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Show HN: Fitocracy, an RPG for fitness
102 points by brianmwang on May 16, 2011 | hide | past | favorite | 65 comments
My cofounder and I have been working on a site called Fitocracy (www.fitocracy.com), which is a social game for fitness. The idea was very much inspired by our experiences growing up as nerds playing video games, later on discovering weightlifting, and drawing the parallel between working out and "leveling yourself up." XKCD has a pretty well known comic to this effect: http://xkcd.com/189/. We find that the metaphor of workout out as leveling up in a video game resonates with quite a few people, so Fitocracy is an attempt to bring that to life.

On Fitocracy, tracking your workouts earns you points/levels, unlocks special achievements, and fulfills "quests", which are basically exercise milestones that aim for workout variety and progression. As you progress in your training, Fitocracy offers more quests, increases the level up requirements, etc. We also try to make the experience as community focused as possible, so the site actively encourages you to follow others with similar fitness approaches, comment on workouts, etc.

We have been in invite-only beta since mid-February and have become fairly popular on Reddit and SomethingAwful. I know there are plenty of folks on HN that are interested in fitness so I hope this will be of interest to some of you.

URL: http://www.fitocracy.com

You can sign up using this invite link: http://ftcy.co/jaBLMa

We're still working through a long list of bugs and features to get out, but do feel free to offer any feedback. Hope you all enjoy!

You can find me on Fitocracy at: http://www.fitocracy.com/profile/xenowang and my cofounder at http://www.fitocracy.com/profile/dicktalens (seriously, the way our usernames may sound to some is purely coincidental)

-Brian

Interesting side note: We started working on this in October 2010 and I had no real prior experience in front-end design at that point. I've basically been cutting my teeth in front-end design (design principles, Photoshop mockups, graphic assets, HTML, CSS) on Fitocracy.




I checked out the achievements, and they are mostly strength-focused and pretty daunting for a beginner but possibly too simple for an experienced lifter. The list of achievements should be categorized and fleshed out, with barbell lifts in one category, bodyweight exercises in another category, running in another, swimming in another, kettlebells in another, etc. More levels should be added, too. Video game achievements typically start really easy (10 kills with a particular weapon, for example) and then ramp up quickly. Level one of barbell squatting should be a single barbell squat with any weight! Remember, you're trying to suck people in! For most folks who are entirely new to weightlifting, just walking over to the equipment and starting to use it is an achievement. Your system should validate that feeling and help pull people gradually over the psychological barriers as well as the physical ones.

1RM (one-rep maxes) achievements are not friendly for beginners, by the way, because beginners find it less daunting to push themselves for reps than for one massive lift. It feels safer, and conventional wisdom seems to be that it actually is safer. Also, keep in mind that female users will have a very different perception of, say, a 0.9x bodyweight bench press. Revamp your achievements, and they will become a lot more addictive, and therefore a lot more useful for keeping people working out and keeping people on your site.


Thanks for the feedback, dkarl.

We've had a largely positive response to our achievements system thus far but I agree that they aren't necessarily beginner friendly. We do intend on fleshing out the system more to support achievements for a greater variety of exercises (cardio, bodyweight exercises, etc).


Logged in, watched the tour, feel left out in the cold now.

* Lots of quests/suggestions/activities require stuff I don't have. I somehow expected more easily available things (i.e. run/cycle/workouts without the need for gear)

* English's a foreign language to me. I can talk you to insanity if we're discussion nerd stuff, but reading most of the quests is gibberish without Google Translate. Add more graphics so that I don't have to guess that much.

For now this seems to be heavily focused on native English speakers that like dumbbells/weights and have a good understanding of the science of fitness. That is, not me.

Maybe I kind of expected the WoW style easy gratification at first.. ;-)


We freely admit that there's a heavy skew toward weightlifting on the site at the moment, but we're focusing on adding more quests/achievements around cardio and other activities quite shortly.


1st) Awesome Idea. I have no idea how many times I got in trouble as a kid for OD'ing on FF3 and 7. Now that I no longer play RPG's but do dig the gym, this is a great paralell.

