Track your workout from the iPhone Lock Screen | Hacker News Reader

Track your workout from the iPhone Lock Screen

musklr.com

36 pointsbadgag53 comments

Simple utility apps like this are definitely going to be under threat by AI-driven app creation. Unsatisfied with the free options out there, I've been using Claude to build my own workout tracker app with nearly the exact same Live Activity functionality in addition to the other features most apps lock up behind IAP subscriptions. Within a week I had the iOS and macOS apps up and running with CloudKit sync, analytics, custom routines, etc. I'd never made an app before, didn't know Swift/SwiftUI, and barely had to use Xcode.

Workout trackers are especially at risk. Every single one I’ve tried is terrible. They are either really poorly thought out, bad UX, or charge 40/mo and still suck.

I built a simple workout tracker/planner in an afternoon using an AI tool that is exactly what I want and free.

I have been working on this app for a while, trying to create a good UI and good integration with Apple Watch.

As well as live activity, haptic feedback, animations, fast local database with search that is super fast (it’s actually really fast with fussy matching algorithm so even if you type the exercise wrong it will find it instantly)

And if you have any feedback I’ll make sure to fix it!

I'm not the right person to give feedback here. I'm not in your target market. For me, social features are a negative and I don't want to use an app that makes them center stage or even promotes them. Live activity, haptic feedback, animations, etc... are not things I want.

The app I built is simple. It has a list of major exercises and then a map of supporting accessory exercises. It will create a plan that is as long as I'd like for as many weeks as I'd like with a specific number of workouts per week alternating between upper and lower body.

Everything else is fluff I don't want. I want an app that is only a workout planner and tracker app. All the rest of it is a distraction and not useful for how I use apps and workout.

For me, the point of building this app is that I do not want to pay a subscription or any fee, and I want exercises / workouts / routines to be simple. The rest of it is noise, for me.

I get that, for Musklr I made signing in optional, social features completely optional. Works great offline. Caches animations and saves everything locally. So can set the app in flight mode. Just use an Apple Watch if you want. And everything will still work.

I have built one that focuses on enabling me to have training systems that are not possible to re-create in most apps. I’ll release it as free, even if I would decide to charge for it, I would probably offer a generous trial and a lifetime subscription to the major version you bought.

If you just have the name of an exercise and type in the amount of kg and reps. That’s just a TODO app++. Easily created with Claude in an afternoon

This app however, with thousands of exercises, each exercise mapped to the correct muscle group and equipment. Well tested integration with Apple Watch. Social features, like posts, follows, likes, public and private accounts. That’s not made that easily with AI.

Most of those extra features sound like the clutter and cruft that I actively avoid and don’t want in my app. Which is why it’s great that AI can make the app that only has what I want

I think this app is a great example of AI-driven app creation!

For sure! What I'm wondering is why anyone would pay a subscription for someone else's AI-created app if they can spin one up for themselves with only the parts they want/need. The tools aren't there yet, but within 3-5 years I could see native iOS support for general users to create apps via Siri.

Do you have a testflight? I'd love to try it!

Not external, sorry - I haven't bothered putting it through app review or anything.

You don't have to put a testflight through app review. Example: https://reverdure.yourstrategy.co

I'm a bit confused, how does it know when you've finished an exercise? There don't seem to be any inputs on the live activity when in the middle of a set, and the post just describes "glancing" at the lock screen.

Hi, I’m the creator of the app. You fill in sets and reps on the iPhone or using your Apple Watch on your wrists. Live activity shows syncs with this

Anyone know a good timer where I, for example, set it for 1 minute and start it and then every 1 minute it plays a short sound. And that's it. No interaction required with the phone until I want the timer to stop.

This is for rotating through a bunch of different stretches/exercises routine 1 minute per stretch

Every app I've tried is too complicated.

This is kind of dumb but for any common interval length there is probably a YouTube video that's long enough for your workout. For example, 30 seconds and 1 minute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Bb4PfLvJE, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-AYC3_DbpY. Save the ones you need to a playlist and they should be pretty quick to access.

What you want to search for is “interval timer”.

I’ve used this one in the past, but there are a lot out there.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/interval-timer/id1327053127

I created an Apple shortcut based on what I found here:

https://www.lifdb.com/posts/2024/12/17/how-to-create-an-inte...

It does “x minutes with y seconds recovery”, and for your use case you can set y=0.

Thanks!

I've used Seconds Pro[0] for this before - comes with a bunch of presets which were handy at the time but also has wide flexibility to create your own (a continuous 1 minute repeat with beep is easy.)

[0] https://www.intervaltimer.com/app

I like this one: https://apps.apple.com/dk/app/fortime-workout-wod-timer/id66... Really simple and no ads

It would take about 2 minutes to code that up with an LLM, and not much longer to code it by hand. Building apps to scratch personal itches that would otherwise be infeasible is one of the best new capabilities that nearly everyone in the world has been recently granted.

