What makes a fitness program hacker friendly? That's basically reinforcing some stereotype that all coders belong to this fraternity of brothers. We don't. We are professionally programmers, but once I step outside of my job I am no longer a programmer. Fitness shouldn't be targeted at a specific profession, instead it should be targeted at people who work in similar conditions. Office jobs vs programmers, which makes more sense to target? There's way more people working office jobs with health issues from sitting, but the converse isn't necessarily true about programmers. A programmer might not work in an office, they might work at some hip startup with exercise equipment everywhere. My employer has it's own gym with personal trainers, but I doubt most small non-engineering offices do. You're going to hurt the bottom line by using a "hacker" tagline to sell this service.
Show HN: HackerBody – A Geek’s Guide to Getting in Shape
11–20 of 48 posts
Re: Show HN: HackerBody – A Geek’s Guide to Getting in Shape
#12As a hacker who enjoy fitness and lifting weights, the message "'meat head' free" tainted my impression of this site, as if my way of working out was bad. I happen to be someone who doesn't want "muscles on muscles on muscles" but I am also someone who works at a desk 8 hours a day and wants to stay healthy, and trust me, even lifting heavy weights 3 times a week does not turn you into some freak of nature. That said…
Jumping on the acconrad bandwagon. I was completely inactive, weighed 240 when I should be around 150. But I took up heavy lifting, specifically Stronglifts 5x5 in February, then switched to Ice Cream Fitness in May.
Nothing against bodyweight stuff either. I do a light bodyweight routine two days a week to help deal with some back/posture issues ICF is not addressing well enough.
I'm down to 195, and stronger than I've been since I was in my 20s.
I tried one of those "vary your workout every day" programs last year, and quit. Not being consistent, as a newbie, made it hard to see progress, which demotivates. On ICF, while reaping noob gains, I see the weight I lift go up every session.
For me, value would be in putting in my exact workout, down to lift tempos, pauses, rest between sets, etc., and having an app run my workout for me, so I only have to think about proper form and pushing out that last rep.
Re: Show HN: HackerBody – A Geek’s Guide to Getting in Shape
#13My feedback: I'd love to see some examples of the kinds of workouts the service sends before signing up.
Re: Show HN: HackerBody – A Geek’s Guide to Getting in Shape
#14As a hacker who enjoy fitness and lifting weights, the message "'meat head' free" tainted my impression of this site, as if my way of working out was bad. I happen to be someone who doesn't want "muscles on muscles on muscles" but I am also someone who works at a desk 8 hours a day and wants to stay healthy, and trust me, even lifting heavy weights 3 times a week does not turn you into some freak of nature. That said…
Acconrad, I appreciate your thoughts on the tagline, "meat head free". My goal was to appeal to people who aren't already doing something active. HackerBody isn't the end-all in being active but it's a great place for people to get started. The videos are just the tip of the iceberg. I wanted to get this launched and get feedback before I push out new features. Thanks for taking time to give me your feedback!
I liked your work with Startup Foundry so I was excited to see this, and I'm sure you're using many tried-and-true entrepreneurial principles to get this off the ground. But the psychological UX needs to focus on the positives and the benefits people will experience. That does not mean you have to achieve that by ostracizing people who enjoy working out, or by convincing people who don't work out that if you do work out you'll become a meat head.
Re: Show HN: HackerBody – A Geek’s Guide to Getting in Shape
#15My feedback: I'd love to see some examples of the kinds of workouts the service sends before signing up.
That's a great point. I'll implement that.
Re: Show HN: HackerBody – A Geek’s Guide to Getting in Shape
#16As a hacker who codes all day and likes to understand how things work, I don't find this particularly enticing. I'm not particularly interested in paying for something when I don't even know what I'm going to get, how it works, what it's track record is, etc. Furthermore, you're going to have a tough time competing with all the stuff I can get for free or the much more well known things that I can pay for.
HackerBody workouts are 100% free. We require people to make an account because we're launching some really cool stuff soon that requires one.
It would be great if you said this somewhere prominently before needing to sign up for an account. Once I saw the "refund" section near the top of the Terms and Conditions, I closed the window, assuming that you'd be asking for a credit card number.
Re: Show HN: HackerBody – A Geek’s Guide to Getting in Shape
#17As a hacker who codes all day and likes to understand how things work, I don't find this particularly enticing. I'm not particularly interested in paying for something when I don't even know what I'm going to get, how it works, what it's track record is, etc. Furthermore, you're going to have a tough time competing with all the stuff I can get for free or the much more well known things that I can pay for.
HackerBody workouts are 100% free. We require people to make an account because we're launching some really cool stuff soon that requires one.
Well, I was chased off by the signup. Maybe I'm not your target market, but I'm unlikely to sign up until I'm pretty convinced that it's something I'm interested in.
Re: Show HN: HackerBody – A Geek’s Guide to Getting in Shape
#18What makes a fitness program hacker friendly? That's basically reinforcing some stereotype that all coders belong to this fraternity of brothers. We don't. We are professionally programmers, but once I step outside of my job I am no longer a programmer. Fitness shouldn't be targeted at a specific profession, instead it should be targeted at people who work in similar conditions. Office jobs vs programmers, which make…
Agreed. Rebrand it now to target those who sit all day.
Re: Show HN: HackerBody – A Geek’s Guide to Getting in Shape
#19As a hacker who enjoy fitness and lifting weights, the message "'meat head' free" tainted my impression of this site, as if my way of working out was bad. I happen to be someone who doesn't want "muscles on muscles on muscles" but I am also someone who works at a desk 8 hours a day and wants to stay healthy, and trust me, even lifting heavy weights 3 times a week does not turn you into some freak of nature. That said…
Acconrad, I appreciate your thoughts on the tagline, "meat head free". My goal was to appeal to people who aren't already doing something active. HackerBody isn't the end-all in being active but it's a great place for people to get started. The videos are just the tip of the iceberg. I wanted to get this launched and get feedback before I push out new features. Thanks for taking time to give me your feedback!
I travel every 3 days and I have no home-base. The copy really appealed to me, especially the no-weights required. I don't always stay at hotels with Gyms (or hotels) and I'm not going to pay for memberships in 6 different cities. I'm not completely against the copy, considering you are targeting me, and not other hackers / techies - that already lift weights and work out.
Re: Show HN: HackerBody – A Geek’s Guide to Getting in Shape
#20No HTTPS on login or signup pages? You lost me at hello.