Device Advice - Stopwatch for Slow Motion Strength Training

November 14, 2024 4:30 PM

I need a suggestion for self-timing slow motion strength training sets with all kinds of caveats.

I've had about ten sessions with a personal trainer introducing me to slow motion strength training. I like it! It's cost prohibitive to continue with a personal trainer and I feel confident that I can replicate the workouts on my own in a fitness center.

The thing I'll miss about the trainer (other than the gentle encouragement) is that he holds the stopwatch and lets me know how far along I am in the 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 minute set. Obviously, I can't use an analog stopwatch and see the display while I'm using my hands to - you know - lift weights. Ideally, I'd like a small device that will give me an audible or haptic signal every 15 seconds which I can then count to get to the 2 minute mark.

Caveats! As non-fiddly as possible. I don't want to use my phone because I don't want to tote it around at the gym. I don't use - and don't want to use - ear buds. I don't own a smart watch. Any recommendations for a specific, stripped down, wristband fitness timer?

Other advice for senior women venturing into the gym environment also welcome!

posted by rekrap to Health & Fitness (4 answers total)

Best answer: I've seen people using the Gymboss – it's small, makes an audible (but not loud) blip at the end of each rep / set, and it can be clipped to a waistband, or, I guess, a wristband. I don't know how fiddly it is to set-up though, I haven't used one. There seem to be plenty of youtube videos of people explaining how they set-up their circuits in it.

I appreciate that you might just want time away from screens / devices, but just to add that I think that using a phone app in a gym is pretty standard and acceptable, increasingly orthodox, precisely because it can do all this and more. For instance, the app I use has circuits already set up, which are all easily tailored if I want to skip or add something like a rest or an extra set, and has a picture of the 'up next' workout so I don't have to remember what I'm moving to. For the socially awkward circumstance of being-in-a-gym while not-feeling-like-the-most-natural-gym-user, it's handy to have something like a phone to fiddle with between sets etc. But I suppose taking a timer and a notebook and jotting down and revising your workouts can play the same function!
posted by Joeruckus at 1:41 AM on November 15

As someone who has been doing SuperSlow for several years with great results, I’m just not sure how possible it is to do without a trainer and without specialized apparatuses.
posted by slkinsey at 5:31 AM on November 15

Best answer: Seconding Gymboss - it's designed to do pretty much exactly what you're asking for here. If you want a standalone device, though, it's not much different than toting your phone...

The app version of Gymboss is really good for what you want to do - it's super-flexible in how you program it for stuff. You said you don't own a smart watch - you might consider one, then - because then you could leave the phone unobtrusively stored and get a haptic response from the watch.
posted by Thistledown at 5:57 AM on November 15

Caveat: I have not done this. I wonder if a metronome might be what you're looking for if you just want to count beats to complete your rep or wait to start the next one. That's literally what they do is create continuous, regular beats so people can keep time.
posted by drossdragon at 3:23 PM on November 15