A little under two years ago, my weight coach The Beserker added me to an app for training. It is called TrainHeroic. It is much more convenient for him because it allows him to just enter the program for the week (mine is three days a week: one day upper body, one day lower body, and one day core). The exercises are all pre-entered and often there are helpful videos for exercises. It is certainly a step up from recording everything in my notebook, which I had been doing for the preceding 4 years.
It also, of course, tracks your workouts and gives you all kinds of data which, if you are the kind of person that is into such thing, can be useful.
So imagine my surprise when randomly in my e-mail box yesterday appears the following notification: "You've logged two million pounds".
I immediately had two thoughts. The first was "That cannot be right, can it?" The second thought was "That is the silliest statistic ever".
So I checked the app. Given the period of time using the app, about 20.25 months, I have something like 172 workouts. On average (cue calculator), that is 11,628 lbs per workout. Well, okay, that math seems to work.
Honestly, I do not know what to do with that number. 2,000,000 is a lot of anything. And in a way - especially with weights - it is incredibly ephemeral: one trains and then one leaves the training floor. There is nothing that tags along with you (other than, hopefully, some sort of muscle gain or fat loss). No physical item you can point to.
Really, nothing except you.
I chuckled a little bit as I read it. I do not think I have ever done 1,000,000 of anything, let alone 2,000,00 - not even different cuts for Iai, although I bet I am close. It is the sort of statistic that makes one cock one's head in curiousity, think a moment, go "Well maybe that is true", and shrug. After all, it is just a mark. And, at least for myself, I am nowhere near done training.
On to 3,000,000!
I've read a cargo ship can have a 1000 tons of cargo. Now we know how many months it would take one man to unload one.
ReplyDeleteData Ed. It all comes down to data. Maybe not terribly useful data, but data.
DeleteI can't help it. I am overcome with jealousy and dinkishness:
ReplyDelete"Just think of the REAL work you could have done with all that effort, TB! HAR HAR HAR!"
I think those apps are good for beginners looking to establish the habits and foundation for good fitness. Old pros like you are probably going to be indifferent.
Ed, please round up Pete and join me out behind the woodshed where I can take my lumps and punishment discreetly... ;)
Well, thanks Glen! The program is good for building habits as you say. Also, since my coach is two states away, it makes for a pretty convenient way for him to program and me to follow up.
DeleteAnd, of course, I get these fancy milestones...