Some of you may recognize me from another powerlifting forum. I’ve lurked T-Nation a lot, but just joined finally a couple days ago.
I started a thread there a month or two ago on another site asking for some ideas for a simple lifting app. With that input, I put together LiftPro. It’s totally free for Android phones (sorry Iphone users, I haven’t started learning that OS yet and frankly, there’s plenty of lifting related apps for that platform). Along with minor updates here and there, I’m working on a major update that will include a workout logger/tracker tailored to lifters. Try this out and let me know what you think! Any feedback is appreciated. Especially let me know if you experience any bugs.
To download, just search for LiftPro on the Android Marketplace and it’ll show up with a blue olympic weight icon.
Here’s the description of what it does:
A simple app for weightlifters, powerlifters and olympic lifters. Four seperate tools allow you to:
Calculate your three lift total
Convert KG, lbs, or stone
Calculate your one rep max using two common formulas
4)Calculate your Wilks total (both male and female)
Not trying to spam or anything. Mainly, I’m just looking for some feedback. I started this project as a cool way to learn something I wanted to learn while creating something useful for other lifters. I just wanted to hop over here and let you guys know about it too.
considering I use the bluetooth on my droid to listen to music on a wireless headphone set, I would download this app in a heartbeat if it had some form of workout programming. Right now I’m about to start in on 5/3/1 again, and if I could have an app which would let me put in the weights and reps I’m going to do for a given day (even if it only stored 1 day at a time, I could refill it as needed), and some form of log book that I could use to put my numbers/assistance work into my excel spreadsheet that I currently just print and bring in a big blue folder.
To summarize things I want:
Workout planning
Log Book
I’ll probably download it now anyway for the rep max calculator.
[quote]samdan wrote:
considering I use the bluetooth on my droid to listen to music on a wireless headphone set, I would download this app in a heartbeat if it had some form of workout programming.
Right now I’m about to start in on 5/3/1 again, and if I could have an app which would let me put in the weights and reps I’m going to do for a given day (even if it only stored 1 day at a time, I could refill it as needed), and some form of log book that I could use to put my numbers/assistance work into my excel spreadsheet that I currently just print and bring in a big blue folder.
To summarize things I want:
Workout planning
Log Book
I’ll probably download it now anyway for the rep max calculator.[/quote]
I’m working on implementing a % calculator for various common workouts and a simple % finder for custom lifts. The logging features are a different beast (involve database work, ugh) so that’s why that functionality won’t show up until the next big release and why I can put out these minor features much more quickly. I’m definitely making progress on the major update though.
Thanks for the feedback guys! Today or tomorrow I should have the next minor update out which adds a plate loader tool. You enter in the total amount of weight you want to lift, the bar weight and collar weight and it tells you which plates you need to load. It includes both KG plates and Lbs plates.
If it helps, I kinda framed the workout planning/log book in my head:
Choose number of workouts per “cycle” (simple ABA would be 2, push/pull/legs = 3, 5/3/1 = 4 usually, 6-way split = 6)
User fills out a workout for each workout in the “cycle” (ie for 5/3/1, bench day, deadlift day, overhead day, squat day). Needs for each workout:
…“Add Exercise” button (and delete, too)
…Input for exercise name, rep pattern, target weight
…Confirmation before moving to next workout “form”
When fully functional, selecting workout will automatically load the “current” workout. Needs for viewing workouts:
…“Log” button for each exercise, which opens a generic text box for input. This doesn’t need to be fancy, just functional.
…“Next workout” button, which moves to the next workout in the cycle. “Start New Cycle” button for the last workout in a cycle.
Option to view previous workouts/cycles for periodization purposes (confirm number of reps/weight done last workout)
Optional: Export via email function or possibly even a text document if you’re good with that thing.
This is what I’d “expect” from an amazing app for workout tracking. If you can’t do it, I’m not going to yell at you, same as if you had a different idea. These are just the functions that come to mind as being needed.
[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
I just checked this out. Frankly, I like the general idea but the app does not have anything that I could use.
I’d like a logbook with options to categorize for dieting phases (e.g. “maintenance,” “cutting,” “bulking,” training for (sport)")
I’d like to be able to graph the history of a lift over time.
Logbook should have starting bodyweight and BF %
How soon can you add those features?
Progress/status visualizations are almost always huge.[/quote]
Like I mentioned above, logging requires database work and a lot of UI (user interface) coding so it will take me awhile to get this kind of functionality out. I can’t give you a very specific timeline of when I will be adding logging/stats because of this. Unfortunately, a lot of coding involves eliminating bugs, finding erros, ect which are hard to estimate. However, I should have basic exercise logging and stats out within a month to a month and a half. So far I’m probably 1/3 of the way through writing the code for it.
Thanks for the ideas for bodystats! That’s something I’ll have to think about how to implement correctly without cluttering the main functionality of the app. A lot of apps suck simply because there’s just too much crap in the interface. I’m avoiding that kind of clutter as much as possible.
I’m putting the final touches on the plate loader tool today so that update should be out today barring any weird errors. Like I mentioned, a lot of coding is fixing errors and that’s why this little tool has taken an extra day to finish up.
Added the plateloader function. With this you input the weight you want to lift, the weight of the bar and collars you’re using and it tells you which plates to load (uses plate icons and numbers). If the weight you want cannot be loaded exactly, it will show you the load right below and right above what you entered. Let me know if y’all have any issues!
[quote]samdan wrote:
considering I use the bluetooth on my droid to listen to music on a wireless headphone set, I would download this app in a heartbeat if it had some form of workout programming. Right now I’m about to start in on 5/3/1 again, and if I could have an app which would let me put in the weights and reps I’m going to do for a given day (even if it only stored 1 day at a time, I could refill it as needed), and some form of log book that I could use to put my numbers/assistance work into my excel spreadsheet that I currently just print and bring in a big blue folder.
[/quote]
I just use an excel spreadsheet on Docs to go on my blackberry with a different tab for each workout. They do a version for android also:
