Need a VERY basic weightlifting app for the gym.

June 20, 2017 7:54 AM

I use the weight machines at the gym and I'm tired of trying to remember what weights I do on each machine. It's hard to sort through the available apps, since the reviewers seem to focus on things I don't need, and they mostly seem to be more complicated than what I need. Preferences inside.

I use pretty much exclusively the machines at the gym, not free weights or typical lifting exercises. I don't follow a schedule particularly, other than I don't go two days in a row. And, I am trying to ACTUALLY GO to the gym, rather than not going to the gym. ;-) Remembering which day is leg day or chest day isn't really my problem. I just want to know "Last time I lifted 50 lbs on this machine." and "Oh it looks like I didn't do the lat pulldown yet today." That's it. A list. It would be nice if I could name the machines myself since we have different machines - "military press by the mirror" versus "military press by the wall" - since the weights I can lift on the military press vary by what brand of machine it is due to (I assume) friction etc.

I tried to use my iPhone's "notes" feature last night to list the name of the machine, the weight I lifted, and put an X mark when I finished the exercise for the night. However I found the text too small and inputting the numbers extremely fiddly - I spent more time messing with my phone than working out.

So I'm looking for an EXTREMELY SIMPLE app that just tracks what weights I currently do. My main criteria is that it be easy to adjust the weights, like a big fat up/down arrow I can click, rather than using the iPhone's text input feature. And I need to click off a "done" checkbox. Bonus points if I can name the machines/exercises myself.

I don't need any tracking other than the amount of weight I'm currently doing on each machine. I don't need suggestings, strategies, technique videos, historical graphs, support network, anything like that - just a list of machines, adjustable weight listings, and checkboxes.

Does this app exist? Note that it could probably be any old sort of list app, not necessary to actually be a weightlifting app.

posted by bluesky78987 to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (11 answers total)

Best answer: Fitnotes. It has slightly more capability than you need (e.g., can show you historical graphs), but it's very easy to do just what you want.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 8:02 AM on June 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I use fitlist for the exact same functionality, except that I like to create my own "canned" workouts and just go through the list while I am at the gym.
posted by OrangeDisk at 8:04 AM on June 20, 2017

I know a lot of people who use Google Sheets (and the accompanying smartphone app) for this. You might have to set up your spreadsheet beforehand but it should be easy to edit once you're at the gym.
posted by Brittanie at 8:10 AM on June 20, 2017

In fact, Ask A Swole Woman addresses this exact question (scroll down halfway), also recommending Google Sheets.
posted by Brittanie at 8:12 AM on June 20, 2017

Yeah, really this is what I used to track using a pen and blank spreadsheet printouts and writing in the types of lifts or machines, weights, and/or reps. Each row would be a type of lift, and each column would be a day (though on a phone, the opposite might be easier to see). So the Google Sheets recommendation above makes a lot of sense to me.
posted by limeonaire at 8:42 AM on June 20, 2017

Best answer: Strong is my favorite app for this! You can create a custom routine (so, one called Leg Day which includes all the machines you want to use, but you can also create a workout on the fly if you just want to pick and choose for that day) as well as custom exercises (so one might be called Military Press - Mirror). You start a new workout and it shows you the weights and reps you used last time for each exercise, so you can decide to increase one of those factors if you want. It also has a bunch of other features - rest timers, tracking new personal records on each workout, etc, but you don't have to use any of them if you're not interested.

It is a paid app ($5 I think) but totally worth it, and you can download it for free and track 4 workouts first before they require you to pay so you can determine if you like it or not.
posted by jouir at 10:36 AM on June 20, 2017 [3 favorites]

Best answer: +1 for Strong.
I use it, it's simple, but for me, not simple enough. Google sheets? Too complicated.
I have yet to find the perfect, minimalist lifting or exercising app that fits me JUST right.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 11:53 AM on June 20, 2017

Best answer: I use Strong also and like it very much. However, when you enter weights & reps, it is using text input. The input is restricted to numbers and decimal points so you don't have a bitty keyboard to try to navigate. It is very easy to change things if you make a mistake and enter 100 reps instead of 10 :).
posted by elmay at 1:06 PM on June 20, 2017

Response by poster: Excellent suggestions, thank you! I have downloaded and loaded a short custom routine into Fitnotes, Fitlist, Strong, and two others that the App store recommended when I searched for those (Lifter and JEFIT). When I go to the gym tomorrow, we will see which one works best! I did try a Google sheet but the input is way too fiddly for me to do on my phone.
posted by bluesky78987 at 2:06 PM on June 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

I struggled with a lot of apps and finally just gave up and got a little paper notebook. Works great.
posted by Sublimity at 3:04 PM on June 21, 2017

Response by poster: Followup: Yeah, I hear you Sublimity. I might end up there too - a pity, since these apps have to be dead simple to make. This really should not be this hard at this point. Preliminary results after one trip to the gym:

1. Fitnotes (free): kept crashing on my phone and losing my data, so I deleted it.

2. Fitlist (free): seems pretty good, and the display is nice, but I was having problems figuring out the interface. I didn't delete it, since I can ask OrangeDisk questions on how to use it, or maybe go look for instructions online, but it's not my frontrunner.

3. Strong (paid, but you get a few free workouts). I thought this was going really well in the gym. Easy input, lots of exercises on the pre-entered database, easy entry interface. I thought I was adding exercises to my "saved routine". However, it appears it wasn't saving them. I don't think I understand the interface well enough. Found the online help page, so will have to actually read the instructions I guess.

4. My current favorite: Lifter. (It was one of the app store suggestions when I was looking up Fitnotes I think). This is my style of app. It's just a list, like a spreadsheet. It doesn't even keep track of which exercises you do on which day, it just shows a chart with exercises down the side, and instances of doing them across the top. Exercises logged during the current calendar day are bolded, so you can see what you did so far during today's gym session. Probably too simple for most people but there's no fiddly-ness and no features and menus to get lost in. You have to type in the names of all the exercises. You can delete exercises from your list but it doesn't appear you can reorder them. You can't make different routines, as far as I can tell). One thing I like is there's a spot where you can input how much weight you want to lift the next time you do the exercise and it shows it in the next available box in grey. In strong, it appears you have to edit the "note" about each exercise, which is a little fiddly.

Just some thoughts in case they help anybody later.
posted by bluesky78987 at 10:13 AM on June 22, 2017