Hi Guys,

I am new to the site… I love it, but as you have asked for a ’wish list, here are a few things I am thinking would be great.

1. Explanation of the points. How are points calculated? I think people need to know the relevance of the points. Maybe some kind of reference as to the minimum number of points recommended for just basic health…? I know this probably sounds much simpler in theory, but earning points doesn’t mean anything unless you have something to measure it to. You might need to split groups here. Eg. For those trying to get active. For those trying to lose weight. For those training for a particular event etc etc.

2. Dietary assistance. Maybe offer some ideas for healthy eating recipes. Have a ‘post your healthy recipe’ section and maybe regularly put some of your own up basing it on time of year, produce in season etc. And can you offer dietary assistance? I know this gets much more involved, but perhaps even find some nutritionists that may be willing to sponsor your site in order for their contact details to be on there for them to get some leads? The Canberra Marathon website let you email a specific question to a sports nutritionist and I got an answer but they then suggested I get my diet analsyed. I could have a diet written specifically for me for about $100. (General diet or competition diet). This was great and I think anyone that has some nutritional knowledge really takes it for granted and doesn’t realise how many people have absolutely NO IDEA about healhty eating.

3. Have somewhere on the site where clients can suggest different workouts… again maybe a specific section. I know people can go onto the forums but sometimes people don’t explore enough. People can suggest workouts from their own area (eg. fabulous set of approx 140 stairs in Tamarama)or even just general training sessions. I compiled my own circuit a few months back which I was happy to ‘find’ because it just presented some variety for me. I am always on the look out for something ‘new’ to do. Would be great to have a section where people can make such suggestions or talk about a workout they have ‘discovered’.

4. A regular email (once a week or fortnight) offering small tips or motivations to all of your members would help. EVery now and then you might be able to offer ‘specials’ or something if you can get some form of sponsorship. EG. $10 off retail price of shoes at Peter Wynns for all members. Give the members a regular reminder about their training etc. Make members really feel like they are part of a ‘fitness family’. WHen more people are making posts etc, you can pick from their post… eg. Here’s our recipe of the month as suggested by Molly….

5. Also let people sign up for particular groups. EG marathon run group. If I sign up for this, send me an email when entries to Marathon X is open. You can get creative here. You could have a ‘Look great on the beach this summer’ group. You pepper these people with emails telling them… 2 months until summer… how is your training going? You can get spray tan clinics to sponsor such areas?
Or a bikin shop etc etc.

6. Corporate challenges. Corporations are getting much more serious about promoting health to employees. Offer some kind of challenge for the average point total per employee over a given period.

Ummmmmm. That’s it for the minute, but I will keep my mind thinking about it and keep in touch…..
Hope it helps…… :)

Mad

Hi Mad,
Thanks for the great feedback.

At the risk of misrepresenting your suggestions I think they can be divided up into 3 broad areas:

1. Exercise Points (EPs)
2. Nutritional Advice
3. A bunch of excellent suggestions regarding social/community aspects of the site.

So, regarding the social/community aspects of the site, I am happy to say that we have many of the features you suggested in the pipeline already although it’s early days and realistically it will be a few months before they are released to the site. Our forums are our initial attempt to start building a community, but we hope to greatly enhance the social aspects of the site in the future including many of the things you suggested. Also standby for an announcement in the next couple of weeks which should greatly help our aim to becoming the premier online community for endurance athletes.

Regarding Exercise Points, I’ll leave any specific suggestions to Ian, as he is the fitness consultant on our team. What I will say about Exercise Points is that, because ‘perceived level of exertion’ is such a personal thing, we have found that comparing EPs between users is not particularly useful. Providing recommendations on the amount of EPs that should be achieved by various target audiences is also problematic for the same reason. What we find EPs are useful for is for individual users to chart their EPs over time to see how their overall EP levels are travelling. I know I use EPs in that way.

Regarding us providing nutritional advice, we made a decision a while ago to concentrate our immediate attention on making 2Way Fitness Analytics the best online training analysis tool for endurance athletes – the focus being on allowing people to track and analyse their training efforts. We felt that there are already many sites on the internet that provide nutritional advice and we’d rather complement those sites, rather than duplicate what they do, although I’m not ruling out heading in the direction you suggest in the future, but our current ongoing focus is, as I said, providing the premier tool for tracking and analysing our users’ training efforts.

Thanks again for the great feedback and please keep the suggestions coming. In particular:

1. Are there things you’d like to track that the app does not currently support?
2. Are there ways in which you’d like to analyse your data that the app does not currently support?

We have our own thoughts on the above, and will be releasing enhancements over the coming months, but we’d love to hear what real users want.

All the best,
mick

Hi Mad,

Thanks for the great (and comprehensive) post. Your time and thoughtful response is much appreciated.

