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Comment by maerF0x0 | Hacker News Reader

Ok, presuming this is going to be a monetized thing aiming to compete in the market. (if not what follows should be ignored).

What about your app is better than what already exists from https://macrofactor.com/workouts/ , https://rpstrength.com/pages/hypertrophy-app , and maybe https://biolayne.com/workout-builder/ ?

All 3 incorporate some form of RIR progression, varying rep ranges, program builders, and (at least in RP) some form of feedback mechanism to tell how impactful the last training stimulus was on recovery.

Not trying to bash it, but to either 1.) help you think through your offer or 2) help you realize there's already a lot in the market.

If you're really just doing this for you, and your interests then glhf :)

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I don't intend to monetize, I only want to compete for data. I think it's an interesting field and I'd like to be able to contribute back to the science by using the data gathered. I think these workout apps try to be opinionated about what an effective program is, but they try harder to make money, so they generally bend over backwards to accommodate whatever program the paying customer wants to do. Mine is more opinionated. I think this is the best way to lift weights for a wide range of athletes who are interested in getting stronger and bigger with the least amount of wasted effort and lowest chance of injury, the simplest way to record it, and the best way to get a statistically defensible understanding of how your strength is changing over time. If you want to do something different, as you mention, the space is crowded with apps.

Ok, so if I'm synthesizing your words correctly, other apps are "Bring your program, any program" and you're really leaning on "We'll tell you exactly what to do based on Pareto frontier modeling" ?

I'm not trying to say that other apps don't also provide great advice (especially RP, I love watching Dr Mike and have learned a ton from him), but I think that a lot of the flexibility in the programs in these apps are primarily for marketing purposes (like are you really gonna look like Black Adam after following the Black Adam program? unlikely..)

My marketing is for a different niche - people who lift weights, see that they have variability set to set and day to day, and want a program that will help them quantify that variability and understand what it means. One thing that works really well in my program is detecting when you need a rest or deload, because the baseline comparison is rigorous and sensitive - if you have one bogey set, it might not mean much, but when you see that even your opening sets are at or below baseline after a stretch of workouts, that's a pretty good signal, and that's hard to get with most apps.

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