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by sen 775 days ago
I’ve wanted a super minimal app that just “counts reps of any repeating motion” without using the phone itself, for many many years.

It’d work for pushups, squats, chinups, etc etc. So many exercises are the same idea of “move body repeatedly”.

I don’t want my phone in my pocket while doing it, I like having my phone in front of me while I do pushups/situps/chinups/etc so I can see the timer/stats.

I’d happily pay for an app that could do that and just let me tag what each one was to add to a log.

6 comments

Garmin watches do that.

I'm mostly doing dips pushups pullups and abs, and it counts each rep.

The simplest form is starting a generic strength activity, where pressing the lap button moves to "rest" and displays a quick optional "Hey I counted this, fix the count" thing before resuming to the next exercise with the lap button. Once you're done with your workout and it synced to the phone both each exercise type and reps can be fixed after the fact.

You can also set up more structured, scripted workouts with exercises known beforehand, which slightly improves rep counting (otherwise it's very generic and approximate)

Garmins are amazing! They are pretty much the de facto equipment for fitness.
I wish I didn't have to start activities with my garmin fenix. I would like it to just prompt me "I've noticed it appears you just went for a walk, confirm yes/no"

When I enter an activity such as weight lifting it seems to be able to infer what exercise I performed, it seems like it should be able to infer when I am going for a run or a walk.

Seems like it does for walking/running/cycling, they appear as icons on various graphs X (well, T, for time) axes... but there's no way to turn it into an actual activity after the fact.

Might have to do with the fact that during an activity it's actively tracking, full sensors blaring (notably HR) whereas otherwise it's lazier to save battery.

Still, I agree it'd be nice to have the option to either auto-create after the fact, or auto-start (and stop) live, or both.

For Garmin watches, auto activity tracking is under Settings > Activity Tracking > Status On. This shows up in Garmin Connect under graphs such as Body Battery, Heart Rate, etc. These auto tagged items don't show up as discreet activities and will not show up in other systems like Strava.

This is on the Forerunner 945 and will auto tag things like walks, runs, and cycling.

I have a Garmin and didn’t realize this is how it works. Thanks!
Someone else mentioned garmin has the feature, but it's finicky enough that for me it's just easier to write on phone. Sometimes I wish there was a casio calculator watch for logging/syncing lifts.
On this topic, what do you use for logging?

I use Strong. It’s free to log and works perfectly. It costs to get all the graphs and I found it to be too expensive for what it is. But it has a free export function to csv, so I’m making my own PowerBI dashboard. Just have to export once a month to see the progress for example of max weight, calculated 1RM, (max) volume per exercise.

Looking for alternatives tho.

Hevy gives you all of this for free, with routines, RIR, rest timers, supersets, 1rm, session, and set volume all easily visible.
I used various custom overkill spread sheets for platemath, recently migrated latest version to custom google sheetapp. When you can't PR, spreadsheet.

https://imgur.com/a/SqzpjLr

log weightxreps@rir in comma seperated long text field, calculates repRMs, and other stats like volume/inol. Visualizations in appsheets very weak though.

Most important feature for me, having gone off program/fuckarounditis is having UI that clearly indicates how long ago I've done an exercise, and associated stats / percentages. This way I can train intuitively using my own meso/microcycles, i.e. right now my microcycle is is every 10-12 days instead of 7, which helped me blow past some stalls. I try to visualize in: how many days ago I last did an exercise [how many rest days in between]. I can glance at exercise charts (can be fuzzy to match all exercise of certain tag, i.e. #bp shows data for all bench variations), and get a sense of periodization/progress. Trying to figure out a fatigue/recovery system (PRF = performance, RCV = fatigue). Big part is finding out how body responds to stress in various blocks, i.e. figuring out whether to push/add sets despite soreness/fatigue. Anyway apart from occasionally slow syncing, the new appsheet has made logging very convenient, since it precalculates dates/sesssion, just have to pick exercise and enter weightsxsets.

TLDR flexible training.

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Before this, I've used for years where you log using syntax in giant textarea:

https://weightxreps.net/

Their website is a little busy and they had some redesigns that I didn't like, but it's easily one of the best logging experiences out there since you're not wasting time filling individual setsxreps etc. They have an app now, which I haven't tried, but the web experience was very good for me. I logged in a note, and copy and paste into log file when done. Visualizations pretty good.

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My ideal logging, if I knew how to code (only decent in excel formula), would be basically something like a population pyramid style chart where y axis is training days, x axis is inol/weight x or whatever stat. You tap on the horizontal/bar training day to view relevant details but otherwise have high level overview of essential stats.

https://epirhandbook.com/en/images/pop_pyramid_baseline.png

Last couple photos in album shows old spread / visiualization sheet format, the 2nd last photo last like rows that represent past training days (empty = rest days) with inol for each exercise tag. I've blacked out some of my repmaxes in case it identifies me online powerlifting competition DBs.

It’s called a gym buddy ;) Only half-joking. I found having someone spot you, count or just stay accountable is a game changer. Whether thats a friend, or a personal trainer, it's always more fun in company!
Try the app Train Fitness on Apple Watch: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/train-fitness-workout-tracker/...

Disclaimer: Anorak Ventures is an investor.

Oh awesome!! I was curious whether it was feasible to distill that kind of information from the Watch. Looking at this, apparently it is! Thanks for sharing.
I hear you! Finding an app that does just what you want can feel pretty overwhelming sometimes. I like how you phrase “counts reps of any repeating motion”, that’s sparked some ideas! Thanks!
How long it will take for those LLM replies to not be so obvious? HN will achieve AGI before openai
You can make them better with the right prompts & conditional agent chaining
lol it’s me. But thanks for confusing me with an LLM? I guess? Should I complete a captcha for you? :/
We kinda built this back in 2009. You strapped an iPhone to your arm and it counted reps by looking at the waveforms from the three axes of the accelerometer. It ended up becoming a (not very successful) YC W11 company.
How much would you pay for this?
Depending on the answer, getting a personal trainer that keeps count and notes would be an option too.