Been going to the gym for years and honestly the thing that keeps me most motivated is competition — but there’s no app that does this well.
I had an idea for monthly themed seasons — like January is “Strength Month” where everyone logs their total weight lifted and competes on a global leaderboard. February switches to “Endurance Month.” New season, fresh start, different winner each time.
Top finishers get a badge and title on their profile. Points reset each month so beginners can compete too. As the community grows, paid tournaments and free tournaments could be introduced with prizes.
Is this something you’d actually use? And would you pay ~£5/month for it or does it need to be free? Genuinely curious if this scratches an itch for anyone else.
This will sound a little odd to people today. Competition motivated my entire lifting life until I got an autoimmune disease. For 3 decades I stayed motivated through competition. But I want to compete on a level playing field. We all compete under the same judges every meet. An internet app provides no hint of a level playing field that I can see.
If you want competition, compete. For “objectively” judged competition, find a sanctioned Powerlifting Meet or Bodybuilding Contest. There usually some going on almost all year long.
If that seems too advanced for you, do a mental competition with others a little better than you in the gym that you train. If you don’t lift at a gym, I have no suggestions. If I didn’t lift at a gym, I would not have trained at all. My first “competitions” were me mentally trying to get better and stronger with those around me that seemed better than me.
Internet competitions… I just can’t see it. The only good use for your phone at the gym is timing rest periods between sets.
Just to grow a community, help people find something else to boost their motivation, users will have their own personal uses as I will use feedback to introduce new features to the app as well. I feel like there’s not much competition in lifting that doesn’t require proper attending lifting / bodybuilding shows.
It’s not necessarily about making progress in one month. It’s more about just keeping that motivation going and pushing yourself. Everyone knows you won’t make crazy differences in one month.
There’s loads of different types, combinations, events of training you can create throughout the year.
I understand lying would be a big problem, but with AI, the community reporting users, etc, I think there would be easy ways to prevent unrealistic results, spam accounts, limited number of gym sessions a day, etc.
I appreciate your response and that’s exactly what i’ve done this for.
I don’t see anyone interested in general challenges against internet strangers for a couple of reasons.
Who cares? Why would I care if I ran more miles than Johnny in Nebraska in March.
Those of us who train would not be willing to shift our monthly priorities to align with an app’s challenge. If I’m focusing on KB work, I’m not going to pivot away and start focusing on running just because the app says so.
As others say, even if I were interested, it’s not legitimate because peopl can post anything. In the Crossfit open, which is a world-wide challenge where people post their results on an app, it requires a registered judge to verify the scores. Without this, it’s just made up.
People that are motivated by this type of thing already have many options. Local 5 K’s, strong man events, power lifting meets, Crossfit gyms, etc….
I’m old enough that I just go to the gym to listen to Slayer, disassociate between sets, and hopefully not hurt myself. I don’t care what anyone else lifts and I’m not going to trash my back or my rotator cuffs trying to keep up with 20 year olds on tren.