What’s new in Gym Buddy 2.2?  05/15/09

   (So, yeah, I forgot to update the website.  Sorry this is a few days late.)

   The big new feature in version 2.2 is Workout Planning!  It’s a feature that most users probably won’t use, so I designed it to not get in your way if you don’t, but many users just have to have it.  It’s really versatile and powerful, but if you don’t create any plans, never fear, you’ll never even know this feature is here.

    It’s a little confusing how to use, so let’s go through it:

    When you edit a Workout , or create a new one, you see the button ‘Edit Plans’ as in the first shot above, which takes you to a screen where you can add, delete, or copy as many plans as you like.

    A ‘Plan’ is more or less just another note, except that you can select which set of notes you would like to use each time you workout, so you can have different notes for different days, etc.  The temptation was to hard code what you use as a plan -- for example, inputting actual rep and weight values, which would then allow the default values to correspond to your plan -- but there are just so many potential varieties to what a user might want to plan (e.g. tempo, rest period, equipment, etc), it is much more powerful to leave it free-form.

    When you add (or edit) a plan, you get the second screen above.  A Plan has a name and a note, just like everything else.  To add text for an exercise, touch one of the exercises. (For some reason it didn’t occur to me that this screen should show the text already entered if any so you could see your entire plan at once, but it will do so in version 2.3.)

    If you add an exercise to a workout, it will be added to all the plans without any text.  If you delete an exercise from a workout, it will be deleted from all the plans -- however if you add it back, the plan text will still be there.

    When you select one of the exercises, you get the third screen above where you can enter your plan for that exercise.  I tried to make it as convenient as possible using the number pad with additional ‘space’ and ‘x’ buttons, so you can type “200 x 5” really easily.  The ‘Alpha’ button however will give you the full keyboard.  The ‘Return’ button and the Back button do the same thing.  Anything you enter will not be saved until you hit ‘Save’ from the ‘Add Plan’ or ‘Edit Plan’ screens, so if you hit ‘Cancel’ instead of ‘Save’ none of your changes will be recorded.  (This was a choice I made and in retrospect may have been unwise.  The chance of accidentally canceling is probably greater than actually wanting to cancel.)

    Now when you select a Workout from the Workout tab, and if and only if you have created a plan for that workout, you are shown the fourth screen, where you can select which plan you would like to use, or even none at all.  You can also add, delete or copy your plans from this screen.  Hitting a ‘Copy’ button creates a duplicate plan with the word ‘Copy’ appending to its name, which you could then change to order.

    After selecting a plan and beginning your workout, you see the text you entered at the top of your input screen, as shown in the last shot above (the ‘280 x 20, 300 x 10, 340 x 4’ part).  If you have defined an Exercise note, that will still appear as normal.

    I understand it will probably take a few refinements to get it useful for everyone, so please let me know what you need.  For version 2.3, I am working on a way to integrate it with the Calendar.  Should be pretty cool.

    Other changes in 2.2:

1. • I worked a lot on improving the speed, especially when switching tabs.  Now a tab only loads the first time you touch it unless there were changes, so the second time is instantaneous.  The Exercise tab for example could take up to two seconds just to load, which is way too slow.  If you switch Themes though, you should restart so that the changes get propagated to the screens that don’t reload everytime.
   

2. • There are some bug fixes.  The default values in the input screen now work correctly.  The first set defaults to your last first set, then to your previous set thereafter.  The Restore function should now work for users in different time zones.  The Exercise button in the History tabs now lists the exercises correctly.
   

3. • I added an animation when Gym Buddy loads.  Now the splash screen breaks up and floats away.

What was new in older versions?      Gym Buddy 1.1      Gym Buddy 1.2      Gym Buddy 1.3      Gym Buddy 1.4     Gym Buddy 1.5 

Gym Buddy 1.6      Gym Buddy 1.7      Gym Buddy 1.8      Gym Buddy 1.9     Gym Buddy 2.0     Gym Buddy 2.1