[HN Gopher] Show HN: MuscleWiki Workout Generator - Generate uni...
___________________________________________________________________
Show HN: MuscleWiki Workout Generator - Generate unique workouts
Hey Everyone, Today marks a big day for the team at MuscleWiki.
We launched the workout generator, using our huge custom dataset of
exercises, videos and text, we optimized so users are able to
generate millions of unique workout combinations. These aren't just
dumb workouts either, anyone with a lick of python can generate
millions of workouts. The hard thing to do is generate the 1
workout that you want. The team painstakingly programmed and mapped
science based set recommendations and fatigue into those results
based on user selection. There are still a few bugs we are working
out, but this took months of work from the whole team. Check it
out, use it, share it! Our coach Ty will be in the comments to
answer any questions on how we set things up.
Author : w0ts0n
Score : 74 points
Date : 2024-05-01 15:04 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (musclewiki.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (musclewiki.com)
| throwaway14356 wrote:
| very nice. I've recently grown fond of an analogy with programs
| and the command line. People seem to view health and fitness more
| from a cli pov while you really need a whole program, scheduled
| events, interrupts, exceptions, and logs. Let there be logs!
| closetkantian wrote:
| I like it. Good work.
| babyamirgg wrote:
| I am using this for a long time and I find it very useful. This
| app has been very very helpful for me. I love it! Keep up the
| good work.
| tythemuscleguy wrote:
| Ty from MuscleWiki here! If anyone is interested in knowing
| how/why we choose different rep ranges and fatigue levels for
| Men/Woman or wants to understand our choices, let me know.. happy
| to answer any questions.
| lemming wrote:
| It's a cool idea. The results seem a little off, though.
|
| I chose a full-body workout for a 52-y/o man (me), intermediate
| level focusing on muscle gain. The program suggests squats for
| 3x3-5, bench for 2x3-5, hip thrusts for 3x3-5, chin-ups for
| 3x4-8 etc. Those seem more like strength building rep ranges to
| me. Then weirdly, I get deadlifts for 3x6-10, which is odd
| programming for deadlifts. In total, I have 8 exercises for a
| total of 24 sets, which seems like it would take me a solid
| couple of hours to do. It's also massively focused on glutes
| and hamstrings for some reason, I have squats, hip thrusts,
| deadlifts and nordic curls in the same workout. That just seems
| like an unreasonable amount of volume.
| Galanwe wrote:
| The intrusive ads made me leave immediately.
| w0ts0n wrote:
| Yeah, I hate ads too :( Unfortunately we have to run ads to
| support our business.
|
| We don't mind ad blockers, I suggest Brave! But if you do want
| to help support our team, we also offer a premium subscription
| that removes ads and unlocks other features like tracking.
| chrismore wrote:
| I am not a gym rat, but I do enjoy going if someone else figures
| out what I am going to do. I get bored if I have to figure out a
| routine myself. This could be an answer to that. Will try it!
| add-sub-mul-div wrote:
| The AI shovelware spam will continue until morale improves.
| Philpax wrote:
| There is no AI here.
| swader999 wrote:
| This did really well picking out an easy to follow program for
| strength for my 12 year old. Been doing a lot of research lately
| on how to train kids for sports and this seemed to really give a
| modern response on sets/reps for this age and strength goal. Well
| done!
| tythemuscleguy wrote:
| Awesome! We wanted to make sure we could have tailored
| responses for people of all ages. Glad you like the result for
| your 12 year old!
| pimlottc wrote:
| Found a bug: On the "Fitness Level" step, if you click the "info"
| icon, and then close it by pressing escape, you end up moving
| /backwards/ in the process (back to the "Fitness Goal" step).
|
| The same thing also can happen if you double-click the "info"
| icon on the "Fitness Level" step, or if you close the popup (via
| mouse) and then click any of the buttons.
| tythemuscleguy wrote:
| Forwarding that to the team we'll get it fixed. Thanks for the
| feedback.
| smeej wrote:
| I like it already!
|
| I would love to be able to set how much _time_ I have available
| for workouts too though. Like, if I want a whole body workout but
| only have 10 minutes, I know I 'm going to get less done, but
| maybe fewer reps/higher weight.
| tythemuscleguy wrote:
| I like that idea! I'll add it to the list of stuff we'll be
| working on for version 2 :)
| smeej wrote:
| I wonder if there's something up with some of the calibration?
