing style, especially when it's told by someone who is showing many results for him and others well... you kind of illustrate the point of people who end up with shiny and useless workout, don't eventually stick to the gym because "they don't feel like it" at some point.
No one really serious about sports (either lifting or martial arts) is going to spend more time pleasing you or make you feel better if you're not able to see that results speak for themselves. You have to be self motivated, it's not my job to do it. I've seen article mentionned at least 10 times as "best fitness article". If you don't like the style when it's one of the best articles, it's your problem, not the author's one.
But if you really want an answer for you if you are starting => just do the "starting strength" program. It's the simplest one and most effective. When you can bench 100kg in 3 months, you can read more about leangains.
Ahh, fair enough, I misinterpreted one of your earlier comments.
> In general your attitude is wanting easy shiny articles instead of really going deep in why and what works well or no
That's not what I want at all. I'm happy to go deep. I love long-form content. I'm starting to investigate weights after sinking hundreds of hours into Yoga fundamentals.
I'm just in the stage of deciding where I'll invest my time next, and what I'm calling out are what amount to pedagogical issues with the structure. Simply put, there are more effective ways of conveying the same level of depth by focusing on the structure of information. If you were the author, this would have been feedback. Since you're not, it sounds like I'm just trashing the article, which is not my intent.
I am by no means a professional, but from the time I have went down the rabbit hole, Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 method seems to be generally well-appreciated. (I remember having read the linked article as well).
But.. he is a terrible writer, his book is all around the place - so I absolutely agree with your general point. Some people simply suck at writing, even if the content might well worth sharing. Just hire a writer in this case! Fortunately there are shorter summaries of the method, so you don’t have to suffer through the book.
From experience it's really nice as a starter because
- at a low level strength is as much important as looks
- it's a lot more fun to carry heavy weight than do 100 curls with low weights
- it's a very quick routine. I got some results with 40min x 3 a week
Note that leangains is just not only strength trainign but a quite 'opinionated' diet based on Intermittent fasting on which I have actually strong doubts on the 'necessity', but which is defintely showing results
Starting strength is good but Rippetoe is very old school and the community has some cultish vibes. He is totally inflexible about any slight variation like high bar squats and trap bar deadlifts, which are great exercises and often better. His forums are not particularly friendly either. (Example: https://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/mark-rippetoe-q...)
I think stronglifts is generally a better program for beginners:
Been powerlifting for 15 years and I strongly disagree.
Stronglifts basically aped Starting Strength with minimal tweaks to justify separate branding, and only caught on over SS because of the slick app. Rippetoe has been coaching strength for many decades and was a competitive lifter himself, with his all-time PRs for squat and deadlift being a little over 600. He’s trained a network of coaches who command crazy prices for training because the cert is prestigious and incredibly difficult to earn. He was a key contributor to powerlifting and weightlifting components of CrossFit, until he (justifiably, imo) became disillusioned with the franchise. The Starting Strength book is an incredible resource for powerlifters, going into extreme detail into how to do the lifts, why, how to avoid getting injured, how to do your programming, and how to tell when you’ve outgrown Starting Strength. The forum you linked is actually an incredible resource where you can get free form feedback and general advice from the actual coaches (and Rippetoe), with no analog in the stronglifts community. (Is there even a stronglifts community?)
Mehdi, on the other hand… is some guy who made an app. He’s not even a particularly impressive lifter, and was a decidedly unimpressive one when he launched SL.
On the programs themselves: 5x5 is inappropriate for beginners. In no time at all you will hit a progression wall, and your workouts will take forever, where 3x5 could have continued without a hitch, for no upside. And despite the suggestion that more reps means more practice, the fact is that ESPECIALLY for beginners, doing a zillion reps in a state of fatigue is a great way to get hurt.
Barbell rows are such a poor substitute for power cleans that Rippetoe no longer recommends them at all, and the newest edition of the book expresses remorse for ever having made the suggestion.
But even putting all that aside, the most important part of SS is that it is essentially complete and will carry you for 6-9 months with no modification. Because as the commenter up the chain said, fuckarounditis is the most popular way to fail at getting strong. All the common complaints (“waah my biceps aren’t big enough”) are trivially addressed at the intermediate stage, once you’ve built a base of strength and a habit of training. This is why they are “cultish” about variations: you can do all that once you’ve run out your beginner gains. Until then, you don’t know what you’re doing and shouldn’t mess around.