I don’t want to repeat what Mick has said but I will say a little about Exercise Points (EPs). Here is a quote from our help text on the subject (with a view of our Exertion Level table preceding to put things in context):

Perceived level of exertion

Level Name Description
0 RESTING Requires no, or very little, physical effort. Lying in bed or sitting reading a book or watching television. Heart rate at rest.
1 EASY Minor physical effort. Talking is no difficulty – strolling walk with stops – “I could do this all day”. Most people could maintain this level for a few hours. Heart rate 60-100bpm (beats per minute).
2 LIGHT Light physical effort. Talking takes some effort. Working up a bit of a sweat – brisk walk – “This will make me tired after a while”. Most people could maintain this level for an hour or more. Heart rate 100-130bpm.
3 MODERATE Average physical effort. Talking is not easy as breathing rate increases. Muscles getting tired. Sweating – hard mountain walk, slow to medium jog – “This is tiring but I can continue”. Most people could maintain this level for between 20 and 60 minutes. Heart rate 130-150bpm.
4 HARD Tough physical effort. Talking very hard to do. Getting puffed. Sweating a lot. Muscles tired – medium-hard run, hard game of sport, hilly bike ride – “This is tough. I need a rest break”. Most people could maintain this level for up to 20mins. Heart rate 150-170bpm.
5 MAXIMUM You are working as hard as you can. You have just enough breath to finish the exercise – sprinting, lifting heavy weights, climbing up steps – “I have to stop, I’m spent”. This level is a peak effort and can only be sustained for up to 1 minute at a time. Heart rate 170bpm+.

Exercise Points

Exercise Points (EPs) are a new and innovative way to measure each individual training session. One (1) Exercise Point = 1 minute of exercise at Exertion Level 1 (the easiest). Thus, 30 minutes of exercise at Exertion Level 3 (Moderate) = 90 EPs. As a general rule, the more EPs you achieve in a week the more your fitness will improve, depending on what your fitness goals are.

Weekly EPs Fitness Daily Average
0 – 299 EPs Decrease 0-42 EPs
300 – 699 EPs Maintain 43 – 99 EPs
700 – 1199 EPs Increase Low 100 – 171 EPs
1200 – 1499 EPs Increase Mid 172 – 214 EPs
1500+ EPs Increase High 215+ EPs

Please note that this table is just a guide and that individuals will achieve different results from different training efforts. It is well established that 30 minutes of vigorous exercise (at least Level 3) is required to maintain a good level of physical fitness and to manage body weight, and to reduce risk factors for lifestyle diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity.

Recording your EPs

After each training session you should sit and think for a while and record the amount of minutes and decide the average exertion level for which you have exercised. This feeling should reflect how heavy and strenuous the exercise feels to you, combining all sensations and feelings of physical stress, effort, and fatigue. Try to focus on your total feeling of exertion, not just the pain in your legs or how fast your heart is beating. Our application allows you to allocate 1/2 points (e.g. 3.5) if you cannot decide between 3 and 4 as an exertion level.

Notes:

1. The aim is to use EPs as a motivation to maintain consistency in your training routine. You can use your EP charts to monitor your training efforts to ensure that you adhere to a regular pattern of physical activity and exercise. Remember it is much easier to stay fit than to get fit.

2. During most 1 hour training sessions you will most likely exercise for perhaps 40 to 50mins. Do not count rest periods when working out the duration of your training as far as your EPs are concerned.

3. A great way to calculate your EPs for a session is to divide your training session into sections. See “Splitting your activity into sections” above. If you break your exercise activities into sections, then the system will calculate the average exertion level for the session on your behalf. This will more accurately reflect the average level of exertion over the course of your session.

4. Keep in mind that Level 5 Exertion cannot be sustained for more than about 1 minute, thus you are very unlikely to be able to sustain Level 5 for a 1 hour training session.

5. It is recommended that people try to achieve at least 100 EPs per day to maintain a reasonable level of fitness. To increase your level of fitness you will need to increase this to at least 120 EPs per day. However, for some people a much smaller EP goal will be sufficient to maintain the body weight and fitness levels that they wish to attain. Over time you will know what EP level is best to enable you to maintain your chosen fitness level consistent with your fitness goals.

6. Because of the individual nature of EPs, and especially due to the fact that a subjective personal judgement is made of the exertion level, it is not really useful to compare one person’s EPs with another. You are best advised to use EPs to compare yourself to yourself over time and to compare training sessions.

7. As your fitness improves you will find it will take less exertion to perform physical activities. Over time what was once a Level 4 activity may become a Level 3 activity. As most people discover, you tend to push yourself to a certain level of exertion when you train, and for this reason you may often find training quite hard. However, as your fitness improves what you will now be able to achieve at Level 4 will be greatly improved from what you were able to achieve at Level 4 previously.

I hope this help text answers most of your questions re EPs. We emphasise the personal nature of EPs and discourage people from competing against others in this regard. They are designed to motivate the individual to improve adherence and performance over time and to develop an understanding of what they are putting their body through in training. This will help them to plan their training to allow for adequate rest while still pushing themselves hard enough to achieve their goals. The 2Way Fitness Analytics app has been designed to allow athletes to analyse their training data and improve their fitness and perfomance without being prescriptive regarding the what, how, when and why of their training. That is up to the individual.

I personally like to achieve at least 1,000 EPs per week, and generally try to do 1,200, time permitting. I know for me that this maintains my fitness and keeps my body fat in check. When I trained this year for the 1/2 Marathon I increased this to 1,400 to 1,600 EPs per week (mostly running but with 3 circuit strength sessions each week) and was able to monitor my training intensity and include the easy, medium and hard days and weeks of training in a logical sequence leading up to the race, including the last week taper. I lost 4kg in the month prior to the race and felt great on the day. I have no doubt that the 2Way app was crucial to this successful outcome.

To my mind, the monitoring of EPs is the best way of maintaining commitment and motivation towards training and towards a training goal. It is a simple concept but an extremely effective one. This I truly believe and hope others will too.

All the best,
Ian
2Way Fitness Analytics