|
| I shied away from picking "beginner" and opted for "novice"
| instead because beginner listed being able to do 1-3 pushups as a
| guideline, and I can't.
|
| But then when it generated a "novice" workout for me, it had me
| doing 2 sets of 6-10 pushups. I...can't? I could do 6-10 counter-
| height pushups probably, but I think the novice level might need
| to be tweaked to keep the individual exercises easier than it
| currently is.
| w0ts0n wrote:
| Good feedback. We just launched so will adapt as we go!
| mbil wrote:
| Cool app. For the dumbbell exercises could it recommend weight?
| I_o_IllI__o_I wrote:
| This is really cool, and in particular it's helpful that it lets
| you select what tools you have available for your workout. I
| tried creating a bodyweight only routine and all the exercises
| look well picked to me.
|
| Just my .02 - I would prefer if the dummy you click on to select
| which muscle groups you wanna train to be gender neutral, or have
| a separate selection for all genders, if that is relevant for the
| exercises provided.
| yzbq11c wrote:
| Very cool! Something I've been thinking about prototyping is
| essentially this but with a presentation / 'workout mode' view.
| Something like the full screen modals you have with demos of the
| moves, the details of set, etc. Bonus if I can shout 'Next' at it
| from across my basement and have it go to the next move.
| Krasnol wrote:
| This is awesome.
|
| After wanting to build up my shoulders, I went to YouTube and
| looked for exercises. The utter madness I've been served
| searching for this was staggering. Overhyped bodybuilders
| promoting pills, fitness influencers, equipment I didn't have,
| but they knew the best shop for it, etc...
|
| This is clean, straight, I love it.
|
| Starting my workout NOW.
| eltondegeneres wrote:
| The muscle group importance weighting seems off. I created a
| barbell workout for "Chest, Lats, Traps (mid-back), Traps,
| Forearms, Calves" on beginner and it includes no lifts for pecs,
| just accessory work like wrist curls and calf raises. Is this
| because bench press is considered an intermediate lift?
| gruez wrote:
| After inputting your information, why is there a countdown before
| the results are shown? Surely filtering through a few hundred
| exercises (being generous here) by muscle group doesn't take 5
| seconds? Is a delay being artificially added (eg. [1])?
|
| [1]
| https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/02/why-s...
| w0ts0n wrote:
| We have a few reasons. But mostly so if we get hit by reddit
| again, the site doesn't go down from load.
| bogwog wrote:
| This is always a red flag for me
| powerset wrote:
| Fascinating!
|
| > anyone with a lick of python can generate millions of workouts
|
| Are you offering an API for the workout generator?
|
| Any plans to generate workout plans for a week/month and
| incorporate rest days?
| swatcoder wrote:
| In what sense is your workout collection a wiki and how complete
| is it meant to be?
|
| The bodyweight workouts, for instance, are sparse and rudimentary
| and the generator comes up with a pretty disjoint and
| insufficient program at all intensity levels.
|
| That's not to say that you're obliged to replicate Overcoming
| Gravity or TRX or something, but it's unclear why bodyweight even
| appears as an option in the genrator at this point, let alone at
| levels beyond beginner.
|
| If it's not really an expansive wiki and is instead just a
| collection of your own high-production-value workout descriptions
| (which seem well made) for contemporary weight training, it makes
| sense that there's only a narrow "happy path" through the
| generator -- maybe the presentation should be more focused on
| that happy path and less overbroad?
| pandemic_region wrote:
| What are you trying to say, genuine question.
| swatcoder wrote:
| It seems like a decent but pretty narrow collection of
| exercises that over-represents its breadth, so I'm wondering
| what the vision is (why 'wiki' if its internally maintained
| content?) and what the purpose is in having this new
| generator generate programs for undeveloped content
| categories.
| w0ts0n wrote:
| Took me a while (and to read your reply) to understand what you
| were saying.
|
| Don't get hung up on the name. The intention a long time ago
| was to make it a wiki, but it never happened and the name
| stuck.
|
| I'm not sure what you mean, bodyweight only exercise selection
| looks fine to me? Want to give me a concrete example, maybe we
| have something bugged. We have a bunch more exercise coming to
| add a little more depth, but our data shows that bodyweight is
| generally where novice/beginner lifters want to start, so we
| give them the option. Also things like pull-ups, chin-ups, dips
| are in no way "beginner" and so if a user selects "all
| equipment" which is what most people do, they'll get these very
| important exercises if they are applicable.