Just 2 minutes and a $99USD/year Apple Developer account.

You don't need a paid account to sideload to your own device.

Search for boxing timer.

Intervals Pro

This is something I really have wanted from a lifting app.

One thing I don't think is here, but would really love: be able to describe a workout I did today with my trainer so I can replicate it perfectly in 3 days at the gym by myself:

"bench press, drop sets, with a 30 second hold before each set, starting at 100lb and decreasing 10lb each set, reps starting at 20 and dropping to 16, 14, 12, and 10 for a total of 5 sets" either thru voice (preferably) or text and have the app build the workout.

Manually building these things really sucks in most apps, even if there's a good UI. My trainer has about 8 variations and combinations of these we might do on any particular day and they're always evolving and changing and I don't really have time to capture it in the moment.

Hi, I’m the creator of Musklr. Thanks for the feedback. I’ll look into creating something like this, but might not be the implement first. Have a few more thinks in the backlog :)

But I’ll put it in the backlog and work!

It sounds like a job for a pocket-size notebook.

This UI looks shockingly similar to Macrofactor Workouts which I use and can highly recommend.

I can’t really see the similarities to be honest, looked it up and find the Musklr heatmap for example much nicer, with actual human anatomy.

It also does not have Apple Watch integration and a few other critical features

MFWO has lockscreen logging too, right?

Yes, using it now.

I kinda want less things on my home screen. It used to be that the only thing you could do on the home screen was slide to unlock, and that made accidental input a non-issue. These days, I sometimes find my phone in some weird state due to accidental input on the home screen (flash light on, camera activated, locked out due to incorrect password attempts, ...).

In this case it’s really an activity that you are currently doing. Like a rest timer between sets. Or what to lift in your next exercise. It’s gone when the workout is over.

I don’t take my phone into the gym due to the distraction from doing what I’m there to do. I have found that a simple squared notebook with a pen to be perfectly sufficient for remembering what I’m doing, knowing how much I lifted last time, and seeing how much progress I’ve made.

It works really well with Apple Watch! Then you don’t have to look at your phone

I’m always using Apple Watch with Musklr, polishing the UI and experience

I haven’t used an Apple Watch before. However, I’m quite happy with the accessibility of the notebook. It’s also very cheap.

Haha yeah, hard to compete with good old pen and paper

Interesting; I was looking for a replacement for Strong for iOS just yesterday. Strong was a great app but the dev hasn't been keeping up-to-date with iOS features like live activities and such.

I found that there are loads of apps like this out there, with varying degrees of polish / paywalls. Don't get me wrong, this one doesn't look bad! But what I really want is a demonstrated long-term commitment to the app.

If I can give one piece of feedback, the LLM copy on this website doesn't inspire confidence. Like it mentions "Identical layout: kg always on the left, reps on the right." Is that really a feature? Or "Confetti, only when earned. Never as filler." -- idunno, that doesn't seem like it deserves a spot on the landing page to me.

You might enjoy GymBook. I bought their lifetime pro version and have used it for at least 4 years now.

No ads, data can be exported, tons of exercises to choose from, live activity on the lock screen, stats, timers, measurements and much more.

Was really worth it and they seem to still be updating the app.

Edit: lifetime subscription is only ~24€

Hevy existed before gen AI took the world by storm and it's still being actively maintained, highly recommend checking it out. It even lets you import your workouts from Strong.

I tried Hevy based on hacker news recommendations - but I feel like I want more of a steer on what activities I should be doing. Hevy just seems to give me the same set over and over in trainer mode.

Hi, I’m the creator of Musklr. I created this app because of the same frustrations with poorly created workout apps.

I know there are tons of apps like this out there, but I’m honestly testing and testing and polishing this app very consistently. Trying to create a really smooth experience.

I’ll appreciate your feedback, I just launched the app 3 days ago and the website is not even finished yet!

Hey, I am the developer of "Progression Workout Tracker". I develop this app since nearly 10 years since I always use it for my workouts. Maybe you like it.

Link to the app: https://get-strong.app

i've moved over to https://www.liftosaur.com/ and its MCP server. It has been so nice to use. Its unfortunately a PWA/Ionic app (dev has a native one coming) but i am more than happy to overlook that with the other features available in it. Dude even wrote his own little DSL for writing programs you can use.

no apple watch app...

i am using a very similar app https://steady.rocks - it's great. when scrolling this page i almost thought to give it a try, but then at the end was disappointed by community thing. i don't really need this in a utility app

I understand that put some people off, but this is completely optional!

You do not need to login. Works offline. Everything is local. Saves to a local db.

Workouts are front and center

please don't highjack the back swipe

Hi, is this a reference to the app? If it’s feedback for the app, I’ll look into it!

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