März 6, 2012

Description

The project I've applied with was a software for a gym that support athletes in doing their workout. In the meantime I found out that such a system already exists and that the company called technogym is providing such a solution to gyms. Nevertheless I went visiting a gym using this system in order to see how it works, what features it provides and how people (athletes and the personal at the gym) are using and reviewing this software. the following features are included:

• indications of how the athlete should set up the machine (e.g seat height and weight)
• accoustic signal after last repetition of serie
• visual feedback about range of motion and speed
• Capturing all activities (days of training, repetitions, weight....) and possibility to see that data at the login/logout station

This system is not automatic but must configured by the gym's staff for every athlete. This ensures higher quality of training but can't decrease the costs. what i've missed:

• information of how to do the exercise (e.g. how to sit there, posture...etc)
• possibilities of displaying information limited (no display, only lights)
• visual feedback about progress (e.g. one serie/entire training)
• guided recovery time
• Goals and visualized progress towards them
• Competition, Social Aspect, automation??

Since the staff told me that the system indeed allows a higher quality of a training, she mentioned that the training itself still is hard work and it does not really help motivate people to practise more sustainable and persistent. Since this was exactly what I  wanted to achieve with a software like this, I again move closer to develop such a system or at least an interface which can motivate people more during their workout.

Problem

I fear that it is not possible to implement a whole system like i've seen it in the mentioned gym. So I'm wondering, what options I would have if I chose this project. A possible way would be to only develop a new interface to the existing system. But since the technogym company is located in the UK, it probably is hard to collaborate with them. Another approach would be to develop such a system in a smaller context. For only a few machines, but extendable. The question that arises is, whether this is actually reducing the work to do or not. What other alternative do I have? Any ideas? Thank you for inputs to this project, how to achieve it or inputs for other projects ideas as well! thank you! 😉