Tracking weightlifting

[Astrupgaard]

To say that the weight lifting part of the exercise tracking is limited would be an understatement. In fact its more or less useless. I can't count reps, can't track weight and therefore can't track progress. It's basically irrelevant - so I thought I'd ask for an upgrade of the content. I am happy - not blown away by a long shot - with my Ionic and with weights being my secondary form of exercise - running and football primary - it would mean a lot to be able to keep track of my performance on the wrist instead of having to use my phone and third party apps.

[bbarrera]

@Astrupgaard Fitbit servers don't support tracking weight/sets/reps, and its been 2.5 years since acquiring Fitstar. Although Fitstar is focused on bodyweight workouts, I've been hoping Fitbit would add exercises (dumbbell bench press, barbell bench press, etc, etc) and ability to create a routine and track weight/reps/sets/supersets. Hasn't happened, not sure if it ever will.

I started tracking on iPhone using Fitocracy app many years ago. Works well for creating routines, tracking, and also has videos for 'new to me' exercises. Also works on laptop in a browser (creating routines, reviewing, social stuff), but no watch app. I've got a couple iPhone / Apple Watch apps that support tracking on the wrist. Create the routine on iPhone app, then you can replay in gym. That said, I still prefer tracking with phone when gym is crowded as I'll rearrange my routine based on equipment availability, and that is super easy on phone.

Would be nice to see a company like Fitbod or Strong or Fitocracy create an app for Ionic.

[Astrupgaard]

@bbarrera

Yeah I guess Fitbit would've included it if they thought it was something their community would appreciate - that said I still hope someone at Fitbit sees the posts and tries to incorporate in future devices.

I've been using gymwolf for some years now - while it may not be the "best" it's super easy to use and let's me switch my routine up based on availability - much like you mention with fitocracy. I'd still love to have it natively on my wrist as that would make bringing my phone to the gym totally redundant. 

But like you said... It'll probably never happen.

[Venkats]

@Astrupgaard

Try Atlas Wristband 2 which tracks strength training. I have no experience with it, though. 

[bbarrera]

@Astrupgaard you never know, with Fitstar slowly being integrated into Ionic there is a chance. Once Fitbit has Fitstar properly integrated into Ionic, then I see the possibility of expanding from bodyweight to free weights. That said, Fitbit has always been about keeping things simple so it will be interesting to see if Fitbit gets more sports specific (like Garmin).

[Astrupgaard]

Simple is good. Except when it isn't and the Ionic should've been their departure from that. I hope to see more possibilities for tracking sports other than swimming, running and biking... Honestly those are generic by now and a frontrunner should provide something else and better for their community.

Still I'm happy with my Ionic, would just love to have more features dedicated to "my" sports.

Maybe in the future, who knows.

[bbarrera]

The biking support is too simple. The Surge should have been the departure, it was first multi-sport watch.

I'm in a local cycling club with 600+ members, its common for cyclists to use a GPS bike computer for navigation and tracking. The rest use phone app (usually Strava), and some don't track at all. The bike computer supports sensors: cadence, speed, power, barometric altimeter, and thermometer. External sensors are not supported by Fitbit. All my rides are sync'd to Fitbit (via Endomondo) and I'm left with time started, total elapsed time, miles, and calories. No map, no cadence, no power, etc.

[WavyDavey]

Not sure if by tracking reps and sets, you're referring to trackers that claim to be able to automatically detect reps and sets. I have yet to see one that can do this accurately, and it's a huge pain to have to go back and edit false reps or missed sets.

I don't expect Fitbit to get into the nitty-gritty of each exercise's format. It's more of a broad-purpose tracker in my view.

There are many apps that track weightlifting, that provide graphs of progress, PRs, 1 rep maxes, etc. That's far more information than I'd ever expect (or want) from Fitbit. It's really no use to have that information in Fitbit, as it would never be able to provide the analysis and graphing that a dedicated weightlifting program would require to be useful (at least to me).

[Astrupgaard]

@WavyDavey honestly I'd be happy to be able to just do manually on my wrist. The whole purpose of a fitness tracker **ahem** smartwatch is -IMHO- to utilize the best of both worlds. And fair enough if auto detection of exercises won't come till next iteration at least they could provide something useful in the "weightlifting" section of exercises - or just do away with the category completely if they have no intention of providing their users with something remotely useful.

For now it seems that I'm wishing for something that probably will never come and with that the fact that the Ionic will probably be my last Fitbit product. Hope to see something uplifting from Fitbit but for now the Ionic is little more than a glorified running wearable.

[bbarrera]

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@WavyDavey wrote:

Not sure if by tracking reps and sets, 

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@WavyDavey Like what people do on paper in the gym, but with watch/phone/computer.

