We Need a Better Way to Do Strength Training at Home

Imagine you were raised by wolves in the remote wilderness and never touched a computer. You are found and brought into a halfway house to teach you how human society works, and you’re getting the hang of stuff like using silverware and making small talk about the weather. Then you need to learn how computers work so you can find a job. You don’t particularly care about computers and would rather frolic around in the forest all day, but that’s society for you, and you have to learn, so you commit yourself to learning.

Someone hands you a cheap laptop to get you started and teaches you that TikTok/YouTube/etc have videos from skilled computer users that can inform you about technology. You watch an assortment of videos telling you Steve Jobs was the second coming of Christ, using anything other than Kali Linux will let hackers steal all your information, Windows is an unable pile of trash everyone hates (sometimes the videos are simply true), real computer users use X and everyone else is an idiot, and that the Wi-Fi chip in every device on earth is giving everyone cancer. You techincally know more about computers than when you started, but it’s all useless advice, you don’t retian any of it becuase you don’t care and it wasn’t presented well, and that’s very annoying because you still need that desk job.

It’s a tortured analogy, but this is what it feels like when I find fitness (strength training) content online.

We do not, as a society, like to move it move it

On top of all the confusion about what you should even be doing in the first place, I’ve noticed that the best fitness sources assume you are interested in the topic and want to learn as much as possible. Creators like Squat University do a great job explaining solution to common problems and teaching good form. The problem is that I really don’t give a shit about any of this and watching a 20-minute video on how to fix my squat form (half of which I can’t even use because I’m not at a gym) is mentally like holding my hand on a hot stove. The fiterati (literati but fitness people) don’t really understand this feeling, I think, and this leads to a lot of issues.

The only way the vast majority of fiterati content tries to engage with us (the whiny, lazy, majority) is encouragement, shame, or guilt. Fiterati (and creators of almost any hobby content) are by definition very interested in what they post, and I don’t think many understand what it’s like to feel that you have to do what they like to do.

They are somewhat aware of this problem. “Oh sure”, the fitness people say, “you work all day, want to see your friends or family, and keep your house clean – we all do – but when you say you don’t have time to work out, do you realllllllllllllly? You don’t have five minutes a day to do some squats at your desk? You can’t stretch or take the stairs? If you want to do it, you’ll make time! I work five jobs, take care of my elderly family, have a rich social life, cook all my own meals fresh every day, and I still look like this, so you can too!”

This is a slight exaggeration, but even the more reasonable fiterati I’ve found do this – they will acknowledge there are a million reasons that make it hard to workout, but the solution is just buck up and do it! In fairness, they can’t really offer a lot else from an internet video (nobody needs to be reminded in their squat form video to go to therapy or drink water or whatever) but it’s still frustrating.

Mentally engaging is not interest is not liking is not loving

I like cycling. I mostly stopped taking public transit and take my e-bike anywhere I can. It’s not usually fun, especially when everyone in a car keeps trying to kill you, but it’s usually a little enjoyable, or at least mentally stimulating, even when it’s raining or my legs are tired. This is how I think most fitness people view working out – they know it’s not fun fun like playing a videogame, but it can be mildly enjoyable to unplug from life for a bit, or fulfilling as you know you are reaching a goal.

But a lot of people do not get any enjoyment at all out of cycling, especially in traffic or on the way to an appointment, the stress of it all more than destroys whatever joy they might get. This is how I feel about fitness – I do feel better after working out, it unquestionably improves my quality of life in many ways. But I still hate doing it – strength training is stressful and somehow boring at the same time. Cardio is merely boring, which is why I find it easier to force myself to do cardio.

But that’s a problem. I want to build muscle; cardio does not really do that. Many normal people who want to build muscle – correctly! – understand that doing some squats or chair stretches at their desk job is not going to make them skinny or give them abs, so they don’t bother at all. The fiterati (and many people who aren’t fit!) usually look down on this attitude. They argue that starting small can snowball into bigger gains later when you do more. Doing some light calisthenics at your desk is better is nothing, and maybe it will (somehow) encourage you to work out more later, which will then deliver the results.

I don’t think that happens.

Mandatory Fun

People say they want to do things that are good for them and never do them all the time; I think most people want to be better than we are. We all want to eat more whole fruits and veggies, call our parents more, volunteer more, and learn a language for that trip we’re going to take. That last one is working, though.

