from Hacker News

Show HN: Simple tool to make a habit of exercising

by ptm on 9/2/19, 4:22 PM with 92 comments

  • by andrewstuart on 9/3/19, 2:18 AM

    No app will work.

    You just have to reprogram yourself to do it.

    Nothing else but ACTION will suffice for exercising.

    A very fit friend of mine said to me many years ago "I just don't give myself any choice about whether I'm going to the gym."

    You can talk and use apps and make plans and get trainers and coaches and excuses etc etc etc but in the end the ONLY thing that works is ACTION - go and exercise. Find an exercise that suits you. I like running because it's so easy - just pull on shoes and go - and you can listen to podcasts as you do it. Also CrossFit because I find exercise boring so it's really great to do a group class where the instructor tells you what to do - all I need to do is turn up for an hour and hand over all the thinking about it to someone else and leave fitter and hour later.

  • by iandanforth on 9/3/19, 12:02 AM

  • by krilly on 9/2/19, 8:58 PM

    There's a great open source android app[0] which has most of the functionality here in a really polished package.

    [0] https://github.com/iSoron/uhabits

  • by progman32 on 9/3/19, 4:16 AM

    I see a lot of people here having success with goal-setting and gamification, but sometimes it's a struggle to come up with concrete goals. This is especially true if there's no obvious problem to solve at the moment (OK weight, good body image, stress managed, just not exercising). What's a good goal, then, for someone who simply wants to increase useful lifespan? "Run at least X miles every Y days" feels like "write X lines of code every Y days", which feels arbitrary unless you're training for a distance-running event. How much is enough? Where are the diminishing returns? What do you even measure?

    Gamification is basically a way to substitute fake goals for real ones, which works for some people but not all.

  • by majewsky on 9/2/19, 9:18 PM

    What I would like is a paid plan where you pay for each day where you don't exercise. See "loss aversion" on Wikipedia for why.

  • by smitty1e on 9/2/19, 7:50 PM

    I drank the Samsung kool-aid, with the Galaxy Sx phone, Gear Active watch, and the Level headphones.

    The Health App has been a win. Tracking meals and what have you is straightforward.

    But the real win is the gamification of the Global Challenge. While completely meaningless in any real-world sense, somehow keeping the step score and all of the silly achievements and missions help to quantify and motivate.

    Recently, via the headphones, I've taken in some outstanding podcasts while out walking. (No specifics, lest I violate the HN orthodoxy.)

    Overall, any app that gets us up and moving is a positive thing.

  • by saimiam on 9/3/19, 3:35 AM

    My challenge with working out is not how to continue once I start which tools like the X.effect and streaks help with. It is how to go from 0 to 1. How to start? That’s a mindset challenge which is probably insurmountable for any app to solve for an individual. I’ve watched myself bottom out through eating junk and lazing around before something clicks and I start exercising. I want to figure out how to shorten the distance between two exercise peaks.

  • by TeMPOraL on 9/3/19, 8:03 AM

    My current trick for aerobic exercises is... Beat Saber. It's a rhythm game for VR headsets, in which you use your controllers as light sabers and have to cut apart cubes and avoid obstacles, all to the beat of music. At higher difficulty levels it gets pretty intense, so it works great as an exercise, and it's also fun. You don't even notice when you start sweating from exertion.

    My wife and I talked a lot about getting a dancing mat, which was my college friend's go-to exercise technique (he ended up going semi-pro and winning some awards in StepMania competitions), but dancing mats - especially hard ones - make a lot of noise, making them unsuitable for use in an apartment in a block of flats. Dancing games have similar benefits - exercising becomes fun, and there's built-in progression to guide you. But after Oculus Quest - a standalone, untethered VR headset - came out, we decided to go the Beat Saber route. Waving hands doesn't make the noise stepping does, and untethered headset is even more portable than the dancing mat.

  • by peterwwillis on 9/2/19, 9:27 PM

    The thing that helps me exercise is not habit, it's goals. I used to work out 5x a week, but other things fill my time now, so I need a reason to work out. Lately it's indulging in food/drink, going on a long trip, a weekend at the beach, etc. If it weren't for the goals I'd probably never go.

  • by MperorM on 9/3/19, 7:13 AM

    I started regularly excercising every day, after I realized I could use it as a means of procrastination.

    I can seriously recommend it. Go for a run, if you're finding yourself putting off something with the intention of working when you get back.

  • by 97-109-107 on 9/4/19, 8:48 AM

    I have had some success with https://github.com/iSoron/uhabits

  • by user_rob on 9/3/19, 11:31 AM

    For me it's the opposite issue - I am paid to motivate me to sit at a desk and stare at a screen. At all other awake times I cannot resist cooking, eating, running, cycling and rowing as much as possible. Occasionally I enter challenging endurance events. I prefer trail running because its the most challenging for me. I am not great at any of it but I just love doing it.

  • by thekyle on 9/2/19, 8:43 PM

    One critique I have is that it seems like it's binary whether you complete a task on any given day which doesn't work well if you only partially complete something.

    For example, lets say I set a goal to walk for 1 hour per day. But then I only walk for 30 minutes, how would the app handle that situation?

  • by nickparker on 9/2/19, 8:19 PM

    I love this and hope to see it succeed. I've always found I work out dramatically more reliably with a little bit of social accountability.

    Unfortunately not hopping on as a user because I have a workout partner at the moment, but I've been wishing someone would build this for ages.

  • by hrdwdmrbl on 9/3/19, 2:38 AM

    (sincere) Thank you for making the product that I had as just an idea. I thought about a workout BFF in terms of a good commitment device. My other angle on this kind of commitment device was someone to call me to wake me up in the morning. :) Great stuff!

  • by ListeningPie on 9/3/19, 2:36 AM

    The front page has a clear design explaining the idea. Working on a product myself the one liner and short explanations are harder to create than most people imagine. Good job.

  • by throes_death on 9/3/19, 6:43 AM

    I've had a simple tool (or set of tools) for decades that've made a habit of exercising. Mountain bikes. They truly are the killer app.

  • by robotresearcher on 9/3/19, 2:33 AM

    I like it a lot, thank you.

    Quick notes: i couldn’t find a way to delete a task, and the task directory table doesn’t fit on an iPhone 8 held vertically.

  • by nevster on 9/3/19, 3:26 AM

  • by avinassh on 9/3/19, 3:58 AM

    It might be a stupid question, but how do I sign up? I can't find it anywhere.

  • by JohnJamesRambo on 9/2/19, 11:57 PM

    Oh goodness thank you. I was looking for something just like this.

  • by magwa101 on 9/3/19, 9:39 PM

    Another thing to get in the way of working out.

  • by skanga on 9/2/19, 8:53 PM

    Can you add "laps" to the target counter?

  • by loblollyboy on 9/2/19, 11:41 PM

    Why cant you just go excercise?

  • by beardedProgmr on 9/3/19, 7:02 AM

    No app. Apps are all now.

  • by anewguy9000 on 9/2/19, 7:50 PM

    internal service error :(