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I recently fell out of my regular exercise routine - in part due to spring break and South by Southwest, and in part due to endless freelance and school work. To motivate myself to return to the gym and workout, I decided to pen an actual workout schedule - a list of all the exercises I’m planning for every day of the week. So, largely to scratch my own itch, I’ve built a simple service called Workout Week that serves up workout schedules. Every week the workouts change, and day-to-day I’ve designed schedules that changes things up to prevent your body becoming accustomed to a routine. You can subscribe via RSS, we’ve got print-friendly versions, and all the information is 100% free.
A Greedy Application
Although I’ve put a lot of effort into building Workout Week into a polished service, I’ve really built this for myself first and foremost. If I’m not following my own schedules, regardless of how successful the site is, I’ll consider the project a failure. I’ll be following the “cross training” schedule.
Features:
3 PATHS
Workout Week has three schedules at launch - cardio, weight training, and the most strenuous - cross training. The workouts change every week, with enough schedules to make sure you don’t repeat yourself for at least a month.
Workout Week has three schedules at launch - cardio, weight training, and the most strenuous - cross training. The workouts change every week, with enough schedules to make sure you don’t repeat yourself for at least a month.
INSTRUCTIONS, OR NOT
If you’re already an expert in esoteric exercise names, then the at-a-glance view is built for you. For mere mortals, every exercise, regardless of how trivial, has the info to get you started.
GUILT-FREE SUBSCRIPTION
Every week, the workouts are served up fresh in RSS. Seven old workouts disappear, and seven new routines pop in their place.
TAKE IT WITH YOU
Right now, Workout Week supplies a basic printer-friendly version. Look for some cool new print features coming soon (think pocketmod-style).
Right now, Workout Week supplies a basic printer-friendly version. Look for some cool new print features coming soon (think pocketmod-style).
QUICK TO ADAPT
All schedules and exercises are stored as XML files. It may not sound too exciting, but this allows me to easily shape the data however I want.
COMING SOON: WORKOUT SHARING
First on the agenda is a workout editor that lets you define custom workouts to share with everyone. You’ll be able to check out what’s popular and what’s working. I’ll also allow users to post times to track their progress, with benchmark routines ranging from simple distance runs up to something like Gym Jones’ “300″ circuit.
[tags]health,fitness,exercise[/tags]
Sound Off!
Real cool!
I’ll definitely use this site when I finally get my gym membership.
I think this is a great idea; nice short workouts I can do before work and feel like I really accomplished something. I just stumbled across this yesterday and started with my 30 minute run. I’ll be following the Cross-Training schedule, at least trying to. Keep this site going.
Neil, I’d love any feedback you have on the schedules. Let me know if the exercises don’t make sense, if the instructions aren’t clear, etc.
Thanks Rob! I’m going to start using this on Sunday.
Good looking schedule and a sexy presentation. I suspect the folks over @ lifehacker would digg this.
[…] Nice workouts, sexy design, no sign-up required. Print out your workouts, subscribe to the rss. Changes weekly. What is not to like?Here is Rob’s blog intro to the app: http://www.robgoodlatte.com/2007/03/20/introducing-workout-week/ […]
Rob, So far so good. I’ll definetly keep you posted on my thoughts. Thanks again.
Rob, Wow, I’m pretty sore still from Friday. I’m going to switch Sunday and Monday this week, to give myself a little more time to recover. Are you sticking with it? How often will the workouts change?
Neil, truth be told I’ve fallen behind with my own workouts. I followed the crosstrain schedule for a week then got thrown off my schedule by some work deadlines. I’m going to be “rebooting” the schedule tomorrow afternoon/evening with a fresh set of exercises. I realize that this might throw a few people off, but again, I’m building this site primarily as a motivation to get myself to the gym. The past workouts will also be available in an archive form.
It seems like u do most upper body work outs… I would do more isolated, like back and traps one day, then chest and bi’s the the next and then legs and tri’s the last…