Help my workouts away from home!

August 18, 2011 9:31 AM

Help me find the perfect Crossfit iPhone app! (Snowflake details inside)

I travel a lot and I'm getting out of shape. I want exercises that I can do anywhere with minimal equipment. I like the Crossfit Workouts of the Day (WOD).

I've tried out a bunch of apps but none of them seem to be the complete package. I need an app that:

- Generates a different Crossfit workout I can do anywhere, with no equipment (squats, pushups, etc.) every day.
- Contains videos with instructions that are NOT just links to a website (I don't always have internet.)
- Tracks which workouts I have done, perhaps with comments or something
- Possibly play music that fits with the workout (Not necessary, but would be nice)

Btw, I've found some great yoga podcasts that do something similar for yoga workouts... videos with short yoga workouts that you can do anywhere. I plan to intermix these with the Crossfit. Any tips on how to do this most easily (in terms of tracking). And also, any suggestions for awesome yoga podcasts I might have missed are appreciated!

posted by carolinaherrera to health & fitness (7 answers total)

Sorry -- I realize that was all over the place. Focus on the Crossfit iPhone app part. *hides face*
posted by carolinaherrera at 9:32 AM on August 18, 2011

Hmm. I don't know if what you want currently exists. I use the CrossFit Travel iPhone app (no equipment required) and I like it fine but there are no videos. Really though, body weight only exercises are pretty easy to figure out. If I don't know what something is, there is no shortage of how-to CF videos on YouTube.

To keep track of my WODs at the box, I use WOD - CrossFit Logger which keeps track of my records - max and time.
posted by omarlittle at 9:56 AM on August 18, 2011

omarlittle -- Does the CrossFit Logger automatically fill in the workouts or do you have to type them in?
posted by carolinaherrera at 10:18 AM on August 18, 2011

It will automatically fill in named / benchmark workouts but you have to input other workouts. It can be a bit tedious but the outcome is that I don't have to search through a notebook for my best time or max weight.

It is not a perfect app but I've gone through a few and I like it the best. Before CF, I used to use iFitness to track my New Rules of Weighlifting workouts. It is a superior app and I would pay much more for it if they made a CF specific version.
posted by omarlittle at 11:31 AM on August 18, 2011

Why not just follow a blog, and do the workout for each day they post on the days you're traveling? I'm in a XF Bootcamp (WODs but no Olympic lifting) specifically because I travel a lot and want a portable, no-equipment workout.

I follow BodyRock.tv in Google Reader (recc'd on AskMe, actually) and just check in when I need a travel workout. She has videos and text breaking down each workout. And if you go back through her archives you can see how much her body has changed in the last few years.

She also does yoga routines, and the blog had a great community. It's not XF per se, but the workouts are very similar.

Note: as a woman, you may be slightly turned off by the porn-y visuals on the site, Take a look and you'll see what I mean. I was at first. Turns out she used to be an exotic model, but I got over that quickly because damn, her workouts are hard. I'd flaunt my body if it looked that good.
posted by Brittanie at 5:41 PM on August 18, 2011

I travel a lot and I'm getting out of shape. I want exercises that I can do anywhere with minimal equipment. I like the Crossfit Workouts of the Day (WOD).

I'm focusing on this. I don't know of an app that meets your requirements, so I'm going to go out of the box here and suggest that you could combine a list of Crossfit WODs that require minimal equipment and an app for tracking your results. Here are two lists of "travel WODs" to get you started; if you google for "crossfit travel wods" you'll find many more lists out there.

Crossfit on the road

Travel WODs

For a tracking application, I use "Beyond the Whiteboard", but it probably works better if you follow the main site and belong to an affiliate that uses it.
posted by kovacs at 5:46 PM on August 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

How about the Hopper deck?

The Constantly Varied part of the CrossFit prescription can be a problem when you’re away from your home base. The Hopper Deck is a fully operational poker deck that contains 54 WODs to take on the road with you. We worked directly with CrossFit, Inc. in order to keep The Hopper Deck true to the CrossFit prescription. The Hopper Deck contains a balanced variety of workouts that you can do in a gym, or under more austere conditions.

Alternative use of a deck of cards:

This WOD will be done as a team. When a card is drawn, each member of the team will complete the prescibed number of reps for that exercise. When the last person is done, the next card will be drawn. First team to finish wins. The prize....nothing!

Diamonds = Knees to elbows
Hearts = Burpees
Clubs = Double Unders
Spades = Jumping Squats
Joker = 800m

(of course, you'd be a one-person team. Army of One! If you're travelling and are stuck in an enclosed environment you might be around stairs...mmm, tasty).

Someone made a deck of cards app, but it costs a dollar (whha...Crossfit WODs are free, the audacity!).

Another deck of cards approach:

Using a deck of cards perform the value of each card as follows:
Hearts = Sit-ups
Diamonds = Push-ups
Clubs = Squats
Spades = Jumping Jacks
Aces = 400m Runs
Jokers = 20 Squat thrusts

posted by asymptotic at 5:16 AM on August 19, 2011