Like Brian, this is my first time at your site.

Unlike Brian, I have NO experience with web programming, however I agree that based upon my first look at the site, your design won’t be a problem.

I wish I could put something like this together.

Regarding content (keep in mind, I have just started playing with the site), I have a few suggestions.

In the weight log, you could add trackers for bodyfat (see tanita scales) and body measurements. BMI is a very discouraging tool for most people see http://dietsexplained.wordpress.com/2008/04/11/bmi-effectiveness-questioned/

In the lifting section, you could track time under tension, length of time per set, per workout (see Charles Staley - EDT), include a greater selection of exercises to choose, perhaps links to exercise videos/mp3s

All cardio exercises could include HIIT training (see http://fitnessmadesimple.wordpress.com/2008/04/17/energy-system-fitness/ )
Food could include a protein gm tracker, links to diet summaries http://dietsexplained.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/the-100-mile-diet/

I am going to work with the site over the next few days. I would definitely consider using your site to track my clients. I currently use my own spreadsheet & print out a report every 20 workouts or so, but this would be great if both myself & my client could look at their charts. They could enter their weight & I could enter the results of their workouts

Anyway,

Good luck & much respect

Thanks for the comments. I agree with you on most points and I’ll keep trying to build that sense of community.

Daniel

I am a new visitor to your site, whose opinion probably doesn’t have much sway nor relation to your concern. However, since you are asking for opinions from those visitors to your site, I figured I might throw it on the pile, for what it is worth.

Judging by the quality of the site, I highly doubt that the lack of participation is due to any shortcomings of your ability as a web programmer. Being a software engineer myself, I should know. I like what I have seen of the site. Rather, my guess is that the answer is human nature.

I have joined several online organizations similar to this, such as SparkPeople, Government-funded health sites, and others whose names elude me. It would usually begin with a desire to get in shape, and somewhere in that process I stumble upon a site, similar to this one.

With my wife I would keep faithful logs of my performance, and would be interested in the graphs and the performance scales, and would be motivated to do more exercise. However, once the novelty had gone, and schedules got busier, I slowly stopped. I suppose it was because I felt no obligation to continue with the site, and other things such as work and school became more of a priority. I still exercised (I admit more sporadically), but I did so without the help of the online monitoring tool.

Being a member of an online fitness site is obligation free, unless there is payment or a social pressure from other members. If there is no pressure or obligation, then once schedules complicate life, the visit to an Internet site becomes a low priority. The question is then how to help people feel obligated to come and enter their statistics here at your site.

Here are a few suggestions, from the point of view of someone who has had problems sticking with a fitness site in the past.

1) If people opt-in they can purchase the time of an online trainer, who will email them regularly, or communicate via the site exercise schedules, fitness options, etc.

2) Pair members up (via the Internet), if they opt-in, who do similar exercise. Offer promotions to the most active pairs, in terms of single performance and/or group communication.

Anyhow, you may already do some of these things, but I figured I would send you my ideas anyhow.

Keep up with the good work, and thank you for your hard work into this project.

Sincerely yours,
Brian Sanderson

What is it that you want to do that Maintain Fit doesn’t provide. If you have some examples I might be able to show you how to do it or work it in to a future update.

Also keep in mind that you don’t need to use the forum (or post an avatar) in order to use the fitness/exercise log. Drop me a line if you don’t understand how to use the log.

Daniel