Leangains is a relic of time. Martin Berkharn(the guy who made it) was a VERY prolific poster on the bodybuilding.com forums around 2005-2012 or something like that. The tone of his entire brand is born out of that forum and style of communication. You had to fight for your life on there if you wanted to communicate.
Leangains is a great resource. Do not let the tone distract from the content. The content there went mainstream much later(IF) especially so he was ahead of the curve.
An IF protocol with a daily energizer routine worked wonders for me.
But if you're asking "what can you do with the equipment you have" you might not be able to do the big six. What if you only have bodyweight and dumbbells?
Then it could be smart about recommending the next best thing.
For example -> Don't have a barbell but have adjustable DB's?
Replace Bench for DB bench
Replace Squat for goblet squat or split squat.
Replace OHP for DB OHP
Replace Deadlift for DB RDL
Replace Row for DB Row
Almost anybody can find something to hang off of for pull-ups so I'd say suck it up and find something.
Personally I would tell any new lifter that sure DB's and calisthenics work. But if you are one for optimizing/want the most gains in the least time, you NEED to find a barbell/squat rack at the very least.
A new lifter can literally put 200+ pounds on their squat/deadlift in 6 months or less. You will outgrow DB's pretty fast if you're really serious.
Note: I am an avid lifter and have been for 10+ years. You will rarely see somebody who is both natural and relatively big who does not focus on the big lifts, or at LEAST has a strength base built from the big lifts.
It's true ! But it's just a matter of 'fitness approach'. I never said the app was bad or even lying on its app, just that the approach is a bit ... suboptimal for beginners.
Like if someone download the app b.c. wants to do arms / pecs then this app will never tell him that squats are great in general. It's just a matter of approach.
Another approach could be "draw me a good workout with this gear" and you have the choice at most between "push" "pull" "legs" (a classic weekly split) or "general fitness" and it starts with a bunch of squats and then use the equipments.
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.
I don't care about proving it to you at all. There's thousands of bodybuilding ressources on the net if you're really interested, and the website I linked show a lof of before / after pictures.
And in reality it's not better than any other one that focuses on the big 6. What I like wit LG is that the idea is to be "very focused on what really matters" which is compound motions and reaching failure points. Personally I got results with 3x40 min workout per week, which is very small. And it's not just the workout, you have to follow a precise (natural) diet.
You say that "what really matters" is compound motions and reaching failure points, but there isn't any good evidence for that. If your goal is to get good at compound motion and reaching failure points, sure.
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.
I don't really think compounds save all that much time because the rest period required for them is so much longer than for isolation movements. If you prefer compounds, great (so do I), but there's been so much gospel online about them and I don't think it's substantiated.
Disagree. In the gp’s context, which I understand to be a new lifter skipping a set or superset due to time constraints, this is good advice. Simply performing the lift rep takes time, better to skip ten skull crushers than ten squats.
Rest matters a lot less when you‘re estimating rep x weight combos rather than dialed into rep counts that bring you within one of failure. An untrained lifter should be seeing gains so fast that the weight changes every week, in some cases they may not even be able to adjust in sufficiently small increments — for example progressing a 10lb bicep curl to 12lbs is only possible if you have a 12lb weight or +2lb accessory but jumping to 15 would be too much.
To this point, Renaissance Periodization has an app with similar functionality, but whose programming is MUCH more sane. And they’re some of the best in the biz. It costs though: https://go.rpstrength.com/hypertrophy-app.
If you’re new to lifting, you can just do starting strength and you’ll be fine.
I think this is a great tool for a long-time Gym goer who wants to quickly check out some new movements instead of what they have been doing for years, to get out of the rut. For example for the glutes and lower back I don't know many workouts, I just stick to 2-3 movements I know. I can quickly use this to just mix it up once in a while and add it to my repertoire gradually.
There are already many websites/videos where you can find lists of exercises by muscle group etc. - like MuscleWiki, from which all the exercises are drawn. I guess this is helpful if you want a simple UI with attached videos, but I share GP's concerns that it doesn't give new lifters any real guidance about putting things together, or allow much input on reps/weights.
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.
>For a beginner, they won't know it's dumb, so this is kind of harmful.
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.
This might actually get me to start working out, it's exactly the kind of resource I've been looking for. I'd wager you wouldn't say "no, keep not working out", right? If it gets people motivated to start, why not?
That can be true of almost everything, and most people agree with that general sentiment.
