just an asterisk

I am a huge fan (addict) of novelty.  It’s the novelty of small changes to my routine that keeps my pace up, keeps me learning new things, and frankly, keeps me interested.  When it comes to exercise, this is especially true. In that vein, while I munch on my Apples and Cinnamon Quaker Oats (with spoon of peanut butter), I thought I would talk about some of the sites I’ve used in the past to track workouts.  Each is good for something, some are better at everything, but a full buffet of choices will help avoid boredom forever.

Daily Burn used to be called Gymnee and has been around for a while.  The concept is a workout tracking site combined with a social network.  I enjoy this site A LOT.  The body tracking metrics, combined with a large database of user defined workouts and a pretty slick iPhone app, make it a great choice.

However, in my opinion, what really differentiates the site are the challenges.  Users can create or join a challenge where a common theme promotes a team-like support group – examples include “Lose 20lbs”, “Run 100 Miles” and “Burn 5000 Cals”.  Users receive medals for their successful challenges and can ask questions to their fellow participants.  This may sound a bit too “social networkie” for you, but trust me – it’s a great environment if you’re trying to get back into a routine.

Lance Armstrong’s site Livestrong.com has combined forces with a company called the DailyPlate to make another fun destination for your workout data and research.  It’s the Daily Plate portion of the site that does the tracking, but the Livestrong side provides so many articles and tips that it’s like that time you went through your couch in college – the stuff you can find!

One of the emphasized themes of the site is that there are many ways to stay active, a fact that can be clearly seen in the “custom” workout activities.  “Scrubbing floors”, “Laying Sod” and “Child Care” are all possible activities you can track in your day to day.

I didn’t find the exercise tracking to be as gym friendly as Daily Burn (try entering a lifting workout – it takes a while), but I still love this site.  If you do join, check out their iPhone app – it’s pretty slick.  The food tracking portion of the site is their number 1 asset, if exercise isn’t what you want to record.

As this is a technology blog, it’s worth mentioning that there is a super geeky 3rd option out there.  I’ve been using Garmin Connect off and on for almost 5 years (since it was called MotionBased).  It’s now a free service from Garmin, those guys who make all the fancy GPS devices.  To get the most out of the site, you need a Garmin device (on top of their car GPS units, they sell running watches and cycling computers).

Once you’re signed up, your exercise (cardio only) is transferred from your device to the website via either bluetooth or a cable.  This information is plotted on a map and summarized in a variety of graphs and tables. The beautiful presentation, combined with the ability to capture real-time heart rate information, running cadence, and other obscurities make this my favorite option.  Despite the hardware requirements, setup is a snap.  Most of all, I love the option of simply running in any direction that interests me and having a virtual partner tracking my every move (and putting it online for review later).  For those with privacy concerns, sharing can be disabled (or not) as you see fit.

A final killer feature of this application is the ability to search other public runs.  In a new town for the weekend and want to know where to run?  I can almost guarantee that you aren’t the first Garmin owner to set foot there.  It’s like being part of a running club without that complicated human interaction jazz.

So that about sums it up.  I hope at least one of the three is what you’re looking for and if not, I suggest googling like crazy.  There are plenty of other options.  These are just the ones that I’ve found most interesting.

Stay fit!

~ab

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at 8:08 am and is filed under Educational. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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