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Scott Adams: Your Next Gym

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Re: Scott Adams: Your Next Gym

#61

Post by gaius »

eru wrote: post #59
gaius wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hang cleans are my favourite at the moment :-) But it's not fun that squeezes out the last rep, it's sheer bloody-mindedness.

Yes. Though that can also be a kind of fun. I guess it's not worth to fight over definitions. Do you plan to progress to full power cleans later?

I'm having a bit of difficulty with hand position - the correct position for me for the deadlift phase is slightly wider than for the hang clean phase at the moment. Not sure if it's something I can practice/train around, or if it's just the way my wrists are.

Plus my deadlift is well over double my hang clean...

Re: Scott Adams: Your Next Gym

#62

Post by janj »

cschneid wrote: post #41
janj wrote: post #27

I wonder what the balance is for gyms between active members and non active members. I imagine most successful gyms have a relatively high number of non active members, and if use increased then membership could actually decrease because of crowding issues. I would think the gym's motivation is to increase the number of memberships while keeping actual use low, restricting this kind of investment to expensive special…

On the other hand, nothing sells gym memberships like more success cases, telling their friends how they got fit.

Or a free membership paid for by your employer in an effort to reduce overall health insurance costs.

Re: Scott Adams: Your Next Gym

#63

Post by Avshalom »

The idea in some form probably has merit but

You'd need strict supervision to make sure no one was so amped up by the game that he hurt himself on the machines. And the captain would need to coordinate when someone moved from one machine to another. For example, if you were being attacked and needed stronger shields, you might move your most buff teammate to the machine controlling shield power until the threat was over. If speed was most important, you'd put your speedsters on the treadmill. Or maybe at some point everyone would have to "lift" at the same time to get over an obstacle. The variations are limitless.

sounds a lot like it would actually get in the way of an effective workout. It's not a good idea to just arbitrarily jump from one kid of exercise to another, and if the game was any sort of actual game (as opposed to just a leader board)the emergent gameplay would mean just that

Re: Scott Adams: Your Next Gym

#64

Post by lmkg »

patio11 wrote: post #22
imp wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they make money hats Where do you get these phrases? You're making me laugh at work :)

Money hats is a metric for profitability of video games created by Scott Jennings (Lum the Mad), but most phrases I use repeatedly are the result of trying out a lot of ways to say things and iterating on what gets smiles, laughs, or quoted back at me.

> most phrases I use repeatedly are the result of trying out a lot of ways to say things and iterating

Wow, I knew you were into A/B testing, but damn!

Re: Scott Adams: Your Next Gym

#65

Post by chadgeidel »

mcantelon wrote: post #12

Would be more useful, in addition, to have gyms generate power for the grid.

Except for the fact that humans are really bad power sources. Tour de France riders generate about 500 watts. A quick googling turns up this article: http://www.sportsscientists.com/2009/07/tour-de-france-2009-...

Basically you wouldn't even be able to keep the lights on, let alone run the televisions, AC, fans, etc...

Re: Scott Adams: Your Next Gym

#66

Post by eru »

gaius wrote: post #61
eru wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Though that can also be a kind of fun. I guess it's not worth to fight over definitions. Do you plan to progress to full power cleans later?

I'm having a bit of difficulty with hand position - the correct position for me for the deadlift phase is slightly wider than for the hang clean phase at the moment. Not sure if it's something I can practice/train around, or if it's just the way my wrists are. Plus my deadlift is well over double my hang clean...

I do deadlifts and power cleans. My deadlift is almost double my power clean.

I like to pick the bar up from the ground. Also putting the bar down between repetitions allows me to re-set my back.

Keep practising, your flexibility should improve. I'd use the hand position of the hang clean phase also for the deadlift phase---because the weight will be so low compared to a proper deadlift that you can afford to use suboptimal positioning for this part.

Re: Scott Adams: Your Next Gym

#67

Post by ryanelkins »

frossie wrote: post #58
ryanelkins wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I like the idea of a group working towards a common goal that everyone is contributing to more than trying to beat someone else. Competition works really well sometimes but perhaps not in this case.

On the other hand, a lot of people who are social/motivated by team psychology already have other motivating options, like team sports, group classes etc. The interesting thing in this idea (which I agree with the comment that it would be great for home equipment) is that it allows you to tap into your motivation circuits even when you are engaging in a solitary activity.

The nice thing is that you can build around all of these with the same system and people can take what they want from them. There is no reason why any of these elements would need to be mutually exclusive.

Re: Scott Adams: Your Next Gym

#68

Post by patio11 »

samtp wrote: post #37
patio11 wrote: post #10

My gym does just the MVP of this, where your RFID wristband gives you data persistence for workout results. Walk up to machine, swipe wristband, Good afternoon Mr. Mckenz lets try for 12 reps at 40kg today. ("Who ever heard of someone with a last name longer than six characters long? LOL" A segment of their clientele -- and most at my gym are north of forty -- love it to death. There is at least one seventy something…

Just curious, what is the name of the gym company?

Konami. Yeah, THAT Konami.

Re: Scott Adams: Your Next Gym

#69

Post by ryanelkins »

MtL wrote: post #39

We do not need all these gimmicks. We need people to know what is good for themselves, and start doing something about it. Call me oldfashioned, but I am of the impression that: + No RFID chip in my backpack will make a mountain hike with 50lb weight added any more fun, any more useful, any more easy or anything else. + No RFID chips in the my plates will make my sets of squats or deadlifts any more fun or easy. + No…

"That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially."

Sure, people should be willing to do things of their own accord without needing any motivation at all, but we live in a world filled with motivation to do all sorts of things - why not try to use some of that influence for good?

Re: Scott Adams: Your Next Gym

#70

Post by johnwatson11218 »

I just want to add that at home I have a treadmill with a flat panel tv,dvd player, and xbox 360 hooked up right in front of it. That is the only way I can do 40+ minutes of cardio. It turns out that for me the multiplayer games like Call of Duty 4 are the most engaging. I can get so wrapped up in those kinds of games that I forget that I am working out. It helps that often I am "running" in the game at the same rate that I am physically running. I had to cancel my gym membership because it was just so boring to be there for any length of time. I think a first step will be to allow wifi in the gyms and have stands where you can pop a laptop in front of the treadmill to watch netflix or something.

With better UI I might try surfing the net or some kind of reading if the text were big enough.

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