Supplement Insight! Inspirational Stories! Live the Lift Life!
So, I recently ordered 5 lbs of Now Sports Whey Protein Isolate from Bodybuilding.com (it was cheaper than Amazon at the time). I’ve been having post-workout protein in some powdered-to-liquid form since college, when Drew’s trainer discovered I just don’t like eating the damn stuff in consistent quantities. He promptly shamed me into buying some nasty-ass soy powder from Edwards in Madison. Gross. It was all chalky and smelled and my lacrosse-playing, swimteam-culting floormates were all like “What are you an action hero?” which was kind of funny, because I was a fencer, which had the reputation of being the AV Club of sports teams.
Anyway, long story short, ten years later, I unpacked the massive orange jug and discovered that not only had Bodybuilding.com sent along a complimentary packet of creatine (uh…what?), but they also sent along a pretty legit, albeit a little preachy/creepy, Diet & Exercise Log.
Oooooh, girl, you did not just try to send me a paper-based diet and exercise log.
My first foray into software diet & exercise tracking came with a beautiful semi-legit copy of Crosstrainer.ca in 2002 – which, I believe, was actually designed to run a personal training studio at the time. It was so f-ing awesome, I never turned back to paper. THERE WERE GRAPHS AND CHARTS.
Since then (and when I could no longer fudge copies of Crosstrainer), I’ve tried the gamut, with a few standouts, including CalorieKing as my 2005 favorite (when I was all “CALORIES ARE ALL THAT MATTER!”) and The Spark winning my heart for a bit in 2007 until all its bells and whistles overwhelmed me. I have friends that like FitDay, too. However, I started looking for something that would track this new semi-hobby of mine (I’m not sure it’s a hobby yet…jury is out…although I am freaking blogging about it. I just keep telling myself it’s to organize my thoughts.).
Methodology: We’re looking at six points of data: Exercise Tracking, Crossfit-Friendly, Social-media friendly, Mobile-friendly, Nutrition Tracking, Cost. These are not unweighted catagories, but I’ve yet to figure out what is more important, except that if it’s free, it wins more than something that costs something unless that something that costs something is cheapish and awesomeish. Also, Nutrition tracking, for me anyway, is probably less important right now. Anyway, I’m not a social scientist, and not really the most qualified person to gauge if something is Cross-fit friendly or not, so most of this is bullshit anyway. Let’s go!
Here are the current contenders: Fitocracy, WODClub and Beyondthewhiteboard (I’m doing this in three parts to save your eyeballs and my fingertips)
Contender: Fitocracy
First of all, one of my most favorite Canadians (and probably people) on the planet, Graye, is on Fitocracy. I need no other persuasion, except that it’s in invite-only beta so no-one else I know is on it. I snagged an invite code from an obscure powerlifting forum and have been using it since December and really, really like it. Usually the “Rack up meaningless points and compete against your friends!” thing doesn’t snag me (right, The Spark?), but this is kind of fun since Graye’s 5 mile jaunts into the Victoria, BC wilderness rack him up a couple of hundred points while my hour-long sessions at Crossfit Nyack rack me into the low thousands on occasion. Their points system is obviously flawed, but in my favor, so I’m not complaining just yet.
Exercise Tracking: Fun! Awesome! Easy! AJAXy! My WODs end up looking like ridiculous strings of repetitions, but whatever! 300 points for box jumps? 500 points for band-assisted pull-ups? Yes, please! Eat that, Graye, and your 200 point half-marathon. Also includes limited charting, as well as tracking maxes, which is nice, although you can’t add a Max without recording a workout. Not sure if that’s bad or not. The built-in pound-it “Props” system is also awesome. Random jacked dudes from Cali are all like “Yeah you did 50 situps!” on my workouts. Sweet.
Crossfit Friendly: There’s a pretty active Crossfit group on Fitocracy, and most stuff I’ve been doing at CFN is in there. While there are some moves that need translation, a few are just missing (Double unders? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?). For the most part, though, you can log things, and if you pay for Fitocracy (I don’t), you can save combinations, which would make logging things like Cindy warmups a little bit easier. This isn’t Crossfit-specific software, so no built-in girls – you gotta break it out, but, luckily, logging is easy.
Social Media Friendly: Integrates with RunKeeper (sweet! That’s the one I use!). Lets you post your shiznit on Facebook and Twitter. Graye’s 25 mile mountain bike ride can eat my 10 #50 Clean & Jerks in front of all our friends now!
Mobile Friendly: Mobile site at http://fitocracy.com/m. No i-App that I’m aware of. And that’s all that matters to me. Fail.
Nutrition Tracking: Nope. Although there is an active Paleo group.
Cost: Not sure, post beta, but being a “Hero” – which is a paid member during beta – costs $44.99 a year. Comment if you want a beta invite. I have a handful.
Next up: WODClub
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