Saltlick Labs

PoW 3-Week Challenge | Week 1

Day 1: Setup and Test Workout

For the next 3 weeks I’m going to blog my progress using Pocket Workout in conjunction with the Hacker Routine. This is an ideal routine for me because I spend a lot of time sitting at my desk working at my computer, and haven’t engaged in intensive physical activities in quite some time as you can see from my test results . My goal is to improve 150% in the next 3 weeks as oppose to 6-weeks as suggested by the Hacker Routine.

Hacker Routine

• 1 set of Windmills – stretches the entire body
• 1 set of Jumping Jacks – works the legs and cardio
• 3 sets of Push-Ups – upper body
• 3 sets of Crunches – trim the gut
• 3 sets of Pull-ups – upper body

Personal Trainer Setup
It’s best to setup your trainer the first day of your intended routine as you’ll be required to take a test of each exercise you include. Today is Monday and Day 1 of my three-week plan — I’ve setup the training routine and performed all of my tests.

User Profile
After completing the personal trainer tests, I setup my profile and added a picture my girlfriend took with the phone’s camera. I do not have a flexible measuring tape and our bathroom scale is broken, so my measurements are sure to vary. I’m more interested in gaining back muscle strength rather than losing weight as I have a high metabolism anyway.

Daily Workout
Each time I open Pocket Workout from this point forward, I’ll be shown my daily routine and target goal for that day. Within two taps I’m able to log results and get feedback on my progress reaching the end goal of 150% improvement.

Day 2: Off Day

Day 2 is an off-day to recover from the initial test. I’m doing MWF schedule.

Day 3: Second Workout

Today was my first day to shoot for a daily target higher than my test average. The first day I tested I didn’t have much sleep, so beating the cardio routines was pretty easy. If it wasn’t for the humility of failing to meet a target goal, I may have stopped short as far as the push-ups, crunches, and pull-ups were concerned. On the first set of each exercise I beat the target, but subsequent sets saw diminishing results.

Day 4: Off Day

Today is an off-day so I figured I’d show readers what your workout screen looks like. We’ll be improving this screen visually, and exposing more stats in the interface in future updates.

Day 5: Third Workout

Whew, I was a little concerned about today because I drank a bit of beer last night, and was feeling it during the windmills. I had to stop when I started to get dizzy. After a full glass of water I felt a lot better and dialed in 100 jumping jacks. Unfortunantly, I hit a lot of resistance during the push-ups and missed my target by 1. I think after a nice long break this weekend (going camping), I’ll be able to hit my target on Monday. The remaining exercises were equally intense but I was able to hit the target with last second bursts of determination. Again, if it wasn’t for knowing the target improvement goal for the day – I probably would have quit short. 

I think in future versions we should consider a moving average line so user’s can see their overall progress and not be bothered by daily fluctuations in weight.

PS. Version 1.0.1 was made available today on the iTunes store which enables support for the METRIC system.