SmartGym (Media Kit)

10 min readSep 9, 2016

Hi everyone,

Thanks for taking the time to learn more about SmartGym. I decided to write our Media Kit here because Medium offers an amazing platform that you all use and are all familiar with. Plus, it looks pretty good! :) Hopefully, it provides some insight into SmartGym.

I’d love to hear what you think.

Best,

Matt

Launch Details

Release date — Out now. Go get it! :).
Price — $2.99.
iTunes Link — https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/smartgym/id922744883?ls=1&mt=8
Website — www.smartgymapp.com

Problem

We have amazing gyms around the world, but many have the same problem: a piece of paper they give us with all our routines and exercises. Some gyms give us the option to print ours everyday (terrible for the environment), others have our routines printed once and then put it inside a plastic bag so it doesn’t get torn out. And others leave it up to us to figure out how we will access them.

But the majority of places that at least try to help us with something, is still using a piece of paper, which is a terrible experience. You need to keep holding it the entire time while working out. Sometimes you lose it, rip it, torn it apart. It sucks!

The problem here is that the solution to this problem (smartphone’s apps), is not the best solution. Most of them try to pack every feature they can, making the entire experience terrible for the user. Or they put a huge Ad eating a good chunk of the device’s screen.

But to be honest, I don’t think that smartphones in general are the best solution to this problem. Think about it. They don’t track our heart rate or calories burn, they constantly distract us, we always need to find a place to put it, if you are a Man you probably have pockets, but if you are a Woman you need to find a way around it. Some put inside their waist, which might damage the phone, others use an armband, which is extremely uncomfortable, specially because Woman love Plus sized iPhones. But the good news is that Apple has already solved this problem. To me, the Apple Watch is the ultimate Gym device. It’s extremely focused, always strapped to our wrist, comfortable to use and it also keeps track of our heart rate, calories and distance. That’s the reason why I created SmartGym and why I really focused on the Watch experience.

Goal

My goal with SmartGym was to focus on some specific tasks and implement them better than any other app in the market.

When working out at the gym, we need to get all the info we want as fast as we can, without much work and without getting distracted by warnings, popups, and things that get into the way between us and the info we want.

My goal was to make everything extremely easy to use, simple, intuitive, fast, enjoyable and gorgeous.

S0 I focused in some key componentes that I think are the most important when working out: Routines, History, Measures and an Apple Watch app (which is my favorite part — I will get into more details later). That's it.

What is SmartGym then?

First things first. Let’s talk about what SmartGym is NOT. SmartGym is not a substitute for a personal trainer nor it is a Swiss Army knife. It doesn’t try to do everything, or tell you what to do. It won't workout in your place and keep you fit, while you drink Milk Shakes and eat french fries. Or make you lose 50 pounds with a tap of a button.

SmartGym is a tool, a beautiful, and easy to use tool, to help you with your workouts. Simple and straight to the point. And after using it for a while, you will see that’s the beauty of it.

SmartGym was created to help everyone that goes to the gym. Those that use a piece of paper or the notes app to keep track of their data. Or even use some ugly, hard to use, ad supported apps.

As I said before, I focused in some key components, Routines, History, Measures and an Apple Watch app.

Left: Editing a routine; Center: Choosing an exercise to add to a routine; Right: Exercise's detail — Where a user can add all the data for that specific exercise.

Routines

You can create and add all your routines to SmartGym. It comes with over 240 pre-installed exercises with simple but gorgeous animations and allows you to add as many more as you want. So if you do some exercise that is not already inside SmartGym's data base, you can simply add it and even add some images to it (SmartGym even search the web for you to give you nice pictures to add).

You can add notes, days the routine should be performed, goals, stretches, intervals for each exercise and much more.

After you create all your Routines, you can then take it with you to the Gym and even use it to help you with your intervals between sets, since you can create specific timers for each exercise.

A cool thing about Routines is that you can send yours to a friend that doesn’t know how to create one. Or, if you are the friend who doesn’t know how to create a routine, you can get one from those who do.

