Thursday, February 5, 2009

Update: iStayFit is Improved with Updates

In early January I suggested using iStayFit as a tool to track your workouts and motivate you during the New Year resolution hoopla. Since that time there have been several significant updates that provide an even better user experience.

IStayfit is now at version 2.4 and has added the following enhancements:
  • Workouts and exercises are now fully customizable, with exercises you can create your own data entry scroll wheels to collect whatever data (numeric or text) you feel necessary for the given exercise (go to http://lootiinc.com/ to view the video). As an example, if you ride a stationary bike you can setup a scroll wheel that collects time, miles, average speed, and percieved exertion level (light medium, hard, crazy!).
  • You can now add exercises to a workout in real time - ultimately allowing you to modify your workout on the fly!
  • The ability to email your logs and import into Numbers or Excel for further analysis is now available. This email export function allows you to selectively choose via date range the workouts to export.
  • The developers have also added a rest period stopwatch that you can customize to your preferred length of time for each individual exercise and if you so choose you can have the timer beep when it is time to start the next set.
  • You can now track your weight in iStayfit and view a graph from within the application (note: the developers promise additional graphing in future releases).
  • Additional sets can be added to an exercise on the fly by double tapping the "next set" arrow, thus if your exercise is setup for 3 sets and you decide to do an extra fourth set - recording that set is now possible.
  • iStayfit tracks your workout time and workout progress via a pie chart (for example: 6 of 11 exercises are complete) displayed on the set entry page.
  • Bottom line, this application is all about recording your workout/exercise session in real time. With each release iStayFit becomes more customizable to your workout needs, true some of the new features are bloat.. such as weight tracking and graphing. But overall, in my opinion this application is many times better than carrying around a notebook at the gym, you always have the results from your previous workout at your finger tips! You can always push your self to top your previous best!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED... after 2 solid months of use!

5 comments:

Glenn said...

I'm scouring the internets to find a gym-tracking iPhone app since the two I've previously tried (iFitness and FitView Lite) haven't been exactly what I'm looking for.

Can you tell me about iStayFit:

[1] Of the 145 included exercises, approximately how many are weight machines (as opposed to free weights)? The other gym log apps I've tried all include a ton of exercises I never use and very few machines (I tend to stick to the weight machines...)

[2] In general, how easy is it to add exercises (ie a weight machine) to those already built in? (Others I've tried -- specifically iFitness -- are somewhat klunky to add new exercises and the custom exercises look really crappy in the list (compared to the built in ones..)

Thanks!

Kipp W. Ottley said...

Approx half of the iStayfit exercises are machines, for example, of the 32 back exercises.. 17 are with machines. I too, use a lot of machines when working out. One of the request I made to the developer is to allow addition of "equipment" - currently that table is locked to addition/modification.
When I add a new exercise now, and if the machine is not listed/shown under equipment.. I just leave that field blank for now and make sure my title of the exercise describes the machine.. many gyms have thier workstations numbered.. I find this is handy to include in the exercise title as well.
Adding an exercise is fairly easy..
Create a title, then # of sets, Add a type (usually weight (lb)), muscle, equipment and category. Once the exersice is created, you then add it to your workout. The developer has promised the ability to add a picture to the exercise in a future enhancement.
My opinion.. if the DEV adds both of the above.. you will a have the ability to create any exercise you can think of.. and track whatever metrics apply - via the flexibility under TYPE. Also note.. when creating an exercise you can start from scratch, or copy and modify an existing exercise.

Glenn said...

Thanks, Kipp. I went ahead and bought the app. It's sort of funny...this game I (and probably many others) play over avoiding or delaying purchasing a $5 app, like it's such a HUGE investment if it doesn't work out. That's not even a cup of coffee and muffin at Starbucks.

I played around with it briefly this morning at the gym. Definitely loved what I saw and am totally pleased with the purchase (like it better than iFitness which I'd previously purchased and used).

My only gripe (albeit only after minimal use) is with the "start a new session" function which restricts you to using previously-designed workouts. If I'm doing Biceps or something and feel like throwing in an ab exercise that isn't in the "biceps" workout, there's evidently no way to do that without starting a new workout and choosing "abs" (or another workout with that as an included exercise). Am I missing something?

Anyway, I'm very pleased with the app!

Kipp W. Ottley said...

You can add an exercise to a workout on the fly. A relatively new enhancement.
1. While in an activie workout, Go back to iStayfit's HOME screen.
2. Click "workouts"
3. Select the workout you are currently using.. Biceps.
4. Select EDIT, then add the new exercise.. click done and return to iStayfit home screen.. click the big Green Continue button and that exercise is added to yout Bicep workout and you continue exercising... not super easy.. but doable...
One thing to note... that new exercise will now show up in the bicep workout moving forward... until you remove it.

Glenn said...

Thanks. That's a decent work-around. And thanks for being my personal iStayFit tech support!