FitMethod

Facebook applications are getting more and more advanced. Nick O’Neill over at AllFacebook recently told me about this new application that surfaced that I might be interested in. It’s called “Personal Trainer” and its by far the best fitness application that I have seen so far on Facebook. The first thing that you do once you get the application is to set it up: you input a lot of info such as your weight, age, and your fitness goals. The application then generates an estimate of your daily metabolic rate, how many calories you should be consuming, as well as a breakdown of what types of calories they should be (fat, carbs, or protein). The coolest thing that you get is a detailed workout for every day of the week that you want to work out. The application generates a list of exercises along with set and rep numbers. There is also a suggestion for what the cardio workout should be. Basically, it’s a very thorough application and very cool.

However, though the technological side of the application is pretty good, the fitness component of it is not. My biggest problem with it is that the workouts are bad. They all follow a bodybuilding theory of exercise, WHICH IS NOT ALWAYS EFFECTIVE. Bodybuilding workouts should be only used for bodybuilders and not for everybody else. First of all, they are too generic and do not take into account the various different needs that each inidividual has. Different people have different muscle imbalances and therefore their workouts need to be adjusted to their custom needs. Instead, this application enforces the same workout onto everyone, treating the users as if they are all identical.

Secondly, bodybuilding workouts are not conducive to better fitness. They train the body to look better, not perform better. A typical workout that the application offers is one that involves too much muscle isolation and too much movement in one plane. It also lacks the proper intensity needed to challenge the body to perform better. For instance, I decided to test the program by setting a fitness goal of losing 5 pounds. Instead of receiving a workout that had me doing a lot of compound movements, bodyweight and totalbody exercises, it suggested that I do a fair amount of still and isolated movements. It did however tell me to do 40 minutes of cardio and it told me what my fat burning zone should be. But as I mentioned before, this type of cardio training is flawed.

Lastly, the application is developed by an on-line supplement store, so there is a lot of advertisment of different supplements. However, a proper diet does not need any supplements (except maybe for some protein and fish oil here and there). Too many supplements don’t work and your body doesn’t need them.

So all in all, the personal training application is cool but it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. The workouts that it generates are obviously taken out of some bodybuilding magazine such as Flex and lacks some important fitness principles. If you want to check it out for yourself, then click here to get the Personal Trainer Facebook Application.