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Google Fit: An effortless, comprehensive view of your fitness

officialandroid.blogspot.com

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Re: Google Fit: An effortless, comprehensive view of your fitness

#41

Post by jessejhernandez »

sliverstorm wrote: post #36
smileysteve wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What data points does a phone collect that you see as a beneficial measure of lifting activity?

I've fiddled with the Stronglifts app, it is surprisingly handy. It basically serves the same purpose as a stopwatch and notebook log, but in a nicer more automated package. - Time your rest periods - Track your progress - Remember what weight you did last time - Count your sets

Yeah this is what I'm referring too. It would be cool to have an intuitive app that could actually differentiate between bench press and shoulder press. I like to lift weights doing various exercises and typically once I am done I will go to google drive and insert it on a google spreadhseet.

Re: Google Fit: An effortless, comprehensive view of your fitness

#43

Post by cratermoon »

mkonecny wrote: post #40
octagonal wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can use it while you're at the gym.

He meant for example what data points would the phone use to know you're working out your triceps?

The allure of the current set of exercise apps is that the device automatically tracks the effort, using existing features like accelerometer and GPS, and there's no input required. FitBit tracks steps, some apps use GPS to track distance covered and derive stats. It's nearly literally a no-brainer to use them, and they require no cumbersome gear to wear. Even a heart rate monitor is small and unobtrusive now.

Unfortunately for lifting and many other forms of exercise, the apparatus is not built into the device you already have or can strap on your belt and forget about. In addition to needing special-purpose measuring equipment, the user would have to incorporate the device into the exercise.

A barbell could know it's been picked up and put down, but how would it know how much weight is on it? RFID in the plates? A tennis racket or baseball bat could track swings and speed, but would anyone even care for that metric?

Re: Google Fit: An effortless, comprehensive view of your fitness

#48

Post by bergie »

tvanantwerp wrote: post #28

I just installed this. I had been logging steps on my Android watch for the past few months, replacing my old Fitbit. I've been looking forward to Google Fit for a while so I can more easily examine all that step data and visualize it. However, as soon as I got it installed, all my previous months' data was simply gone. Not imported into Google Fit, but just gone. Fitbit wasn't perfect, but it was better than this.

On my Wear watch the history disappeared, but at least the past week (or so) was synced to the app

Re: Google Fit: An effortless, comprehensive view of your fitness

#49

Post by mirsadm »

parfe wrote: post #3

Just installed the phone app. Less a "comprehensive view", and more of a pedometer with graphs. You can manually add activities but the only options are: Walking, Running, Biking, Other. And even then, you can only record duration. I suppose there is hidden integration with the wearables, but why can't I manually input the data? If I can't record squats, then what's the point?

I think anyone that is even a little bit serious about their particular exercise/activity will not use this. I cycle and run. I record everything in Strava. Most of my friends do too. I can't really see a reason to use this. Counting steps does not seem to be very useful.

Re: Google Fit: An effortless, comprehensive view of your fitness

#50

Post by dragonwriter »

parfe wrote: post #3

Just installed the phone app. Less a "comprehensive view", and more of a pedometer with graphs. You can manually add activities but the only options are: Walking, Running, Biking, Other. And even then, you can only record duration. I suppose there is hidden integration with the wearables, but why can't I manually input the data? If I can't record squats, then what's the point?

> If I can't record squats, then what's the point?

The point is to be one front end to "[a]n open platform that lets users control their fitness data" and "lets developers build smarter apps and manufacturers focus on creating amazing devices." [1]

> You can manually add activities but the only options are: Walking, Running, Biking, Other.

The backend is aware of more activity types [2], so I suspect its either getting the right UX for that is the issue, or that developing the what to do with other activities to make the data meaningful that is holding back putting more into the app UI.

[1] https://developers.google.com/fit/ -- the page that, for me, comes up as the first web (not news) result for a Google search for "Google Fit".

[2] https://developers.google.com/fit/rest/v1/reference/activity...

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