itrainharder Archive

iTrainHarder is a pretty robust site in the areas of nutrition/fitness tracking and planning. The site iTrainHarder defines themselves as:

iTrainHarder is an online nutrition and fitness tracking and planning system that allows you to see your results as well as plan for new ones. Our software will allow you to track your progress using the most advanced web tools available for personal fitness.

When I decided to add iTrainHarder to the Web Apps Fat-Off, I spent some time with the tool. Overall I think it really has a great depth to it.

One of the best parts of iTrainHarder is that every feature has a tutorial video. I am sure that these videos took a bit of time to create and they are well worth it. The site is very robust in its technology. Everything seems to have a good feel to it, the usability is high. I would say that if they put some more “feminine” touches on the design, that would help the overall design a lot. I am not saying the site should be only for women, but right now the design feels a bit “rough.”

One note – there is no community on the iTrainHarder site. If you are looking for that, you will need to look elsewhere. For me, I am not sure this matters. My workouts are my own.

The site has 5 major components:

• Nutrition – You can create your meal plans and enter the foods you ate for the day. They have thousands of foods. For me, food is my weakness and being able to see what I ate and how good or bad the makeup of the food is really helps motivate me. I am not sure how the shopping list generator works – need to check with the staff to find out.
• Training – Just like the Nutrition section, you can add your exercises, both cardio and muscle, to your plan. Again, the site has hundreds of exercises which allows for easy addition. And everything works with the weight you set so that the right calories burned show up. I know many sites that don’t do this and when you are heavy you burn more than a normal weight person.
• Measurements – Track your weight and body measurements such as:
• Blog – Keep a blog of your workouts and nutrition and technically you can write about whatever you want. What I like about this is that it is right there so as I post my nutrition and workouts, I can easily post my thoughts for the day. I can allow comments from registered members and I can keep the post private.
• Personal Trainer – I really like this feature. I used to have a trainer and she kept all of her records on paper and there was no tie into online. This way, she/he can see what I am eating, what I am doing in terms of workout, my blog, etc. which will help the trainer to provide a better workout the next time. And keep better track of what I am doing when I am away from them.

Couple areas for improvement:

• Explain the pricing – “as low as” – what does the pricing look like?
• Make the design more relaxed with colors that make people feel more relaxed
• Add some line height to the text – there is tons of (good) text on the site but it is a little hard to read with the lines being so tight

Screenshots – click to enlarge

Final thoughts:

I think iTrainHarder really is an excellent comprehensive tool. I think it is worth the $3.75/month. Especially if you have a fitness trainer because it really rounds out what they do with you. If they could work on some of my suggestions above, then I think they could have a very powerful market leader with iTrainHarder. As with most of the other sites, having some backing from a doctor, nutritionist and fitness trainer will help add credibility and “certification” to iTrainHarder. iTrainHarder offers a free week trial. I suggest you give it a try when you are ready to manage your weight and fitness routine.

Over the past couple of days, I have been chatting with Harold from iTrainHarder. I had a quick look at his web app as we chatted and I decided to add it to the Fat-Off. So today I officially created an account and here is my initial take from using the program today.

• iTrainHarder might be the most feature packed of all of the tools – bringing together nutrition, training, measurements, blog and a trainer option
• I think the fonts need to be a good percentage larger if this tool is to make it to the mainstream market
• Excellent Web 2.0 features like the food finder and the exercise finder – I tested the food finder and I think some of the search could be improved – for example I search for hamburger and the first 50 results are all hamburger buns, then finally a burger patty.
• Each section has a tutorial as well both text and video – very well done
• My only other initial concern is that the app is not as "pretty" as it could be. Besides the fonts, the colors are kind of cold feeling.

I am excited to have iTrainHarder as part of the Web Apps Fat-Off. I think they will give the other participants a run for the money!