1. Create routines on phone or website

2. Watch prompts you thru selected routine at gym, for example:

Exercise 1: 60lb dumbbell bench press

- Set 1: 10 reps, enter actual reps completed on watch

- Set 2: 10 reps, enter actual reps completed on watch

- Set 3: 10 reps, enter actual reps completed on watch

Exercise 2: 30lb dumbbell bicep curl

- Set 1: 10 reps, enter actual reps completed on watch

- Set 2: 10 reps, enter actual reps completed on watch

- Set 3: 10 reps, enter actual reps completed on watch

etc., etc., etc.

Bonus points if its easy to reorder during workout, due to equipment availability. And support for supersets.

The Ionic press release mentions feedback on wrist using Coach app on Ionic. The Coach app is suppose to guide you thru a workout. Essentially what we want is for Fitbit to add weight lifting support to Coach app.

[WavyDavey]

Thank you @bbarrera, I'm very familiar with tracking weight workouts. My opinion is asking a watch to let you input sets, weights and reps is more pain that its worth. I use a little notebook to log things in the gym, and then input into a full-fledged weight tracking app on the phone.

Inputting that stuff in the gym would be a pain for me, not to mention impossible with the Ionic since it doesn't multi-task that way.

There are so many exercises, so many sports, that I would ask--why should weightlifting have such nifty features, when runners have a huge list of data they'd want to see also. Then there's the kitesurfers, crossfitters, etc. etc. etc.

I understand we may disagree, but I strongly feel the tiny screen and lack of good input method make a smartwatch a terrible way to input data manually. That's exactly what a smartphone is good at.

Weightlifting session via Coach is a great idea. If you propose it on the Feature Suggestion board, put a link to it here so we can vote for that.

[bbarrera]

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@WavyDavey wrote:

Thank you @bbarrera, I'm very familiar with tracking weight workouts. My opinion is asking a watch to let you input sets, weights and reps is more pain that its worth.

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@WavyDavey Thats not what I said.

I've been using Strong app for awhile:

- create routines on my iPhone, these get synced to Apple Watch

- at gym I playback the routine, and get prompted on each set: weight and reps. I either accept as-is, or change weight/reps to actual completed.

Works great. I can use either my phone or watch to follow a routine, and enter actual weight/reps. Faster/easier than logging in a notebook, and then separately logging into phone after leaving gym. One step instead of two. 

The government recommends only two things to improve overall health:

- 30 minutes of moderate or vigorous cardio per day (5 days/week, for a total of 150 minutes/week)

- 2 whole body strength training sessions per week

If Fitbit wasn't serious about strength training, they wouldn't have purchase Fitstar and rebranded as Coach and made it a cornerstone feature (along with music) of the Ionic.

Fitbit promised a Coach app that allows exercise feedback on the wrist. So I fail to see your point, because Fitbit is already moving in the direction I'm discussing, including guided workouts and providing feedback on wrist.

[WavyDavey]

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@bbarrera wrote:

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@WavyDavey wrote:

Thank you @bbarrera, I'm very familiar with tracking weight workouts. My opinion is asking a watch to let you input sets, weights and reps is more pain that its worth.

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@WavyDavey Thats not what I said.

I've been using Strong app for awhile:

- create routines on my iPhone, these get synced to Apple Watch

- at gym I playback the routine, and get prompted on each set: weight and reps. I either accept as-is, or change weight/reps to actual completed.

Works great. I can use either my phone or watch to follow a routine, and enter actual weight/reps. Faster/easier than logging in a notebook, and then separately logging into phone after leaving gym. One step instead of two. 

The government recommends only two things to improve overall health:

- 30 minutes of moderate or vigorous cardio per day (5 days/week, for a total of 150 minutes/week)

- 2 whole body strength training sessions per week

If Fitbit wasn't serious about strength training, they wouldn't have purchase Fitstar and rebranded as Coach and made it a cornerstone feature (along with music) of the Ionic.

Fitbit promised a Coach app that allows exercise feedback on the wrist. So I fail to see your point, because Fitbit is already moving in the direction I'm discussing, including guided workouts and providing feedback on wrist.

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Most people I see in the gym just skip the extra step of bringing a notebook into the gym, and input it directly into the phone app. (I prefer to leave a $500 phone in the car). Logging routines, exercises, weight, sets and reps is too basic to be useful to me. I need to know 1RMs, total tonnage, things like that, though I'm sure I'm an outlier. If I only needed to know things like sets and reps, I would be interesting in what you're doing with the Strong app. I just need more, and a smartwatch is never going to give me the statistics that I or my coach need to see.

I find your mention of the government's recommendations to amusing. Was it in jest? If not, it would seem that the consensus via of fitness has really little to do with strength. (Try to build muscle on the government's recommendations for protein intake). If the majority of people only care about cardio for weight loss or general health, then how many resources should Fitbit dedicate to giving more granular detail for sports/training that has a smaller audience?