2) Easy fix: Allow users to set which equipment they have when they first log on. Do it by classes: calisthenics only, bands and dumbbells, home gym, full gym etc etc. This way you can normalize the quests across different classes of equipment and eventually set up for competitions (random battle?!?! lol) between people with different classes of equipment but similar fitness levels according to whatever benchmarks you set.

All in all, looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Good luck!


How about building the achievements around programs that will actually result in real improvement? Or around programs to achieve certain goals?

Everybody always wants cardio. I think because that is what most people do. But that isn't going to make you fit by any useful definition of the word.


We intend to build out functionality to let us offer programs around specific goals. The quest system is a precursor to this, but the idea is to have a fun way of offering structured guidance to the user and move them to specific outcomes.

And believe me, I'm in agreement with you about cardio. It's pretty worthless in many cases :)


and it's still weird for weight lift...

i'd love to go to the workout with my cellphone and a pre-typed program for the day, and just fill in the repetitions and weight i actually did.

this way it's just another facebook for gym rats. no added value that updating my facebook didn't give already


I would vehemently disagree with the statement that it's "Facebook for gym rats" or that it doesn't provide value outside of updating your FB profile with your workout logs, but thanks for the opinion.


sorry if i sounded harsh. ok, it has specific badges and plenty of stuff for motivation, and i think that was your main goal. nothing that actually guides or facilitate, which was what i was expecting, maybe.

All of my running friends already post daily to their facebook status how many miles they've run that day.


We're still pretty early on in development. Fitness insights and guidance tools are absolutely planned :)


You should consider adding some more body weight achievements maybe some more exercises. I prefer them to weights--cheaper, always available. http://www.frixo.com/sites/fitness/ is a site I use for reference, but there are many out there. Maybe some yoga as well? Adding some amazon affiliate links to some equipment might do well. Pullup bars are cheap and awesome.

(I got an internal server error on http://fitocracy.com/profile_setup_3/ of the setup process)


We already have quite a few bodyweight exercises on the site, though the scoring system for them is a little borked and is in need of an overhaul. Yoga is also on the site as well.

Regarding the internal server error, did that occur right after Step 2 or was it when you attempted to finish the sign-up process?


It happened on the screen where you hook up facebook & twitter. Account was created fine, though.


While your site layout is very nice, it's seems like the theme is a bit distant from the subject matter, which you describe as an RPG for fitness.

I guess I was expecting less https://banksimple.com/ and more http://www.rexbox.co.uk/epicwin/


Duly noted. As mentioned, I'm no creative/graphics designer but we're hoping to have somebody with those talents join the team down the line.


I wanted to log in with Twitter (don't like FB..), but you wanted to have quite a nice list of permissions. Without even knowing a lot about your app, why should I agree (I didn't)?

Can you explain what you do with the social network accounts?


We only use FB and Twitter for easy sign-up/sign-in. We'll be introducing posting to FB wall / tweeting workouts/achievements soon, but that will be totally optional. We'll never post to your social network accounts without your explicit permission.

Email addresses are a concern as well, of course. We won't email you unless you authorize us to do so in your account settings.


Add something like that to the signup process then. I doubt that I'm the only one that just didn't dare to hand out Twitter access to ~something unknown~. Especially with the social media abuse we've lately discussed in several posts on this board.

Something like 'We never post something without your consent but might allow you to share your achievement in the future' or a more eloquent version might have relaxed me enough to hit 'yes'..


For people who already work out, this is a great tool. For people who need a starting point, this needs some work. Some suggestions that may be helpful:

Allow users to specify their starting point or class. How do you want to start exercising? Similar to how players choose classes in MMOs, users could pick a starting point. Srongman, Endurer, Ripped, Swimmer, Biker, Martial Artist, Climber... and the user can choose to start as one of these things and the quests guide the user to achieve that title by focusing on attributes like strength, endurance, tone, lower body workouts, etc.

The reason I think this would help people just starting out is that 1) It helps to have someone tell you what to do. That's why personal trainers are popular. 2) It'll confirm whatever bias/propensity a user has. Some people love to ride bikes and the prospect of riding 100 miles is less daunting than the goal of working up to running 10 miles. Likewise a person who is into cardio will be less inclined to try doing heavy weight training.