I think it's still ok to say "well the webapp might be better than literally not exercising at all, but here are problems with it". In this context, it's ok to offer that kind of feedback/perspective, without having to contend with the question of "is this better than not starting at all".
Having said all that, as much as I do want to encourage more people to exercise, and as much as I agree with the idea of "most things are better than nothing", there are still a few huge caveats to that statement:
1. If a program is too hard, e.g. causing a lot of soreness the day after, someone might quit after a week, instead of had they started with something more sustainable.
2. If a program causes injury, then someone is probably literally better off not doing that program.
3. If a program is too overwhelming in terms of what it contains, e.g. too many exercises, then someone might again, get overwhelmed and quit.
4. If a program is literally impossible for someone to perform (e.g. some people can't bodyweight squat), this can also be very discouraging.
Basically, there are a lot of mistakes one can make in the making a program for someone starting out. From the perspective of someone choosing a program, there's a lot of good beginner programs on the internet one can start with. From the perspective of critiquing an automated app for designing beginner workouts, I think it's totally valid to say "well hang on, here's a bunch of things that could go wrong, is this really the right approach?"
i have to agree. and i agree with other posters' sentiment of "who is this for?" hitting the randomizer on a bunch of exercises is just awful programming, full stop. the app is snappy and kind of novel, but i'm not exaggerating when i say this is one of the most pointless workout apps i've seen, and i've used a lot.
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.
I’ve known plenty of people who will ask 1,000 questions about lifting before ever going to the gym.
I think this app is great for people who are just getting into it, and want something that feels like a definitive answer.
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.”
I hope it is a start and something progressively more useful will be built on this. In addition to points you mentioned, I’d say my biggest item on the wish list is giving me the weight and reps progression over time. E.g. I put my age, weight, current RM and goals and get a schedule of major lifts and accessories that says do X for Y sets of Z reps with W weight this week and here is what you do next week etc.
Conversely, I'm a novely-a-holic and love trying out new, different, and obscure things. I also don't always go to the same gyms (there's about 3 ymca's equidistant to me, and they have different weight rooms with different machines and popularity). I also know some exercises but not a ton of variety. So it's hugely beneficial for me to see the different options available.
Same here, I got variations of the same exercise. Haven't lifted for nearly as long as you have, but in my limited experience the order I got was also sub optimal: started with ab exercises, ended with big compound lifts. It would be a good idea to order the exercises based on the amount/size/etc. of the muscle groups they use.
At the risk of sounding clueless, I think a good workout app can never be comprehensive and one-size-fits-all. I think they should be based around a clear and well-articulated philosophy and specific goals which lean towards highly opinionated.
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.
What an awesome execution. This app goes to show how you can build an excellent product even in a crowded market like Fitness. There must be gazillion workout builders out there, but OP's is the first one that I have seen which shows every exercise with example videos, and allows you to build exact workout you need without multiple google searches.
it is very well made.It gives me confidence that every vertical is up for grabs if you really pay attention to details and attack from your own unqiue angle. No softwre or solution is feature complete or done.
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...)
I do feel like most beginner/intermediate lifters with gym access would be better served just picking a standard full-body workout routine (e.g. GZCLP) and sticking to it. Figuring out which muscle groups you'd like to be targeting with specialized exercises is not something you should be doing as a novice.
Not sure exactly what you’re arguing here but I think I disagree quite a bit.
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.
I’ve clocked 4300 miles on my running app since 2011, after growing up hating running, so I’m aware of the grind. But there are different ways to run and some are more enjoyable to different people. I have to believe this is true in the lifting world as well.
If I would have told someone "I don't like running on the treadmill or on the track, it's super boring", the better response would have been to tell me that there are different ways to find enjoyment in running rather than just saying I should suck it up. For me, that was running in flat-ish urban-ish settings to take in the sights while signing up for an occasional race to give me something to work for. I never liked running in the rain so I just...didn't, unless I was on a training plan for an upcoming race or otherwise couldn't work around it. And so on.
For my lifting: variety, access to a sauna, and a public setting that allows me to watch and talk to other people have helped a lot. I'll see how far it carries me! (And I welcome more advice for making it enjoyable.)
Of course find what works for you, but 4300 miles even in your ideal setting ends up being discipline based over motivation. By that point you're running because you're supposed to run, not necessarily because you want to run. That's what I mean about lifting.
There's only so much novelty in a squat, so you have to find something beyond that. For me it was powerlifting, for others it's getting bigger, and others it's getting better in their sport.
