I work with a personal trainer from time to time who helps me change my workout routine and teaches me new exercises. Then I go off for a few weeks doing this routine. This works fairly well, but I need to carry around a log book to remind me of the exercises and track the repetitions and sets completed.

I find it inconvenient to keep up with the paper and pencil. Enter the Electronic Personal Trainer (EPT). The EPT would esentially be a purpose built MP3 player. It would strap to the outer, upper arm like many of the "sport" radios (and I assume MP3 players) on the market.

The names of exercises would be pre-recorded. On a computer, the exercises in the workout routine would be selected, sequenced and stored. This routine would then be downloaded to the EPT. Upon pressing the "Begin Routine" button, the name of the first exercise is played through the headphones. It plays repeatedly until the "Begin Exercise" button is pressed. I do the exercise while listening to pre-selected, pre-loaded music. When the exercise is finished, I press the "Exercise complete" button. The next exercise name is then played. This continues until all exercises are completed.

During timed elements of the routine, the EPT plays appropriate countdown messages.

If a piece of apparatus is currently unavailable, I press the "Skip" button and the item is placed at the end of the sequence and repeated later.

When I've either finished the routine, or it has finished me, I press the "End Routine" button. The EPT can then be synchronized with a computer system at home or in the gym. The completed or skipped state of each element is logged to permit long term tracking of one's routine.
-- half, Jun 29 2003

Kinda like this, huh? http://www.acrocat.com/PDAbs/
(Can't guarantee it meets your whole checklist, because I can't be bothered to check, but I think you should spend some time looking at the software available for the Palm - you may well find something that hits the spot.) [DrCurry, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

FitLinxx http://www.fitlinxx.com
Find a gym that uses FitLinxx. Each machine has a tiny screen that you log into with your user code to display your custom workout and settings. [tchaikovsky, Sep 16 2005]

You sure you can't get some suitable Palm software for this?
-- DrCurry, Jun 29 2003


I find it inconvenient to keep up with the paper and pencil and I don't find a PDA to be much of an improvement over that. Software to track a workout does exist. The long-term tracking is more of a secondary issue to me, but I included it as I thought it would be a valuable feature.

The proposed idea would be closer to "hands free" operation. I suppose that complete hands free operation could be achieved. I didn't originally consider the voice recognition angle. I figured with the audio output and a very small number of buttons, the interface could be used while strapped on the arm without ever really looking at the device.
-- half, Jun 29 2003


Besides, it's a lot nicer to get a workout without having to resort to using your palm.
-- kevindimie, Jun 29 2003


... or a handspring.
-- thumbwax, Jun 29 2003


It might be fun to have something like this that chooses exercises totally at random. I wonder if it would make a difference.
-- phoenix, Jun 30 2003



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