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Show HN: Workout.lol – a web app to easily create a workout routine

workout.lol

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Re: Show HN: Workout.lol – a web app to easily create a workout routine

#271

Post by kjkjadksj »

Jcampuzano2 wrote: post #248
kjkjadksj wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compare a barbell squat to a bodyweight pistol squat. What does a beginner hitting failure look like with either? For the pistol squat you can’t get up and just maybe fall over 1 foot onto your yoga mat, or just use your other leg to balance and stand. The barbell back squat failure is absolutely ugly in comparison. You are down and can’t get up, maybe you try and push anyway with your back vs legs, thats a lot of we…

This is why there is such a thing as a power rack/squat rack. You can fail completely safely with this equipment. If you are an olympic lifter, almost everyone is taught how to bail these lifts from the beginning with the empty bar. Most people aren't and lift in racks built just to be able to safely lift heavy. Its on you if you don't actually set up the safety bars for yourself.

Failing safely in a squat rack means you know how to bail from the weight in a way to not further injure yourself. Thats not immediately obvious, like learning to fall in other sports. I know people who were in athletics, using the school squat rack with a coach, and still ended up with injuries. Not everyone sees an olympic lifting coach before trying olympic lifts at the gym, probably a very small percentage actually do.

Re: Show HN: Workout.lol – a web app to easily create a workout routine

#272

Post by zls »

nojs wrote: post #270
rkapsoro wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://startingstrength.com/get-started

Starting strength is good but Rippetoe is very old school and the community has some cultish vibes. He is totally inflexible about any slight variation like high bar squats and trap bar deadlifts, which are great exercises and often better. His forums are not particularly friendly either. (Example: https://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/mark-rippetoe-q... ) I think stronglifts is generally a better program for…

Been powerlifting for 15 years and I strongly disagree.

Stronglifts basically aped Starting Strength with minimal tweaks to justify separate branding, and only caught on over SS because of the slick app. Rippetoe has been coaching strength for many decades and was a competitive lifter himself, with his all-time PRs for squat and deadlift being a little over 600. He’s trained a network of coaches who command crazy prices for training because the cert is prestigious and incredibly difficult to earn. He was a key contributor to powerlifting and weightlifting components of CrossFit, until he (justifiably, imo) became disillusioned with the franchise. The Starting Strength book is an incredible resource for powerlifters, going into extreme detail into how to do the lifts, why, how to avoid getting injured, how to do your programming, and how to tell when you’ve outgrown Starting Strength. The forum you linked is actually an incredible resource where you can get free form feedback and general advice from the actual coaches (and Rippetoe), with no analog in the stronglifts community. (Is there even a stronglifts community?)

Mehdi, on the other hand… is some guy who made an app. He’s not even a particularly impressive lifter, and was a decidedly unimpressive one when he launched SL.

On the programs themselves: 5x5 is inappropriate for beginners. In no time at all you will hit a progression wall, and your workouts will take forever, where 3x5 could have continued without a hitch, for no upside. And despite the suggestion that more reps means more practice, the fact is that ESPECIALLY for beginners, doing a zillion reps in a state of fatigue is a great way to get hurt.

Barbell rows are such a poor substitute for power cleans that Rippetoe no longer recommends them at all, and the newest edition of the book expresses remorse for ever having made the suggestion.

But even putting all that aside, the most important part of SS is that it is essentially complete and will carry you for 6-9 months with no modification. Because as the commenter up the chain said, fuckarounditis is the most popular way to fail at getting strong. All the common complaints (“waah my biceps aren’t big enough”) are trivially addressed at the intermediate stage, once you’ve built a base of strength and a habit of training. This is why they are “cultish” about variations: you can do all that once you’ve run out your beginner gains. Until then, you don’t know what you’re doing and shouldn’t mess around.