Also, I deal with people and complex problems all day long. The gym is my retreat. I speak to no one and focus on the relatively simple task of picking up a weight.
Not sure I agree. At a point in my youth I ran 3000 miles in a year based on motivation (college competition, I was really motivated to keep the number one spot in the leaderboard).
I don't think of it as gate keeping at all. I'm being honest that anything you do for a long period of time becomes about discipline and not motivation. People say things to me like 'you must really like working out!' I don't think about it in a like not like way. It's just something I know is good for me and I do it.
And the reason I mentioned accepting the grind is because exercise is a life long activity. There is only so much novelty, so the faster someone finds the discipline to do it beyond novelty motivation, the better.
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).
I have found it essential to have a plan on the day. No thinking or deciding, just look at the piece of paper and it says do X 3x10 times, and you do it. Then look at the next thing to do.
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).
This is so incredibly important. As a beginner you can basically hit anything often enough and see progress. Once you hit intermediate and the gains slow down you really do need to walk in with a plan. The plan let's you not think and just work. Just working and not thinking, and basically just being told what to do (even if it is just telling yourself) let's you get through the workout repeatably, and with experiencing less of the grind. It also means you hit the body parts with incremental progressive overload in a planned and repeatable fashion, causing growth. And every 6-10 weeks you get the fun of changing it up.
And then there's the days where stuff doesn't quite work, but you have turned up anyhow. Those are days I chalk up to fun.
I've been using the Strong app to save workout templates (in a broad push/pull/leg framework) so I have a list of stuff to do each time, but if I'm bored with an exercise or (more typically) someone's been using the rack for 30 minutes and I need to move on, that's when I'll look for an alternative exercise. Apps like Strong or Fitbod or this new site are great in this scenario - can filter by what you have and will show you how to do it.
Variety can make the difference in motivation. If that's what you lack, then so be it.
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.
I'm stronger than I was six months ago. Seems like a good thing. If that stops being true, I can adjust later.
Variety has also helped me do weightlifting without injuring myself. I hurt my back pretty badly doing back squats, probably because I was leaning forward too far, probably because I was overcompensating due to quad dominance. Because of an app like this website I was able to discover and try different squat variants that are helping me fill out the core and glute muscles I was lacking. Again, seems like a good thing.
>But it's detrimental to a progressive/scienctific-like approach to lifting.
Uh, sources for that? As I powerlifter I have lifted with world class lifter who have a huge variations in their exercises. Bands,chains, boxes, pause/no pause, grip width, stance width.
Yes, of course a single exceptional exception makes it true.
The reason that works for a world class athelete is because they're extremely careful and persistent to periodize and have progressive overload.
Unless the commenter is an equivalent exception, it's bad advice to follow that, or any other, kind of advice from exceptional genetic folks.
It's very difficult to select the correct weight for an exercise when you're constantly changing it up.
What you're describing are simple modifications as a form of progression. Adding a band to a barbell bench press is still a barbell bench press. But going from barbell bench press, to weighted push up, to (incline|decline|flat) dumbbell bench, to iso lateral hammer machine, to smith, to (low, mid high) (cable, bench) flyes, to dips, to ... Is detrimental.
Most folks should try 12 weeks of the exact same exercise per body part with a RIR3, RIR2, RIR1, RIR0 cycle. (increasing weight each week and from cycle to cycle) . And most folks can do a reasonable selection of exercises for a year or two before they need to tweak for imbalance or personal details like insertions, or weaknesses.
Post proof that exercise variety is detrimental to achieving lifting goals. I'll concede that if you are competing in a strength sport, it is best to focus on the movements in that sport.
They’re likely just meaning it makes it harder to progressive overload. If you stick to a programme, you know it’s just about modifying weight, reps, rest, time under tension etc. But if you are changing exercises constantly, it can be difficult to know what weight or rep range will get the right results from that exercise since it’s not really comparable to another exercise.
Progress will _only_ be made with sufficient stimulus, and your body will rapidly adapt so the stimulus is not sufficient -- unless you do progressive overload (and ideally occasional deloads too)
“Just picking a standard full-body workout routine” - that’s the issue, I have no idea what the names of standard routines are or where to find them. I’d love to know several. I know none.
Like many things, knowing the name or term of what you’re looking for is the gateway - without that you’re stuck floundering.
Here's one that I came up with. Little science, but it's worked wonders on me.
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.
Please don't do SS as a beginner, unless you are sure lifting heavy is what you want and are positive you'll be able to get through setbacks.
