(No, I haven’t figured out how to get my old trainer to come back from Hong Kong and hop into my pocket, but I’ll let you know if I do figure that one out.)
I won’t often be writing about my job and my clients on here, but this is a special case of worlds colliding. (Which has happened a lot lately.)
One of the accounts I’m working on is DailyBurn–a site that (until recently) was more of a site to track your workouts and food. I actually used this site quite a bit when I was losing weight to track what I was doing. They also have a number of generic training plans you can follow, some fun challenges and a really supportive community.
But this week, they introduced something new, something they think will be the future of fitness. Their new system features something they’re calling Intelliburn, which is a fancy algorithm that develops a fitness program for you based on your input.
When you first join this new DailyBurn, you fill out a questionnaire about your workout history, habits and goals. For example, I said that I work out a lot, I’m looking to get toned (oh god, am I looking to get toned), prefer cardio and yoga-type exercises (maybe that’s why I’m not actually toned…) and prefer to work out for about 45 minutes a day.
Based on all that, the first workout it spit out for me was a 47-minute “tactical cardio” workout. After you do the workout, you let them know how it goes, and the next workouts you’re served up are based on your input. The algorithm considers things like: which trainers have gotten the best response from you, what sort of injuries you may have, the time since your last workout and muscle groups recently worked (i.e., you probably won’t get two hard leg workouts in a row), and the sports you like.
They call their team of trainers the DB6 (which reminds me of the Magnificent 7), and all the trainers have totally different backgrounds and approaches to help you meet your goals. Keaira, can I have abs like yours? Awesome.
You also give them input on how you eat and want to eat, and it gives you nutritional suggestions–which I really like. I’ve played with other sites that come up with meal plans for you, but they’re all too dairy-heavy for my milk-hating stomach. This let me tell it that I don’t eat much dairy and it spits out meal suggestions and snacks based on that. (Above not from mine.)
They’re currently doing a 7-day trial, and after that, it costs $29.99 Edited to update: It now costs $9.99 a month–which is way cheaper than actually getting a trainer or nutritionist! (I know for some of you this is more than you pay for an actual gym every month, and for that, I am jealous.) For those of you hooked on their tracking tools, those aren’t going anywhere.
What do you think? Would you try something like this?
This DOES sound great, but have you considered skype training with your trainer?
@Cat @Breakfast to Bed: NO! That’s a good idea!
I think your new job might be awesome.
@Heather @ Side of Sneakers: Agreed! I think you’re awesome, too, though.
That sound really fun!!!!!! I love new online fitness tools. So cool.
That sounds really cool. I would definitely consider using something like that versus hiring a nutritionist, etc. I’m a member at Sparkpeople which is free, but it lacks the customized workouts option (which is seriously amazing), and the SP meal plans are kinda gross. For a free service it does offer some useful tools but I like the sound of customized service from DailyBurn.
That sounds awesome! I especially love that you can tell the program the types of things you like to do, and who doesn’t appreciate some new meal and snack suggestions? Good call DB!
It does sound pretty interesting! I was about to type that I might try it if there was a trial period of some sort, but then I saw that you said there was 🙂 Do the trainers actually communicate with you, or do they just sort of post workouts based on your feedback? Fun idea!
You should tell them to let people do a trial without entering CC info. This sounds really cool when you describe it, but I don’t want to enter my credit card info just to look at it!
Also, the site says it costs $9.99 (plus taxes) per month after the trial, not $29.99? Are there $20 in taxes?!
That sounds really handy. I would definitely buy something like that rather than hiring a nutritionist. It would be cheaper, a lot cheaper!