Re: Show HN: Workout.lol – a web app to easily create a workout routine

#274

Post by Aerroon »

matwood wrote: post #185
datavirtue wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not with weight on their back. You should seek professional advice for weight training. I learned that trainers don't even let people touch a bar for a year as they repair and strengthen their core. It's all body weight and PVC pipes to develop form.

> Not with weight on their back. Yeah, people do worse in real life. They pick up stuff of varying weights all the time at odd angles.

I would say that weights that approach lifting levels are rare. Most stuff that weights a lot becomes too unwieldy to lift. Anything above that tends to be something you carry with multiple people.

Also, I would say that your grip is going to be a bigger liability in those situations.

Re: Show HN: Workout.lol – a web app to easily create a workout routine

#275

Post by zls »

lukas099 wrote: post #209
somethingreen wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't do SS as a beginner, unless you are sure lifting heavy is what you want and are positive you'll be able to get through setbacks. Absolutely, read SS the book and apply its wisdom to corresponding lifts in the bodybuilding program you'll pick up instead. Then, once you are comfortable in the gym, slowly progress to add heavier lifts/sessions into your program. From there decide if you want to prioritize e…

The main problem with SS for me is that encourages you to push through extreme exhaustion, because weight resets are based on failure to complete reps, and completely ignore Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE). I got a lot stronger on SS, but the last few weeks were killer and ended with injuries for me.

I would describe it differently, but I share your general take. The main weakness of SS is that once it gets heavy you really need professional feedback, because your form will begin to deteriorate. This will happen regardless of the program. Still, I wish SS was more clear about it—most beginners are not gonna film themselves and ask for form checks online, and ought to seek a coach irl.

RPE wouldn’t work either because beginners don’t know how to judge. Everyone who squats heavy knows that a huge part of getting good at it is learning how to keep pushing safely, even as the lift becomes more and more psychologically challenging.

Re: Show HN: Workout.lol – a web app to easily create a workout routine

#276

Post by gardenhedge »

Daneel_ wrote: post #98
herculity275 wrote: post #59

I do feel like most beginner/intermediate lifters with gym access would be better served just picking a standard full-body workout routine (e.g. GZCLP) and sticking to it. Figuring out which muscle groups you'd like to be targeting with specialized exercises is not something you should be doing as a novice.

“Just picking a standard full-body workout routine” - that’s the issue, I have no idea what the names of standard routines are or where to find them. I’d love to know several. I know none. Like many things, knowing the name or term of what you’re looking for is the gateway - without that you’re stuck floundering.

It's mostly BS. I followed one of the ones reddit swore by and got big legs but relatively smaller upper body. That might mean strength but it wasn't a good physique which is why most people workout.

check out fitness progress posts and you'll see some great looking bodies. the comments will be like "which routine pls" and the answer will be "huh? I just go to the gym consistently"

Re: Show HN: Workout.lol – a web app to easily create a workout routine

#278

Post by weakfish »

abound wrote: post #264
weakfish wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a huge 5/3/1 fan and have been thinking of building my own version of this! Would you be open to contributions, instead? I'd love to at least add some design to the front-end

Definitely open to contributions, but I'll note that the barebones nature is mostly by design. I'm happy to take any usability improvements (of which I can imagine many!), but I don't want to introduce dependencies on design/component frameworks or even CSS libraries. Generally, all the content for a day's lifts should fit on a single small mobile phone screen to make it dead simple to record a lift and then get to t…

For sure, I agree - not a fan of bloated N-million JavaScript library front-ends. I was just thinking bare CSS that does some little visual niceties.

Will follow up on GH. Thanks!

Re: Show HN: Workout.lol – a web app to easily create a workout routine

#280

Post by edpichler »

shubhamjain wrote: post #40

What an awesome execution. This app goes to show how you can build an excellent product even in a crowded market like Fitness. There must be gazillion workout builders out there, but OP's is the first one that I have seen which shows every exercise with example videos, and allows you to build exact workout you need without multiple google searches.

Awesome execution. I totally agree.
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