Exercises are not tagged with the correct equipment sufficient to do it
p
protozoa
When exercises are not properly tagged with the equipment that would be sufficient to do them, the result is that these exercises will not be available to the user based on the equipment list. This might also prevent entire Training Plans from being hidden as well. For example, "Assisted Deep Squat" shows a video of someone holding a pole when doing a squat and the pole is tagged as the equipment needed. However I could just as easily do that holding a chair or just about any other object without requiring a pole. So if my equipment list did not contain a pole, this exercise would be excluded from my universe. This came to light when I couldn't find the Reddit Recommended Routine once I added my equipment (which includes gym rings, chair, etc.); my hypothesis is that exercises like this that seem to ask for specialized equipment is causing the routine from being excluded. To extend the Reddit RR example further, I understand that my gym rings are not exactly the same as parallel bars (for the dips), but I can manage to do this with band assisted dips with my gym rings, if required -- or I can use two chairs to do them. My ask is to not exclude wonderful exercises from my list and to somehow give suggestions to users to use existing equipment to somehow make it work. This might require that all exercises are audited to ensure that all reasonably sufficient equipment are tagged.
Louis Deveseleer
protozoa the main issue with what you're suggesting, is that when we recommend exercises that do not correspond exactly to what the user has available, they think there is an issue with the app.
So while I agree with you on the idea, I think relaxing the equipment filter is not the best way to go.
We're actually working right now on a "Coach Kal" feature that uses natural language to understand your needs and that tool is more flexible is how it filters exercises and routines. I think that might solve your issue.
p
protozoa
Louis Deveseleer, I agree with your view, but I think there are a few distinct use cases where I am suggesting slightly different solutions.
A. The equipment substitution is obvious
Example: the “Assisted Deep Squat” video uses a pole. If I had a chair nearby -- and had listed it in my equipment profile -- I would simply use the chair instead.
Suggested solution: tag the existing exercise with other suitable support options, such as a chair, parallel bars, plyo box, or rings. I would not consider seeing a pole in the video an error if the substitution were obvious. Creating a separate exercise for every possible support item may be unnecessary, but is an option.
B. I am generating a routine or plan for myself
Here, I agree that the recommended exercises should match the equipment in my profile. A minor mismatch may be acceptable when the substitution is obvious, as in Situation A; otherwise, it could reasonably be treated as an error.
C. I am browsing existing programs or routines
This includes community and official routines. Currently, any equipment mismatch can cause a routine to disappear from the filtered list, whether the mismatch is minor or major. That prevents me from even considering a routine that might be easy to adapt.
I would define a minor mismatch as a routine containing an exercise that requires equipment I do not have, while a close substitute using my equipment already exists in the exercise database. Instead of hiding the routine, the app could show it with a notice such as “Some changes required” or offer to adapt it through Coach Kal. The mismatch should be visible, because I may not know to ask Coach Kal for an adaptation if the routine never appears.
A major mismatch would mean that no suitable substitute exists for my equipment. For example, if I only have floor space, a pull-up exercise may not have an equivalent replacement. In that case, fully filtering out the routine makes sense. (Alternatively, the person could be given the option to do the other exercises without the pull-up -- but that might defeat the purpose of the routine.)
Louis Deveseleer
protozoa You'd be surprised how many users don't see the "obvious equipment substitution" you mentioned. Many exercises' equipment have actually been restricted over time, due to user complains that the exercises selected for them didn't match the equipment they have available. Sometimes those perceived mismatch led to bad reviews too. So while I agree with you (and this was actually the path I took initially), user feedback pushed me to become more restrictive, and create a lot more exercise variations to demonstrate how to do them with different equipment. Only the most minor mismatch are allowed now, generally.
Besides adding more equipment exercise variations, we also keep adding more pre-made routines, with specific equipment profiles in mind, to find more easily a perfect match for what you have.
p
protozoa
A related thought is that if I am interested in a routine that uses equipment I do not have, is it possible to mutate that routine by finding similar exercises that use the equipment that I do have? Then when I filter routines based on equipment, rather than just saying "which routines can be fully performed with the equipment you have?", the filtering logic would answer the question "which routines can be successfully mutated to suit your equipment"?
An exercise that uses parallel bars might be transformed to a band-assisted ring dips (if I have rings but not parallel bars). Still the routine using parallel bars for dips would be "available" to me.