[chris_st]

Looks good, good luck with it!

I know for me I'd get pretty bored with doing just one thing (here, boxing, Peloton bike riding, etc.), even if the online "experience" varies things.

Also, while it's good for burning calories, it's just hitting (har!) one set of muscles. I'm doing a broad range of exercises through a streaming video service, including various weights/resistance training, and a yoga/tai-chi/pilates class that's really improved my balance.

So, for me, variety is something to shoot for.

Congratulations on the successful kickstarter!

[douglaspaul]

Thanks! After the past few months with our heads down it's been so great to share what we've been doing with the world!

Variety is absolutely something to shoot for. Personally I've always been big on 'adventure' sports - I find that the distraction from the fact I'm working out allows me to have fun, and still stay (reasonably) fit! Not so easy to do when I'm back around home though - all these activities require time away...so building Quell allows for a more exciting workout whilst staying indoors (something that became a lot more relevant this year!)

One thing to note is that whilst the Gauntlet delivers resistance to upper-body motions, boxing is very much a full body workout. We're exploring a few different ways to maximise the core and lower-body elements of this within the game, but this is no case of skipping leg day!

Which streaming video service are you using? Any key parts of it that you think make it stand out against everything else you've tried?

[chris_st]

Les Mills on Demand. I did the Les Mills classes at the gym I was a member of, before the plague hit, and liked the fact that they change up the workout and music every couple of months. The instructors at the gym unofficially redid the workouts, using old individual tracks/workout-sets so I never got bored.

With streaming, they have (literally) dozens of workout routines, at various time lengths, in eight or ten categories of work out types (straight weights, cross-training, a few kinds of aerobics, yoga fusion, barre, dance, more I can't remember :-). So when I get bored with a particular routine, I can easily switch to another.

On the iPad, you can download the routine so you don't need to worry about stream buffering (which has never been an issue on other devices, but I have fairly fast internet service).

It's ~$11/month (buying three months at a time) subscription, and I spent about $180 or so in equipment, so it's similar to the outlay for your service.

Again, congratulations on the launch, quite interested to see what you do in the future!

[chris_st]

If you're still reading comments :-) I remembered a few other things Les Mills does that are great.

They have a lot of training videos, several for each class of exercise they do. They're in-depth, and really show you the form.

They add tips to the actual work-outs, so you're constantly reminded of good form.

They have alternatives to most of the exercises, so you can modify them if you have (e.g.) knee problems, or aren't up to full push-ups, etc.

They do good cool-down routines at the end of most videos, and have a number of cool-down-only videos you can watch for the others. Not everyone thinks highly of post work-out cool-down/stretching, but a lot of the people who seriously study exercise recommend it.

[douglaspaul]

Ah a Les Mills fan! I have several friends who love the training too, although I haven't heard much about the on-demand stuff until now. Thanks for sharing it!

How has the community element of LM translated to their app? Do you still have ways of engaging or competing?

[chris_st]

As far as I know, there's no competing in the app; can't say I've explored every crevice but I haven't seen it.

There is a Facebook group (which I haven't joined) which is, I gather, more supportive than competitive. They do videos every once in a while where they get their trainers/directors to either discuss techniques or answer Q&A. It's support-oriented.