Absolutely, read SS the book and apply its wisdom to corresponding lifts in the bodybuilding program you'll pick up instead. Then, once you are comfortable in the gym, slowly progress to add heavier lifts/sessions into your program. From there decide if you want to prioritize either.
The main problem with SS for me is that encourages you to push through extreme exhaustion, because weight resets are based on failure to complete reps, and completely ignore Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE). I got a lot stronger on SS, but the last few weeks were killer and ended with injuries for me.
I would describe it differently, but I share your general take. The main weakness of SS is that once it gets heavy you really need professional feedback, because your form will begin to deteriorate. This will happen regardless of the program. Still, I wish SS was more clear about it—most beginners are not gonna film themselves and ask for form checks online, and ought to seek a coach irl.
RPE wouldn’t work either because beginners don’t know how to judge. Everyone who squats heavy knows that a huge part of getting good at it is learning how to keep pushing safely, even as the lift becomes more and more psychologically challenging.
I agree in general, but not for beginners. If you’re some college kid whose idea of form comes from books and YouTube, odds are you’re doing something so wrong that you’ll tweak your back deadlifting or squatting long before you’re capable of overwhelming your work capacity.
starting strength was designed by a high school football coach who was trying to make high school athletes stronger. its a terrible framework for the average joe who wants to look better with their shirt off.
It's mostly BS. I followed one of the ones reddit swore by and got big legs but relatively smaller upper body. That might mean strength but it wasn't a good physique which is why most people workout.
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"
You can figure out the basics in a couple of hours of reading. You don't need to process it all at once. I started lifting with some dumbbells I found on the street and just practiced moving them around slowly with light weights attached while figuring out which muscles different movements activated, then searched for simple terms like 'dumbbell shoulder exercises'.
Absolute waste of time unless you are able to do dragon flags and hold a horse stance for more than a minute. People's hips and core are jelly and you are suggesting they start lifting weights?
>would be better served just picking a standard full-body workout routine (e.g. GZCLP)
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.
As humans we squat and dead lift all day. Every single person should learn how to do those two movements with some proficiency and intention. They should be part of basis of any weight program focused on health and longevity.
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.
That specific suggested program is a 5x3 with 85% effort. People following it will be lifting considerable percentage of their body weight very quickly. Without proper muscle control, joint conditioning, knowledge of how to deal with minor injuries etc. Good program with a trainer, ok for a highly motivated individual with strength goals, terrible for an average beginner.
>People following it will be lifting considerable percentage of their body weight very quickly.
That's what we call a benefit. The reason those people are suddenly lifting their body weight? They've gotten stronger! Deadlift from day 1, people. Your back will thank you. If you're worried about it, ask someone to check your form at the gym (most people are friendly!), or just post it online (I did this when I first started lifting).
Being able to bend over and pick something heavy up off the ground is a pretty fundamentally important human movement.
Not with weight on their back. You should seek professional advice for weight training. I learned that trainers don't even let people touch a bar for a year as they repair and strengthen their core. It's all body weight and PVC pipes to develop form.
Not trying to argue with you, but that sounds more like a rehab programme than a programme designed for someone who is fully able and just wants to start resistance training. The bar is generally a fine starting point for most people but smaller dumbbells could also be used if the bar was too heavy. Also, you should be squatting in a cage with safeties, which mitigates a lot of the risk when squatting. It absolutely should not take a healthy abled person a year to start squatting 20kg.
if your trainers aren't letting you touch weights for a year you need better trainers. form is important but perfect is the enemy of good enough. if you try and be absolutely perfect before progressing at all you'll never move an inch.
Unless you are elderly or disabled in some kind of way, if you can't survive putting a bar on your back and squatting, you are a weak (physically) human. I'm not joking.
I'm a man and know more about mens standards, but if you can't back squat at least 1x your bodyweight you are probably pretty weak. Similar for deadlift. And these are just bare minimums. Most humans are FAR more capable than this. Maybe just multiply these by 0.5 for a women just based on genetic strength differences.
You can start with the bar if you want, you will eventually learn through experience based on your body your form for squatting. And the internet as well as being able to record yourself are readily available for practically everyone. Given that you can definitely learn the basics of form without necessary needing a trainer.
These threads are always insane. You can pick up a bar the first day you step into a gym. The body is an adaptation machine. Apply stress. Adapt. Repeat.
A trainer spending a year "strengthening your core" is called theft.