Very cool project. Good luck!


I joined in February, but I haven't used Fitocracy yet.

My feedback on why it hasn't grabbed me yet:

1) Design - as Goronmon pointed out above, the design doesn't feel fun or encouraging.

2) Performance - it's laggy right now, although I expect that will improve soon.

3) User Experience - It's hard to figure out how to get started, or to get a clear picture of how it all works. I'd suggest including lists of activities, rather than making people type into a blank box and look for autocompletes.

The activity feed is interesting, but it still feels like a list of data, removed from any context.

4) Perception - Right now, it seems like a place for fitness freaks and gym rats. That might be intentional - but I'd much rather use a site populated by out of shape geeks working to get fit.

If Fitocracy can make exercise game-like and enjoyable, it will win. The hardest part is getting started each day (getting up to run, going to the gym instead of the pub after work) - that's where Fitocracy can make a difference.

Good luck, guys - I hope this becomes something great!


Hey Jayson,

Thanks for the thoughtful feedback. Responses below:

1) Design is certainly something I'd like to work on improving. As noted in the OP, I handle the design for Fitocracy which is a bit funny, since I was pretty much a total beginner at this process 6 months ago. We'd like to eventually have a full-time designer on board.

2) If you think it's bad now, it used to be 10x worse a month ago. I'm not even exaggerating here. That being said, better site performance is absolutely something we're working on as well.

3) UX is also a top priority that we want to hit hard on ASAP. We know there are quite a few shortcomings right now but we hope to make the experience more cohesive and simple over time.

4) You're right that the core users skew more toward people who are already quite active in working out. We've found that they're a pretty key demographic at the moment, but we do hope to make the experience more enticing and useful for absolute fitness noobs down the line.

Thanks again, Brian


I actually don't agree with these points. I like the design and didn't have any negative sentiments towards it.

I didn't seem to have performance issues.

I thought it was quite intuitive and I quite liked the Save Workout page.

I enjoyed the activity stream and seeing what other routines and weights people we're doing.

I like that the site seemed to have dedicated knowledgeable people as opposed to out of shape geeks.


Clickable invite link: http://ftcy.co/jaBLMa


How about hitting up the Daily Burn API for workouts as well? I use Daily Burn to track my calories and workouts as it collates them for me nicely and it would suck to have to enter everything twice. I know a lot of people who are already on workout tracking/fitness sites wouldn't move (to much hassle and history) but you could produce a nice add-on to their data.


FatSecret would be nice too http://platform.fatsecret.com/api/


Wow, photo required? Ouch. I bet that kills a lot of signups.

Edit: And then it stretched it sideways so I look even fatter. Nice.


A photo isn't required for signup. You can just use the generic silhouette image for your profile image.

Image resize/distortion is something we will fix in a future update.


You may want to have an explicit note saying it isn't required. People may think it is required because uploading a photo has its own step. Having a note will make the UX feel a bit more friendly.


Your sign up process uses a few things from here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2517296 that I really liked. I love being able to see a password I've typed in only once.


You should check out my buddies blog, his community would align well with yours, http://nerdfitness.com/

Maybe send him a message and start working something out?


I second this. Steve at Nerdfitness.com runs a great blog and community, you should definitely attempt to connect with him.


Awesome, always a fan of the gamification of activities, especially if they will result in a net benefit for the participant.

Would love to talk shop about what you guys made this with, have an email I can reach out with?

Thanks!


Hey Jon,

You can email me at brian [at] fitocracy <dot> com.


As a co founder of a Gamification Platform startup, I'd love to chat about your experience creating the achievement system itself. Mind if I shoot you an email?


By all means :)


Looks rather neat, and it's a good idea. I think the issue for me would be taking the time to update it. I use Jefit on android whilst working out to replace paper and pen for recording exercises, weights, reps etc. It would be good if you had a mobile client that would let me record my exercises whilst working out that fed into Fitocracy. If you wanted to be more advanced, so you could even make it two way - EG alerts popping up that say "2kg more and you unlock badge XX", "500m more and you get to level YY".


