Comment by acconrad | Hacker News Reader

Comment by acconrad | Hacker News Reader

As 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, I'm really not even sure what the value add is here for bodyweight videos: they've been done so many times over, and with the recent popularity of the 7 minute workout[1] I just don't see what you're trying to bring to the table that is specifically "for hackers" other than the marketing appeal.

My suggestion would be to offer something that appeals uniquely to your hacker audience that isn't found elsewhere. Off of the top of my head, hackers are "lazy" (in that we aim to optimize and remove redundancy) and are convinced by science, so if you can prove that your videos are shown to be efficient, effortless (meaning everything but the workout is taken care of for you), and that it delivers marketable results, then I think you might have something.

[1] http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/the-scientific-7-mi...

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.

I had the same reaction. I'm not a "muscles on muscles" guy but three times a week I lift weights. The 'meat head' thing was judgmental and off-putting.

Perhaps more importantly, why do I have to create an account to view a work out video? That and the fact that I had to agree to a massive ToS which included things about billing and cancellation stopped me going further.

jgrahamc, thanks for that. I'll look at changing the tagline.

HackerBody videos are 100% free. The TOS have stuff regarding refunds incase I launch some premium features down the road. I could see how that would be confusing. I'll work on adjusting that.

I'm requiring people to create accounts for some additional features I'm rolling out. Great point on having a demo workout that doesn't require some to login. I'll make that happen.

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.

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.

> My goal was to appeal to people who aren't already doing something active.

By putting other people down? Classy.

I see where you're coming from, and I'm probably in your target demographic - male, full-time programmer, and completely ignorant of fitness in general.

I'd dump the line entirely and play up the "Feel better. Write better code." part, particularly how regular exercise can reduce mental fatigue.

The "meat head free" line was good. I'm really tired of seeing how often programmer-focused sites tend to advocate eating huge amounts of meat, equate muscles with health, bash on endurance training and simply ignore things like yoga or pilates. This could be related to the extremely male-dominated demographic of the audience.

Regardless of the reasons for this, I believe hacker-centric health services really could use more "meathead free options".

You missed his point. Calling people "meat heads" is as judgemental using "geek" as a pejorative. We're supposed to be better than that.

I disagreed with his point. Your assertion is sensible but tangential to the discussion.

While it's true it's not nice to call specific people meat heads, it's perfectly reasonable to have "meat head free" messaging. Similarly, I would be very careful about calling a particular advertiser a huckster but would have few qualms with a site's messaging including a "huckster free zone".

Reply on news.ycombinator.com