I would say that weights that approach lifting levels are rare. Most stuff that weights a lot becomes too unwieldy to lift. Anything above that tends to be something you carry with multiple people.
Also, I would say that your grip is going to be a bigger liability in those situations.
Building muscle happens in the kitchen more than the gym. For stuff like squats, I agree a barbell squat for beginners is just to aggressive. Holding the bar alone is just uncomfortable until you develop significant back muscles to hold it off your spine. Theres plenty of squat variations though that don’t require moving a disk slipping amount of weight to get a good burn in your legs.
Compare a barbell squat to a bodyweight pistol squat. What does a beginner hitting failure look like with either? For the pistol squat you can’t get up and just maybe fall over 1 foot onto your yoga mat, or just use your other leg to balance and stand. The barbell back squat failure is absolutely ugly in comparison. You are down and can’t get up, maybe you try and push anyway with your back vs legs, thats a lot of weight supported by an out of form spine now, ooff. Knowing how and when to safely bail and drop weight out of an olympic lift is not something any beginner would just naturally know to do.
The injury rate for powerlifting (sport that does squat + deadlift + bench press) is extremely low, and those who do that as a sport are probably lifting way, way more than almost everyone reading these comments ever will.
This is why there is such a thing as a power rack/squat rack. You can fail completely safely with this equipment.
If you are an olympic lifter, almost everyone is taught how to bail these lifts from the beginning with the empty bar. Most people aren't and lift in racks built just to be able to safely lift heavy. Its on you if you don't actually set up the safety bars for yourself.
Failing safely in a squat rack means you know how to bail from the weight in a way to not further injure yourself. Thats not immediately obvious, like learning to fall in other sports. I know people who were in athletics, using the school squat rack with a coach, and still ended up with injuries. Not everyone sees an olympic lifting coach before trying olympic lifts at the gym, probably a very small percentage actually do.
Any way that you fall, the pins will catch the bar before it lands on you. Failing safely, for the most part, only requires knowing how to set up the rack and safety pins properly.
Even barring that, the injury rate in squatting is quite low compared to most other sports and athletic activities of similar intensity.
This strikes me as a general comment about workouts, not about this application specifically, correct? I see nothing to indicate this application is targeting novices in particular.
That's kinda the issue. Who does it target? You pick an equipment and a muscle, and it builds a workout with six exercises to target that one specific muscle. Your performance will suffer and it will take countless of gym sessions to go through the full body. Who would benefit from this workout?
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.
I disagree with you. Its over 10 years ago I medaled in an national powerlifting competition. Nowadays I just want to lift some weights, and have no intention of following a set program ad I have no end goals other than to keep healthy and fit. I'm pretty sure im not the only one who likes some variation without going full crossfit.
But you're not a novice, you clearly know what you're doing. I'm saying that somebody who's just starting out and doesn't know how to do a proper squat shouldn't be tinkering with their sets too much.
let's consider two movements: a deadlift and a prone hamstring curl.
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.
"Targeted" exercises tend to be body-builder type stuff which can only really be done with light weights. Instead, bigger compound movements like squat and deadlift can be incrementally trained leading up to much, much heavier weights and they train the body as an integrated whole.
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).
Lack of time is one of the biggest reasons people stop lifting. Standard full body programs are going to be more efficient time wise than picking muscle groups. For example, a program with a lot of rows and presses needs little to no biceps or tricep work.
If you are deep into powerlifting or have been lifting for 15 years, sure, there will be a noticeable difference between training for strength and training for hypertrophy.
The issue with most of those workouts is that they often incorporate „unhealthy“ exercises like squats (with weights) or situps. I find it really hard to find one that focuses on health rather than building muscle.
Sigh...squats considered unhealthy? A new lifter should be focused on form and technique for every weighted exercise.
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.
Building muscle is possibly the most healthy thing you can do. Within limits if course. But it ensures a framework arround your sensitive ligaments your body build becomes straight and symmetrical. All ingredients for a injury free life.
It should be
mandatory for everyone to exercise 3 times a week and build up some muscle. Just like the good old cave days.
Squats are not unhealthy. They are probably the single most useful exercises you can put your body through: high exertion activity for your largest muscle groups means it's a better calorie burner than most people's cardio routines, they work out your core and other stabilizing muscles, which helps you not hurt yourself anywhere else in the gym, and they (in conjunction with deadlifts) build the muscles human beings actually use to move heavy objects.
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.