Any thought of adding a simple API? We have some iPhone/Android fitness apps that we looking at hooking into a leaderboard or other social system. This might be an excellent match.


As someone else mentioned, some of the quests require equipment that I don't have. How about asking the user what type of equipment they have? I wouldn't go too detailed into it, but say something like 'gym membership', 'small home gym', 'treadmill', etc. Once you have that information, you could scope the quests based on that.

Another thing that would be useful would be some videos or instructions on some of the exercises. Showing correct form and/or how to use certain equipment would be great.


This is a cool site -- great start! I would like to make a couple of suggestions:

1. don't just focus on exercise, include an "eat healthy" component too (maybe based on both calories and general healthy food attributes)

2. Find a way for user goals. Maybe a "self directed quest" is required for any given level, be it lose X pounds, or reach Y bench weight.

3. Find a way to keep stats for people and show them graphs of improvement (or otherwise), not just levels, but attributes :)

Keep up the good work.


Thanks for the thoughts!

1. We're focusing on exercise for now as we want to make sure it's executed well. Long term we definitely envision including nutrition as well.

2. Some form of this is planned.

3. See: #2 :)

-Brian


I've recently been wanting to get back in shape so this is perfect timing. My morning workout instantly got me up to Level 4 - great motivation.

One comment - I'm using a netbook (1024x800 resolution) and some of the boxes, like "great, you just earned X points" are too tall for my browser window, but they move when I scroll - I can't see a button to make the box go away, so I have to click on "play."


Hey, thanks for the feedback on netbook resolution. I clearly overlooked that when designing the flow on the workout tracker page. I'll try to get that fixed asap.


One more thing - it seems when I open the "quests" box, then close it, it won't open again without reloading the page.


I don't seem to be getting this issue on Chrome / OS X. What are you running on?


Chromium beta, Ubuntu 11.04


Nice website and interesting concept that gets to the motivation issues that prevent most fitness regimes from being successful.


Hey I've been using fitocracy for a few weeks now (same username) and I'm wondering if theres any plan to add extra functionality for groups?

I believe (could be wrong) that there isnt actually a point to groups other than seeing each others updates. Are there any plans for group leaders to create their own quests for members or anything like that?


Yes, we do plan on further fleshing out the groups feature soon. One idea we're bouncing around is having a PvP style challenge system between groups, or I suppose more appropriately, GvG :)


Would love to check it out. Got an internal server error on fitocracy.com/setup after redirect from twitter authorization.


Hm, could've sworn that bug was fixed. We've found that trying a second time usually gets around the issue. Can you try doing so?


Same thing happened, but it still connected. I just had to refresh creating my profile.


It would be nice to know, in advance, what it takes to score points.

I just logged the run I did yesterday, and was rather surprised that it took me to level 4 instantly, not far off level 5.

It would be nice if I could now go and choose an activity that would bring me up to the next level.


i didn't see it on the front page but does it interface with any existing data tracking sites like fitbit or strava?

you may want to look at http://earndit.com/ to see how they automatically pull fitness data.


See also: http://healthmonth.com/


Front page is broken for me by default font size on FF4 on Kubuntu 11.04 - http://imgur.com/9neX6 - zooming font down fixes it. It's literally just the button moving that breaks things.

Just FYI.


For some reason I can't create the account, but I love the idea - especially levelling up. That's what makes most good training programmes (like CrossFit, which I'm into) successful + peer pressure, which I'm sure you'll provide. Just hope I'll be able to use it one day :)

Marcin -- Did you see http://linkfindr.com ?


If you could make a few more invites available I'd gladly join!


I just reloaded the code with 350 more invites.


Love it.


You should link us to your profiles, I'd like to see what you lift =D


http://www.fitocracy.com/profile/xenowang


Do you happen to be following wendlers 5-3-1 routine?


I am indeed! I'm enjoying it quite a bit so far.


5-3-1 is awesome. I made some great gains on my DL. 525 1RM weighing 195 :D

Doing Huge in a Hurry now to put on a bit of size and cut down before a vacation to Mexico.




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