The perfect online training log

[tke71709]

Hey all,

I'd like to ask for your opinions on what you would want in a perfect online training log.

A little background about me

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I used to post at the MH boards, before JP showed up and stole all the good posters lol. A few years ago I tore up my shoulder so I had to stop doing any sort of serious working out so I stopped posting on the boards. I have however continued to lurk here, visiting here and T-nation pretty much everyday to see what's new and the such.

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I'm going to try to get back to working out in the next 6 months, the birth of my son has encouraged me to get all my nagging injuries fixed so that I can move forward again (beyond my shoulder, I also tore my ACL a few months back but I've been in physio ever since and that's almost healed up completely) and be ready to play with him when he's old enough to run around.

I downloaded some training log programs the other day. One was, to be frank, crap and the other tried to install spyware on my PC when I started the install process (Websweeper caught it before it could). So I was thinking, why not develop my own online system (like Fitday but for training instead of food)? I've got experience in system development and the such and the contacts to get it done.

I see a lot of advantages to maintaining this sort of info online rather than at home on an Excel spreadsheet or on an app at home.

1) Ability to enter/query info from anywhere
2) Spyware free
3) Automatic backups of data, if your hard drive crashes you don't lose your data
4) Potentially the ability to get a "nagging" e-mail if you miss a schedule workout (lol)
5) Ability to share your logs with others, and get encouragement from them.

What I'd like to know is what features would you want in the perfect online training log?

I was thinking the basics would be:
- ability to log body measurements
- ability to track exercises done/weights/rep
- ability to print out workout plan to take to the gym with you
- ability to maintain a blog
- ability to store photos
- 52 day challenge type tracking
- various reports

Now with that said, what else would you guys/gals find useful? What kind of exercise tracking and reports would be helpful to you? Rep weights are misleading because you would lift more per rep in a 3X5 than you would in a 10X10 scenario, etc...

So anyway, I hope JP is cool with me posting my question here and I promise you all first crack at the system if there is enough interest to go forward with it.

[UpNorth]

Reps and sets is all well and good but I also do things for distance or time as well. I'm thinking of sprint intervals or a tabata style workout or just a straight up run. To be able to track and query those things as well would be very helpful.

Also the ability to track mobility work/BW work I would think is a must.

Calculation of total volume in each plain of movement would be cool as well.

Just some stuff off the top of my head...

[RobLL]

And obviously the ability to edit it periodically. That's the one prob with the training log, each entry is 'its own new thing'.

And with all the complications and details a perfect one may be too big. Perhaps the basic template could be set up to remove sections so that it is not cluttered with 'not applicable' pieces.

And lots of room (potential room) for comments.

[Chiron]

The ability to track progress on things like strength and measurements with tables and maybe graphs would be cool. Tracking tonnage and diet would be cool too.

[tke71709]

Originally Posted by UpNorth

Reps and sets is all well and good but I also do things for distance or time as well. I'm thinking of sprint intervals or a tabata style workout or just a straight up run. To be able to track and query those
things as well would be very helpful.

I didn't mention it in my original post but my thought was to be able to track both resistance training and more cardio/sport type stuff.

For example, you could track weight workouts (weights, reps, sets, etc...) and you could also track cardio/sports items like running (distance, time spent, etc...)

Also the ability to track mobility work/BW work I would think is a must.

Bodyweight work, that's a good point I didn't consider. Shouldn't be hard to incorporate as well. Thanks.

Calculation of total volume in each plain of movement would be cool as well.

Now that's something I didn't think about, that would make an interesting report type.

Thanks for the comments guys, keep em coming!

[tke71709]

Originally Posted by Chiron

The ability to track progress on things like strength and measurements with tables and maybe graphs would be cool. Tracking tonnage and diet would be cool too.

Diet tracking would come later (if demand was there). I figure Fitday has this area covered pretty well at the moment

Thanks for the comments.

[tke71709]

Originally Posted by RobLL

And obviously the ability to edit it periodically. That's the one prob with the training log, each entry is 'its own new thing'.

With a properly designed online system editing wouldn't be a problem.

And with all the complications and details a perfect one may be too big. Perhaps the basic template could be set up to remove sections so that it is not cluttered with 'not applicable' pieces.

Ajax could be used to allow you to drag and drop the sections that you want/need and exclude those that you don't. If the interface is designed properly in the first place it could hopefully keep things clean and easy to use.

Potentially a basic, advanced and custom screen for users might be the way to go, another thing to think about.

And lots of room (potential room) for comments.

Comments next to each exercise, that way you could mark supersets, rest periods, etc... Gotcha!

Thanks to you too for your comments.

I appreciate all your comments guys, I'm asking for the perfect system to see what people want/need but if I do go forward I'm not promising that everything will be included lol

[tkinsley]

The ability to save a workout template (eg, I am using a program now that allows me to save each NROL lifting scheme and then I just alter and annotate it for the individual day) is helpful; total volume lifted with graphs, ability to record or for program to recognize a PR, interval recording, calories burned calculators, body fat calculators.... off the top of my head

And the ability to drag and drop exercises into workouts or whatever... the convenience of this can't be overstated (rather than having to hit enter for each exercise to add it).

Hope this helps.

