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Show HN: Workout.cool – Open-source fitness coaching platform

(github.com)
827 points surgomat | 1 comments | 18 Jun 25 12:33 UTC | HN request time: 0.204s | source

I was the main contributor to workout.lol, an open-source fitness app to easily build a workout routine. The project had traction (1.4k GitHub stars, 95 forks, ~20K visits/month), but was eventually sold due to video licensing hurdles. The new owner stopped maintaining it, and the repo went abandoned.

Over the next 9 months, I sent 15 emails to try to save it : no replies. Feature requests & issues were ignored. The community was left with a "broken" tool let's say.

I couldn't just let it die So I built the new version from scratch with the same open-source spirit, but a better architecture long-term vision, more features and no license problems.

It's called : Workout.cool (https://workout.cool). What it offers: 100% open-source, MIT-licensed - 1200+ exercises (with videos, attributes, translations) - Progress tracking - Multilingual-ready - Self-hostable

I'm not doing this for money. I'm doing it because I believe in open fitness tools, and I’ve been passionate about strength training for 15+ years.

If this resonates with you, feel free to: - Star the repo - Share with fitness/tech friends - Suggest features - Contribute code/design/docs

Together, we can build the open-source fitness platform we all wanted to easily build a workout routine and get in shape

Website: https://workout.cool GitHub: https://github.com/Snouzy/workout-cool

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deadbabe ◴[18 Jun 25 16:30 UTC] No.44311273[source]▶
I struggle to see the point of most fitness apps.

Fitness really is a solved problem. The fitness apps and influencers will try to convince you that you need a whole database of “creative” and new exercises to see progress, making it seem like there’s “secrets” to getting the body you want fast.

There are no secrets. The truth is, you just have to do the same dozen or so “boring” exercises that everyone already knows. But you have to do them consistently, and you have to increase their difficulty over time. And then make sure you eat right.

A lot of coaching should just be on getting the numbers right and correcting your form. But once you learn how to get that right, you can pretty much be on your own, and fitness apps become little more than a place for you to track progress, if you even care about tracking progress. Progress will happen whether you track it or not, you can just go by feel.

replies(1): >>44311354 #
1. bschwarz ◴[18 Jun 25 16:38 UTC] No.44311354[source]▶
The boring exercises too were once novel but you're right in that continued progression is the most important thing. However, you can't improve what you don't measure.