If you are new to lifting, you probably shouldn’t be handling weights that can damage your lower back and knees. You will learn the correct form as you progress. Ego is more dangerous than squats.
This is why bodyweight or lower weight squats like goblet are safer. Failure with bodyweight squat doesnt put you out two months. Very easy to add too much weight in the squat rack. Asking beginners to know good form on day 1 squatting means they need a trainer.
i've seen this mentality floating around and i don't quite understand it. i think the real problem is this sense of competition and machismo where new lifters feel like they have to be good at it on day one and can't employ a little humility and patience to work on their mobility. these movements are essential and it blows my mind the excuses people will make not do do them.
to anyone here who routinely jumps to one plate without warming up and struggles to hit depth: know that i pity you, but you can still back off and get good at these movements if you really care.
Not unless you chuck a whole lot of weight on inappropriately. The advice for almost all newbies is to start with the bar. Even then they could put some weight on and still not be at any risk at all. The issues don't show up for quite some time with inappropriate form, or u til quite a bit of weight is put on prematurely. Starting off with dome youtube videos is just fine. Getting help when you eventually want to progress further and get more serious is recommended.
That's absurd, like saying "You can walk a mile and improve faster than running a marathon" is absurd. To anyone who isn't out of shape to the point of immobility, body weight squats are barely exertion.
Just came here to say this, as someone who is visiting gyms for nearly 2 decades now and who has failed several times in launching whatever-fancy-app-product:
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)
This is awesome. Exactly what I want. Equipment, muscle group selection, simply ui, autoplay straight to the point videos - nothing between me and working out. It’s pretty much the perfect UX for me because anything that’s not aimed doing the work turns me off. Thank you!
Really great! The way of filtering by equipment available, and then body part is nice and intuitive.
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.
I'd like to echo the sentiments about this app not providing enough guidance, and also ask the HN community a question: is there an app out there that does provide lots of guidance?
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?
I found it’s a form of jargon, and once you know more about the field, it becomes much clearer.
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.
The fitness industry runs on the idea that you need a hundred variation of exercises to get fit. The truth is, you don’t need really more than a dozen. There are the five or six boring core lifts that everyone knows, and then maybe a handful of accessory exercises to hit some specific areas, and that’s it.
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.
Good idea! Actually, I already have data for yoga in my database - I just didn't add it because I wasn't sure if it's possible to generate random yoga workouts or if they need to follow an order to make sense
I'm sure a lot of yoga instructors would cringe at this comment. Yoga routines generally start out with same few basic warm up moves, they generally focus on a particular area of the body, working up to more difficult poses as the routine goes on, and end with some lighter stretching to cool off, most typically finishing with savasana (aka lying down on your back).
You could probably algorithmically generate routines like this, but I wouldn't suggest a randomly generated one for best results (or safety). There's a few really good instructors on YouTube, and I'd personally recommend looking there if you're after a thoughtfully composed routine to follow.
The site is missing warmups in general, and would be a good addition. Perhaps there some warmups would only be for specific exercise types. E.g. yoga warmups for yoga moves.
Hey author! Please don't be discouraged by negative feedback here. This is legitimately a great app and it'll only get better as you fine tune it over time. Thanks for your efforts and keep going!!
Thanks! The beginner / intermediate / advanced selection is available on the screen where you select the muscles. Adding warm-ups and stretching rountines is on my list :)
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?
As someone completely inexperienced with exercise, the biggest drawback about this app is asking what muscles I want to focus on.
_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.
Probably all of them on average then, but especially big groups, core, and erector muscles. Most humans who have to hit the gym in order to stay fit spend too much time sedentary. They need back and core strength to prevent back issues later in life, glute, hamstring, quad and calf to keep legs strong and mitigate knees doing weird things.
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.
No joke the /r/fitness wiki/FAQ is one of the best straightforward guides for new-to-fitness people out there. Mainly, I think, because it's not trying to sell you anything.
As other folks have noted, this is a nice web app, but not well-suited for coming up with a real training plan that meets an individual's health goals.
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.
Definitely open to contributions, but I'll note that the barebones nature is mostly by design. I'm happy to take any usability improvements (of which I can imagine many!), but I don't want to introduce dependencies on design/component frameworks or even CSS libraries.
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.
This is great. Chapeau.
It's a little strange to select the muscle group one wants to target, what about a few primary and secondary dimensions such as explosiveness, endurance, strength, fat loss or aesthetics. Some way to more broadly describe what one is trying to accomplish.