Sets' Counter

One of the most common problem with working out is getting lost on which set we are currently at. To help with this, SmartGym's timers are completely integrated with a sets' counter. This means that every time a timer ends, the counter gets incremented by one, showing you that you've just completed it. This way, we can get lost on our thoughts, while never forgetting which set we were. And of course, this works on the Watch too.

History

Just being able to see your routines is great. But can be a lot better. After all, many memorize it after a couple of weeks. That's where History kicks in.

A great thing about working out is being able to keep track of your progress and see how well you are doing. Compare routines, weeks and performance.

So, when you open a Routine, you can swipe any exercise to the left and it will get added to your daily progress.

You can then head to the History tab and see your entire progress.

Measures

Many people work out to get stronger and gain weight, while many others work out to lose weight and stay in fit. So, keeping track of our body measurements is something that many people who workout likes to do. Specially to compare their progress and see how well they're doing towards their goal.

In order to help those, SmartGym offers an extremely easy way to do that. They can simply add a new Measurement entry and fill in with their details. All Measurements are stored and grouped by date, so it's really easy to compare their progress.

One really important note: All this data will always be private and it's only stored inside the user's device, unaccessible to anyone else.

Apple Watch

Apple Watch it is a phenomenal device, specially if you are into fitness.

WatchOS 3 transforms the Watch in a whole new device. The device it was supposed to be from day one. And this creates a whole lot of new possibilities.

With that in mind, I set out to develop the best Gym app for Apple Watch. And can I tell you something? I think I've done it!

Here is what I said when talking about the iPhone app:

While at the gym working out, we need to get all the info we want as fast as we can, without much work and without getting distracted by warnings, popups, and things that get into the way between us and the info we want.

What better way to achieve that other than an Apple Watch app? Everything is extremely precise, direct and there is no noise between us and the info. Oh, and by they way, the Watch is always on our wrist, so there's no need to reach for our phone inside our pockets everytime. In other words, Apple Watch is by far the best device for a Gym app.

So the goal was to create an app that would give us all the information that we needed extremely fast (like routines, history and measures), and also use the Watch sensors to keep track of the heart rate, distance and calories burned. And of course, update all those activity rings! :)

Workout

With the Watch app you can start a Workout session that will keep track of your heart rates, distance and calories burned. All these informations will count towards your activity rings and will be saved into the Health app, so you can access any time.

It's really simple to start a workout session. You can tap Start Workout or use Siri (more on this below). Once you're done, just tap the End button to stop the session. SmartGym will show you the summary of your session, show you your Activity Rings and will give you the option to save or discard it.

One important note: You can access your workout session anytime by simply swiping the screen of the Watch from the right to the left.

Routines

As I said, one of the most important things on SmartGym is being able to see your routines. So the Watch app was developed in a way that with a single tap from the initial view you could access all of them.

And even though the screen is really small, SmartGym will show all the information you need, like the name, sets, reps, weight, animations, notes and the timer. Which is great, because with a single tap you can start a custom timer that will vibrate and alert you when it ends. All that packed into one gorgeous little screen.

You can even mark any exercise as done (so they show up on your history) by long pressing it.

And of course, as said before, the sets' counter work on the Watch as well.

History and Measures

Although having your history and your measures are not really that important on your wrist, it's really handy to have those information right on the Watch. Specially since it doesn't get into the way of other most important features.

Siri

One of the best things about an Apple Watch app is how fast you can do things. With a few seconds, and a tap or two you get all the information you need.

But it can be a lot better. What if we could do what we want, without even tapping the device? That's where Siri kicks in.

Without even opening the app, you can for example say: "Hey Siri, Start Today's Workout on SmartGym". And with your voice SmartGym will automatically launch, start the workout session and find the appropriate routine of the day (because it knows which day is today and which routine you should be doing), and put right in front of you. All without even touching the device.

You could also specify the name of the routine, i.e: "Hey Siri, Start Routine A3 on SmartGym" or "Hey Siri, Start my Cardio Workout on SmartGym" and SmartGym will get the right routine for you.