Fitbit's commitment to any exercise I believe is fueled by trying to appeal to a wide customer base. I have no doubt they will take Coach in a different direction if they felt it was more profitable. I'm not sure how weight training fits, but if you look at the Get Moving Lifestyle forum here, there are tons of posts about cardio, and a really small amount on the subject of this thread (to my chagrin). At my gym we have like 5 folks doing olympic lifting and about that many doing powerlifting. Everyone else is doing just cardio and ab work. 😞

I just don't recall anything from Fitbit that says the guided workouts for Coach would have any emphasis on weight training, or even inputting data beyond simple feedback.  They may go in that direction, if it's worth it to them. I could definitely see how extending the feedback idea could lead to a  weightlifting app one day.

I'm sorry you didn't see the point to my post. Hopefully that isn't a unanimous opinion on this forum.

[Venkats]

@WavyDavey

Oh no, you should migrate to Strong. It computes 1RM and tonnage (actually poundage). There are many apps like Strong. There is also a set timer that can be adjusted between sets. The only downside is you need to take a 5 min upfront and plan what you will be doing. It is also feasible to have a bunch of pre-planned workouts and track those main workouts which is the route I usually take. To port an app like Strong to ionic or a suitable watch will be nice but I bet it wont happen in my lifetime.  

I hear that Garmin is updating their sophisticated lineup to do a rep count. I read a review on it too, not perfect but at-least people are starting to think. Someone should buy out Atlas wearables for their algorithms.

[bbarrera]

not much more to debate, I'm ok if we just agree to disagree. I'll just summarize my thoughts and move on.

From the Ionic press release, its pretty clear Fitbit envisions Coach app on Ionic will provide a) guided routines (not created on the wrist), and b) provide feedback for Fitbit to adapt future workouts. You have the choice of using Coach on phone or Ionic. Conceptually, adapting Ionic's Coach app to barbell/dumbbell/equipment workouts is straightforward, assuming routines are created on phone or web browser. In my experience, a watch is fine for quickly reviewing next set, and confirming or editing the actual weight/reps completed. The Ionic doesn't have a speaker for audio feedback, so based on my Fitstar experience I'd prefer using the Coach app on phone. In addition, I used Apple TV to put Fitstar on large screen TV and monitors. However having a guided workout on wrist might be useful from time to time (more useful if watch had speaker, to hear the 5 second countdown at end of a timed exercise or rest).

Fitbit only provides a few metrics for walks/runs/cycling/etc., the dashboard appears to be more focused on rolling up calorie burns than any sort of performance trending. It is not possible to click on anything in Fitbit dashboard and pull up weekly/monthly/yearly mileage for just running (or walking, or cycling, or ...). And the same for reviewing trends in average running pace. Given the most basic running and walking performance trends are not available in Fitbit dashboard, I would expect Fitbit to do the same for weight lifting (no 1RM, total weight, graphing of bench press progress, etc).

[MattFitbit]

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your feedback. 

I found a similar feature suggestion and would recommend giving it a vote and adding any additional ideas that you have there. I definitely voted for it!

This is the best way for us to implement great ideas like this one in the future. 

Let me know if you have any questions!

[SunsetRunner]

I would love to be able to track all  my exercise in one place.  its awkward, frustrating and actually demoralizing to have to put weights, etc in another app. I want my fitness stuff together.

[WavyDavey]

I prefer a dedicated fitness app for weightlifting. Some of the nicer ones have really deep analysis from tagging and plot training correlations that Fitbit would likely never have. I find having to use another app has no negative effect on my levels of motivation. Compared to the workout itself, the logging is a breeze.

[tcbunnie]

I really wish Fitbit would let us create our own weight lifting routines that  displays on our fitbit devices (specially for the Ionic, Blaze or even the new Versa). But I don't believe anyone has created an app where you can create a routine (whether its weightlifting, HIIT, pilates routine etc). However, I do believe that there is one that can track what you have done; meaning after you complete a set you can track the weight, set and reps that you just finished.

I was really hoping I wouldn't have to bring my phone to the gym.

[imeson79]

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@WavyDaveywrote:

Thank you @bbarrera, I'm very familiar with tracking weight workouts. My opinion is asking a watch to let you input sets, weights and reps is more pain that its worth. I use a little notebook to log things in the gym, and then input into a full-fledged weight tracking app on the phone.

Inputting that stuff in the gym would be a pain for me, not to mention impossible with the Ionic since it doesn't multi-task that way.

There are so many exercises, so many sports, that I would ask--why should weightlifting have such nifty features, when runners have a huge list of data they'd want to see also. Then there's the kitesurfers, crossfitters, etc. etc. etc.

I understand we may disagree, but I strongly feel the tiny screen and lack of good input method make a smartwatch a terrible way to input data manually. That's exactly what a smartphone is good at.

Weightlifting session via Coach is a great idea. If you propose it on the Feature Suggestion board, put a link to it here so we can vote for that.

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You haven't tried Gymaholic of FitBod on iOS and the link up to Apple Watch.. the difference is night and day, and this is what a WATCH Should be ABLE to do!