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 how much time I have
Next equipment that I have
Next a visual representation on the skeleton of what this looks like in terms of targeting
First off, this is an amazing app as others here have already mentioned–congratulations for launching!
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 :)
IMHO "body weight" should be preselected in the "equipment I have available" input. Not sure of a situation where I would be capable of working out, but not have access to my own body weight.
Wheelchair bound would be capable of some workouts, but not all body weight.
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.
Agreed. I'd love to see some calisthenics/ functional training repertoires here. For now, I stick to darebee.com database (I like their PDFs) or free plans from fitnessblender (I like their videos)
You might do well to clarify that you use MuscleWiki content with permission.
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.
Thanks for the feedback! I will think of a better wording.
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 looks cool but I find it kind of hard to use.
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.
The UX is efficient to get started. I would also like to have something similar for office ergonomics, like stretching your back or neck when taking a break from the 'puter.
I wrote an R script to help me generate my own workouts.
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
The goal is to avoid having some days at the gym be huge (many exercises) while others are small (fewer exercises). The script uses simulated annealing to try to even out the schedule as much as possible.
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
OUTPUT:
It tells you what to do on each training day, as many days you want (it is an "infinite roll"). Here are 9 days to exemplify:
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:
...
Great execution! A nice-looking, functional app. I got myself a suggested workout plan with very little effort.
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.)
Very well done. It would be good if the video pop-overs were a bit larger by default (even double the size) as on my resolution screen they're pretty small. One of the videos was face-on (mountain climber) so I couldn't see really what was going on with the legs.
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 :)
If you don't mind, can I ask why you use plain JavaScript rather than TypeScript?
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).
Not the OP, but I still start most of my projects without TypeScript, especially if I'm working on it by myself. I do appreciate TypeScript, and I will happily use it in any bigger project or when I have collaborators. But there's just something that I really enjoy about being able to start a project without any build steps or installing stuff. I love to be able to just jam out some code and open a file in a browser to run it, or rsync it to my server and share it with my friends.
Sure. To be honest, it's mostly because of laziness. I'm more used to plain JS than to TypeScript, so I'm faster this way.
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.
Great app from the UX/UI perspective. The progression from saving in the browser and only requiring an account later is very nice as well. Perhaps the only thing missing is a start over button.
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.
Nice work and pleasant to use.
One improvement idea I have after getting to the exercise list is to add a warmup routine for the chosen muscle groups. Before beginning the exercices.
Very nice to be able to look up body weight exercises and get a short video instantly. Very nice.
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.
- 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.
Great execution! Thanks for sharing. I wonder if you'd thought about integrating with wger [0], i.e. exporting the workouts from your app and creating it there.
Search on sleep apnea and neck size. Your neck can be strong, actually, it's just that past a certain size your risk increases. That may not be a problem for you.
This is great. I like the no-nonsense design, I especially like the inline-approach in the video, where it kind of just pops up. I was afraid it would be a link, but turned out to be very smoothly integrated video, only slightly interrupting flow.
The suggested exercises seem rather targeted to gen-pop or general fitness. Feature request: have workouts that target based on goals - i.e. power, strength, aesthetics, endurance, etc. and attribute them accordingly.
What a great webapp, so simple and good. Love that it is straight to the point, choose what you have to work with, what you want to work on and boom there is the exercises with an added film - go work out. Toying with the idea of putting up a screen with this in my home gym so friends and family easily can get a program for when they come to workout.
I love it! There are a few bugs though. If I select a set of equipment and proceed until I get the exercises, but then go back and change the equipment, it doesn't seem to update itself.
Thanks! I just found later that MuscleWiki also has videos of women (not sure if they have it of all exercises though). I want to add an option to choose the video format in the future :)
Just a casual +1 on this request, and thanks for the great website. I would also request a "I am not sure" option for the which muscles to train at the start.
Very cool but it shows me workouts requiring a pull up bar when I said I don't have it (only selected body weight and dumbbell then chose biceps and back)
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.
I think software (or a service) won't be the solution to your problem. I know some people are trying to solve this with gamification or accountability apps, but in my experience those only work short-term because they don't address the core issues responsible for the lack of motivation, although I'm sure they help establish good habits in some cases.
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.
Will you be able to elaborate on this? How would a service check if you arrive at the gym, and even if it does how will that motivate you to go to the gym.
I noticed that workout.lol was scraping data from there. The website itself says that it's fine to re-use the data but I was imagining more a SQL database with an explicit license etc.
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'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.