“Everybody Wins” At Gyminee

Posted by Stephen - 10/24/08 at 11:10:31 am

For those of you who aren’t yet familiar with Gyminee Challenges, they are a very popular way for Gyminee users to compete with one another to see who can lose the most weight, run the furthest distance, lift the greatest amount of weight, and much more. Gyminee Challenges were released only a couple months ago, and we are pleased (to say the least) at how they have been helping people to exercise more and to stay motivated.

 In the 420+ challenges that have been created:

• Over 3,000 users have participated in a challenge.
• Over 4,580 lbs have been lost by users in Weight Loss Challenges.
  
• Over 25,375 miles have been traveled by users in Distance Challenges.
• Over 58,850,000 lbs have been lifted by users in Weight Lifting Challenges!

 

 

 

 

The Gyminee Store is now open!

Posted by derek - 10/22/08 at 08:10:25 am

This is good news for all of you who have been asking us about those Gyminee T-shirts you either read about on the Forums or, in some strange coincidence, saw another Gyminee member wearing at a coffee shop!

Today, we opened our Gyminee Store and loaded it with some  branded t-shirts for both men and women. We wanted to start off simple and based on user feedback, decided on some heavyweight cotton T’s  for the gym by Gildan and some fitted cotton shirts from American Apparel to show your colors outside the club.

We’ll be adding more merchandise to the store over time and if any of you have any suggestions for cool products you’d love to see, send us an email or make a suggestion on the Forums.

Nutrition and Workout Tracking Improvements

Posted by Stephen - 09/18/08 at 09:09:31 am

A handful of improvements have been made to both the nutrition and the workout tracking features of Gyminee. Improvements can be seen on both the PRO and the non-PRO side of things. Here’s a quick breakdown of new stuff.

• Better Time-Tracking: Back in the old days when you did some cardio and wanted to track it on Gyminee, you couldn’t enter hours, minutes, AND seconds. You could only enter a value and then select between hours, minutes, or seconds. Now, when you are tracking your cardio exercises you are able to enter your performance time more accurately using a compound HH:MM:SS field.
• Editable Food Log: Many of you have requested this feature, and now those requests have been answered. Your Food Log shows you what foods, and how much of each, you have eaten for a given day. The only problem was to change how many servings you had eaten you had to remove the food, search for it, and then add it again (quite a hassle). Now, clicking on the number of servings will allow you to quickly modify the amount you have eaten.
• Meal Planner & Grocery List Improvements: You have to be a Gyminee PRO member to enjoy these changes. The Meal Planner is a great tool that allows you to plan what you eat ahead of time to make sure you’re going to hit your goals each day. Before, the Meal Planner showed the amount of calories, fat, protein and carbs that were planned. Now fiber, cholesterol, sodium and potassium are shown as well! After planning out their meals, PRO users have a Grocery List that they can take to the store with them. Before, this grocery list allowed configuration of the ending date for the planned foods they wanted to see. Now, PRO users can configure both the starting date and the ending date.

Development Update

Posted by Stephen - 09/10/08 at 11:09:56 pm

There have been a handful of behind-the-scenes improvements to Gyminee that I would like to share. Many small improvements have been made (the type of stuff that many users wouldn’t notice), but also a handful that are worth pointing out.

• New Exercise Search: Until now, there hasn’t been an easy way to track individual exercises or to easily find the exercises you are looking for. A new search field has been added right at the top of your Workout Log that will allow you to search for, and then track individual exercises. This makes it much easier to track that random day where you played tennis or went for a swim, instead of your normal workout routine.
• Prettier URLs for Users: I’m sure only fellow geeks will appreciate this one, but I know there are some of you out there  The old profile links looked like “gyminee.com/locker_room/43592″ (not very pretty). The new profile links look like “gyminee.com/locker_room/stephenb” - a link you can be proud to show your friends.
• Total Weight Change Shows %: This is one that only Gyminee PRO users will see (maybe it’s time to upgrade?). On your Locker Room, you will see your grades and your Total Weight Change, which is nothing new, but now your Total Weight Change is given as a percentage, along with the normal lbs/kg. I must admit, it’s interesting to know that there is 2.13% less of me here than there was when I started using Gyminee. 
• View All Posts by a Forum User: If you’re a Gyminee Forum user, you may have noticed that the text that shows how many posts have been made by a particular user is now a link. Clicking this link will show all the posts that user has made, and can be a great way to learn some interesting health and fitness tips from your favorite users.
• Of course, a significant amount of effort continually goes towards fixing small bugs and making Gyminee run faster and more smoothly. It’s not a feature that you’ll see, but it’s still one to appreciate.

Ready For A Challenge?