|
| its okay if you don't agree, but we have an expert on staff who
| curated these exercises. I trust him more than some guy on the
| internet. So if they are wrong, its likely a bug.
|
| ack on bodyweight depth - working on it.
| swatcoder wrote:
| Thanks for responding. More bodyweight depth would be great!
|
| But I think this part of your reply really hits the seemingly
| unstated focus of your program:
|
| > bodyweight is generally where novice/beginner lifters want
| to start
|
| Your vision is a site for the _lifting_ community and the
| progressions associated with that community. That 's great
| and could be a very successful business with a very helpful
| site. Your exercise descriptions and their videos are
| excellent. I hope it all works out for you!
|
| But that community and that progression is only one tradition
| in strength training, muscle development, and athleticism.
| It's a very popular niche, but it's a ultimately a specific
| niche (and you want it to be exactly that if you want your
| business to have brand clarity to customers and partners).
|
| Where this distinction starts to become most apparent is when
| you start looking at "Intermediate" and "Advanced" exercises
| in a specific domain like bodyweight. For a _lifter_ , the
| box dips, side plank reach throughs, etc from your Advanced
| Bodyweight Workout are perhaps as advanced as you'll take
| your bodyweight practice as part of your overall lifting
| practice.
|
| But for people who are actually interested in pursuing
| "advanced" bodyweight practice itself, these are better
| characterized as novice-to-intermediate exercises. "Advanced"
| work in bodyweight fitness itself (even without
| rings/bars/straps etc) are things like L-sits, planches,
| handstand pushups, etc [Stephen Low's Overcoming Gravity is a
| definitive reference for these progressions]
|
| I don't think there's anything wrong with your site's
| collection, but I do think it would benefit for being more
| clear about _who_ it 's meant for and what its vision is. I
| think the _presentation_ is trying to be very generic and
| universal right now, which isn 't really feasible, and it was
| unclear to me if that was accidental or not.
|
| As I noted originally (however haphazardly expressed!), my
| Show HN feedback is that you might want to more strongly
| communicate your specific and reasonable focus so that you
| appeal more directly to people looking for exactly what you
| offer and cost yourself in less support-
| burden/confusion/judgment from people who are seeking
| something different.
|
| As an example, if the site indicated more explicitly for
| "lifters", we wouldn't have even had this conversation in the
| first place and my questions over lacking breadth wouldn't
| have been aired out here for others to read.
| MarcScott wrote:
| > Your vision is a site for the lifting community
|
| Is that mentioned explicitly somewhere on the site?
|
| I'm into martial arts and never want to set foot inside a
| gym; I also have no equipment at home. Picking things up
| and then putting them down again has no interest for me.
|
| I want exercises that use only body weight and allow me to
| focus on the muscle groups where I want to increase
| strength (I have no interest in aesthetics; I just want to
| punch and kick hard).
|
| It's early days on the site, but it has already given me a
| bunch of exercises that do exactly what I want.
| pandemic_region wrote:
| Really awesome and well executed. I'll be using this for sure.
|
| One thing I don't get is that you click a muscle group and
| sometimes it turns red and sometimes pink. What is the
| difference? And then I click on the opposite muscle on the back
| of the body and the front disappears. A bit of twiddling to get
| it right. Maybe a small animated intro with how to would help
| here.
| w0ts0n wrote:
| Thats a bug. We think its an issue with mobile active tag.
| Looking into it!
| iknownthing wrote:
| Looks cool, curious why it's called "wiki" though
| w0ts0n wrote:
| Originally I built the site on mediawiki... just a choice I
| made back in the day that stuck. Don't get too hung up on it!
| bobchadwick wrote:
| Very cool! It'd be nice to be able to choose muscle by name. I'm
| interested in tennis-focused strength training and most guides
| list the muscles to focus on by name. My knowledge of human
| anatomy is too limited to be able to locate those muscles on a
| map of a body. If I could search for muscles by name, it'd be
| easier to indicate which muscles I wanted to focus on.
| w0ts0n wrote:
| Once we've nailed the smaller selection we have now. We want to
| implement "goals" long term. Something like "Get a better
| tennis backhand"
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-05-01 23:02 UTC)