Gym Buddy and New Dead LIft Personal Record

Today's workout was the first using my new iPhone application, GymBuddy. Basically in GymBuddy you can create a series of custom Exercises in three classes:

1) Weight lifting
2) Cardio
3) Supersetsthen

Then within any of the above three, you can break down the type of exercise into various forms, like under Weight lifting there is:

a) Regular
b) Body
c) Assisted

and under Cardio, you can break down the results of whatever you're doing into:

a) Distance
b) Duration
c) Calories
d) Avg. Heart Rate

and for Supersets, well, these are more complicated and I'm not using this one, so I can't comment on them right now.

Then, you can tie any combination of Exercises into a Workout, and any combination of Workouts into Groups.

Me, I've setup a bunch of exercises into four workouts that make up a Split Routine:

Back & Arms - Tuesday
Shoulders, Calves & Abs - Wednesday
Legs - Friday
Chest & Triceps - Saturday

Each one of these Workouts is on a calendar in the program, and as I do them, I enter each item. For instance, today I started with Dead Lifts and entered them after each set:

1. 145 lbs. - 7 reps
2. 195 lbs. - 7 reps
3. 235 lbs. - 8 reps
4. 255 lbs. - 8 reps
5. 275 lbs. - 8 reps

On the screen you enter the weight and reps above, there is even a timer that you can run if you like to wait an exact amount between sets.

And for all the stuff above, there is a field to enter a note, so for each exercise I have what my previous work-out weight was. So for Dead Lifts I had 255 in the note, but today I had no problem doing that, so I up'ed it to 275 and although it was hard, I managed to still do 8 reps. So I've now changed the note to 275, my new person best! :)

Eventually, when I switch from this current split Workout routine, I'll create a new set of Exercises and Workouts (probably a full-body workout), then file the old split Workout under it's own Group and the new routine under it's own Group. That way, if I want to come back to the split Workout Group, I can, anytime. Very cool.

You can also track your weight, height (not sure why this one) and various measurements in the program and track them overtime with fancy charts. It also calculates your 1RM for each set of each weight lifting exercise and your record 1RM for each as well. For instance, it claims my Dead Lift 1RM would be 341 lbs. wow! honestly I'd be scared to try this much!!! For other exercises the 1RM is more reasonable, like my Reverse Barbell Curl is only 74 lbs. based on what I've done so far, but that's not surprising because that's one of the last exercises I do in this back & bicep Workout, so my biceps are already pretty blown by the time I do these (I'm only doing 60 lbs. at 6 to 8 reps.).

There are more features, but the final one I'll mention which I love is that I can back-up the program's database onto a computer on the same Wifi network if it is running a stand-alone (no install) free application called SyncDocs. This is awesome for me because I have two iPhones, one 3GS that I use everyday and an older 3G with a cracked glass face (but otherwise working perfectly and still readable) that I use at the gym (hey, it's already kinda broken, so if I accidentally drop... say 275 lbs. on it while Dead Lifting, oh well :P), and I can backup the database from one and restore it on the other so that they always match! Okay, maybe this makes me a geek, but I think that's really cool, if only because if I'm traveling and forget my workout phone, I will still have the latest on my everyday phone. Oh, and I can e-mail the database too, which is another way to get the database off the phone.

So basically, I'm super excited that I have a new non-paper way to track all my workouts and progress. And I'm also excited because of my new personal best on Dead Lift. Oh, and I also did 8 pull-ups versus my regular 6, went up five pounds on Rope Hammer Curls and in general had a pretty damn good Back and Bicep day!

Hope your workouts are going as well as mine!