Posted by Stephen - 08/06/08 at 11:08:29 am

Gyminee Challenges were launched only a couple of weeks ago, but they have really taken off! For example, the Inaugural Weight Loss Challenge currently has 138 competitors helping motivate each other to lose the largest percentage of their body weight. Some other interesting facts about Gyminee Challenges:

• There have been over 800 competitors in Gyminee Challenges
• Over 3,200 miles have been traveled by Gyminee competitors
• Over 750 lbs have been lost by Gyminee competitors
• Nearly 100 Challenges have been started so far
• My vote for the best Challenge picture is the 40 Miles in the Next 30 Days challenge (I pity the fool who doesn’t join a Gyminee Challenge!)

Tweet Your Fitness Activity

Posted by Stephen - 08/01/08 at 01:08:08 pm

Quite a few people have requested Twitter support in Gyminee, and we always thought it would be a cool way for users to share their progress and stay motivated. As of today, Gyminee now allows you to “tweet” your fitness activity as Twitter status updates.

Some example tweets:

• “Just did the Back and Biceps workout”
• “Just met my Body Weight goal!
• “Joined the Gyminee Running Challenge”

You can also configure which activities you do and don’t want tweeted. If you’re on Gyminee and on Twitter, then you can visit your Profile Settings page to set up Twitter support right now.

(Also, you can follow Gyminee on twitter)

Hitting the H20

Posted by GenaM - 08/01/08 at 09:08:55 am

Are you looking for simple ways to improve your health and shed the bulky effects of too many Big Macs? Are looking for ways to do it without settling for a life of endless carrot sticks and grilled chicken breasts? If so, then look no farther than your kitchen faucet.

A 2006 study presented by the Obesity Society found that people who replace water for calorie-filled drinks lose an additional five pounds per year, and those who take it a step further and increase their water intake by as little as two cups per day, drop another two pounds per year. In addition to happier times with your scale, adequate water intake improves your overall health by regulating body temperature, maintaining blood pressure, delivering nutrients to cells and improving waste elimination.

So the next time you’re tempted to reach for a soda, try filling your water bottle instead. To make the whole process a little easier, try carrying a 32-ounce bottle with you throughout your day. Determine to empty it once during the morning hours before lunch and again in the afternoon before dinner. It’s a simple way to keep track of your water and reach your goal without running to the water cooler eight… separate… times.

If you aren’t sure how much water you actually drink each day, be sure to use Gyminee’s WaterTracker. It’s a great way to monitor your daily water intake over time and set small goals – one glass at a time.

How about you? Do you have a simple and effective way for getting your 8-10 glasses of water each day? Let us know about it!

2 New Challenge Types!

Posted by Stephen - 07/30/08 at 12:07:17 pm

I have some good news! We have officially added two new types of challenges: Swimming and Total Weight Lifted. Both of these were requested right away when we first released Gyminee Challenges. You will find the swimming challenge as a new option when creating a distance challenge, while the total weight lifted challenge is a completely new animal.

Some Gyminee users have been hosting their own weight lifting challenge in the forums and having a blast doing so (see here). The new weight lifting challenge allows users to see who can lift the most aggregate weight over a specific time period. It’s a great way to motivate yourself and your friends to head to the gym when you don’t feel like it, and to push yourself a little bit harder while you’re lifting.

Enjoy!

Gyminee Sponsors Two Fitness Challenges

Posted by Andy - 07/21/08 at 06:07:00 pm

With the release of the Gyminee Challenges, we have created two special challenges. The winners will get a coveted Gyminee T-shirt. Let the games begin!

• In the Inaugural Weight Loss Challenge, Gyminee users can compete to see who can lose the most weight in the next month.
• In the Gyminee Running Challenge, compete to see if you can run the most miles in the next month.

One of the cool features with the new Gyminee Challenges is that you can get a widget for your blog or website to help spread the word. Here is a sample widget showing the current status of our weight loss challenge:
 

 

What are you waiting for? Get in the challenge and get motivated to reach your health goals.

Gyminee “Challenges” Go Live!

Posted by Andy - 07/21/08 at 05:07:00 pm

We’ve just launched Challenges, our newest feature that allows Gyminee members to join or create activity-based competitions with friends, family or co-workers. Challenges are a fun and interactive way to keep yourself motivated towards achieving your goals and even a great way to meet new people.

Whether it is a private challenge among a few of your closest friends or GymBuddies, a large group challenge at the office, or a nationwide public challenge, we provide the tools to customize, track progress and share with others. You can even place customizable My Progress and Leader Board Widgets on your website or blog to keep you updated with the competition and share with visitors.

Keep an eye out regularly for new Challenges as the list will be growing. Stay motivated. Have fun. Get fit.

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