Tina

[pjb923]

A few months ago I went through the same steps as you did, searching for the perfect way to log my workouts, and have since given up and manually enter my training log on the forum here as well as on my blog. You can see the post where I asked the question here:
Online weight training log

Bodygain looked like it had potential to become something good, but development appears to have stopped. I find the user interface very confusing and tedious to work with.

I just took another look at onlinefitnesslog.com and it has many of the features that I look for, but is still lacking in certain areas.

They allow you to build custom workouts. You choose the exercises from a list and enter the number of sets you plan on doing. Then you must choose from a list of fields you would like to see, such as weight, repetitions, time, distance, calories, etc... This is a very important feature, like RobLL mentioned. Everyone is going to have a different set of fields they want on their log. What is perfect for me, will not be perfect for someone else.

Once you spend the time to set up your workouts, creating a log entry is very simple. Choose your workout from the list, fill in your reps,weight,etc.. and you are done.

The one thing I find very frustrating is that the exercises are sorted in alphabetical order and there is no way to change it. Alphabetical is obviously not the order that things are done during your workout.

The list of exercises is also very limited, although it is very simple to add your own to the list.

The nutritional tracker has essentially the same features.

In order to gain access to some of the more advanced features, like downloading your workout data in excel format, or viewing progress charts, you need to sign up for a paid membership.

Overall, I think that onlinefitnesslog is a good starting point. For me personally, the most important feature is ease of use. Once the data is entered, new features can be added later. But if the entry process itself turns the users away, all the bells and whistles in the world are not going to matter.

I will be more than happy to be a beta tester and provide as much feedback as possible.

[tke71709]

Originally Posted by pjb923

A few months ago I went through the same steps as you did, searching for the perfect way to log my workouts, and have since given up and manually enter my training log on the forum here as well as on my blog. You can see the post where I asked the question here:
Online weight training log

Thanks, that seems to cover some of the items asked here quite nicely.

Bodygain looked like it had potential to become something good, but development appears to have stopped. I find the user interface very confusing and tedious to work with.

I agree, I created an account and it's pretty confusing at first.

I just took another look at onlinefitnesslog.com and it has many of the features that I look for, but is still lacking in certain areas.

Created an account there as well to test it out thanks.

For me personally, the most important feature is ease of use. Once the data is entered, new features can be added later. But if the entry process itself turns the users away, all the bells and whistles in the world are not going to matter.

Agreed 100%

I will be more than happy to be a beta tester and provide as much feedback as possible.

If I decide to go forward I'd be estatic to take you up on your offer.

[andrew_plamondon]

itrainharder.com has a lot of those features already and the site creator is a good listener : if you want something to be added, email him and it should be on the update list. The next update will contain a peer network and a back-up tool (at my request ) and other things I don't know of.

[James Newman]

I currently use www.lifterlog.com and it works well for me. You can drag and drop, create templates, graphically see volume/intensity, etc,etc there is no nutrition interface however. I still use Fitday for that. JP may weigh in on this one shortly as he tends to have something up his sleeve with this sort of thing....

Newman

[OldGuy]

Originally Posted by James Newman

I currently use www.lifterlog.com and it works well for me. You can drag and drop, create templates, graphically see volume/intensity, etc,etc there is no nutrition interface however. I still use Fitday for that. JP may weigh in on this one shortly as he tends to have something up his sleeve with this sort of thing....

Newman

How much does that site cost?

[James Newman]

I believe it is like 15/month or something similar. You can tryit out for a week free I believe. I like that I can use it anywhere, it doesn't take but a second to update... You can also print your logs in PDF format or export to Excel.

Newman

[Lost Dog]

I'd be interested to try something, but every one I've tried in the past was a major pain in the butt to setup and use. Plus, there was no good way to print out something that you could easily take to the gym.

As annoying as cell phones in gyms are, nearly everyone takes theirs with them. If today's workout was available on that little screen, it would make things far easier. A little java app that lets me read and update today's workout would keep me from having to update things multiple times (paper log, excel, & jpfitness, now).

One thing that you might consider is a way to offer links or a service to tie into sites like this one. I would prefer to stay in my "community" and bring my log along for people to see, rather than have them go elsewhere.

It could be as simple as clicking a button that provides an image url that can be linked to as much as producing the html or ubb code or whatever that we could paste into our forum logs.

I would use fitday more if I could more easily make the info show up here, too.

[andrew_plamondon]

Originally Posted by Lost Dog

I'd be interested to try something, but every one I've tried in the past was a major pain in the butt to setup and use. Plus, there was no good way to print out something that you could easily take to the gym.

As annoying as cell phones in gyms are, nearly everyone takes theirs with them. If today's workout was available on that little screen, it would make things far easier. A little java app that lets me read and update today's workout would keep me from having to update things multiple times (paper log, excel, & jpfitness, now).

One thing that you might consider is a way to offer links or a service to tie into sites like this one. I would prefer to stay in my "community" and bring my log along for people to see, rather than have them go elsewhere.

It could be as simple as clicking a button that provides an image url that can be linked to as much as producing the html or ubb code or whatever that we could paste into our forum logs.

I would use fitday more if I could more easily make the info show up here, too.

Watch www.itrainharder.com closely I'm sort of a beta tester on this site and some of these features will be in the next update.