I’ve been using Duolingo on and off for years, but as of about two years ago, I decided to get more serious about it, pay for it, and focus on keeping my streak. I even threw in a very small amount of non-Duolingo Spanish-learning podcast listening after about two yearas. Short version: it’s working. All the dumb gimmicks on the app keep me coming back. The immersion pedagogy (fancy word for “it generally doesn’t explicit teach you things; you learn by doing and making mistakes”) works well, and recently Duolingo added bite-size grammar guides references and short grammar lessons to help cover tougher concepts. I am not fluent in Spanish, but I’m no longer a beginner – I’m up to A2, and regularly see tweets or memes in Spanish that I can now read, almost exclusively thanks to Duolingo.

Gamification is a very hot topic right now – so much so that some product manager who worked for large fitness companies for years even wrote a book about it that I read.

Duolingo’s social media is well-known and loved online. Users in online language-learning groups, however, relentlessly criticize Duolingo. They hate their monetization strategy, the entire concept of immersion pedagogy, the gimmicks, the mistakes (!) and broadly conclude it can’t be working for anyone, not really. It’s a growing joke that people with the Duolingo app aren’t really learning anything at all, they’re just going through the motions of learning.

The online language-learning aficionados recommend a wide range of YouTube videos, TikTok creators, podcasts, notebooks, strategies, online services, and more I’m probably forgetting. This stuff never worked for me because I’m not interested in the science of language learning or even the structure of the language I’m trying to learn. I feel overwhelmed just looking at that list above – where do you start? I’ve tried more than once and none of it ever stuck. There is just too much, and none of it fits together cleanly. Duolingo did stick with me because they understand the hardest part of learning a language: continuing to learn.

There’s a very clear example of a small thing that makes Duolingo different: They recently introduced an AI chat system for improving your speaking skills in their expensive paid tier ($30/mo) where you can speak to an AI who will speak back to you. This was panned in some circles as ridiculously overpriced – you can do the same thing with ChatGPT for $10 less! Duolingo, however, already knows exactly what words you know and how well you know them, and it starts the conversation with words you’ve been introduced to but may not have completely learned yet. Details like that – at least for me – are extremely useful and worth paying for. It’s like getting an off-the-rack suit vs having one tailored to your measurements.

Nobody has learned from this

Nothing in the current at-home fitness space gets close to doing this.

We are all aware of the joke about old Bowflex machines becoming clothes racks; the Bowflex machines did not lack training ability, that’s not why they fail. People might think they want equipment, they realize they don’t pretty quickly.

Workouts apps are a dime a dozen. I do not need an app. I do not want to fiddle with an app while working out, tapping out each set, each rep, each change of program. I would bet every dollar I have paid fitness apps see similar retention curves to those cable machines – people do use them, but not nearly as many that try to use them.

There is an increasing amount of competiton for cable machines with screens on them (Speediance, Innodigym). These are much closer to the old Bowflexes than a real, connected, polished experience. The software needs to be fantastic – not ok, not good, not “pretty good for $price”. If it’s not fun or engaging the screen will be covered by wet clothes in weeks.

The smartest kids in the class – Tonal, Tempo, Vitruvian – still barely scratch the surface of making strength training both effective and fun. Tonal aide, they’re way too buggy and bare-bones. Strength training and softare devlopment is so complex, they’ve had years now to polish the product, and it’s still a buggy, bare-bones, glued-together mess of software and hardware. I recently starting using a Tonal and it’s much smoother and better to use than anything else, but it still has some warts.

Normal questions, less-normal answers

More than one person who is aware of this entire strength-training-at-home saga mentioned how determined and/or stubborn I was being. They also don’t get why anyone would want this in the first place. Some common refrains:

• “Why not just go to a gym?” (I hate almost everything about them; I went for years with trainers I enjoyed but hated setting foot in the place without them)
• “Why not just buy weights/cable machine and use an app?” (I hate making my own programs, ticking off each rep, jumping between apps to see videos of what to do where everyone does everything differently, having tons of weights/giant cable machine lying around my apartment, and paying for at least two different subscriptions to do this)
• “Have you tried asking someone for advice to teach you? Find a gym buddy?” (None of my friends are gym rats, and they don’t live close enough to me to go to the gym with me multiple times a week.)

I realize I am usally not the average person in a lot of ways, but I really don’t think the average person has gym rat friends that can match their schedule, a love of going to the gym, or a ton of extra room at home for a dedicated workout space.

That’s all great, but what do I want?

I had someone DM me on LinkedIn after seeing my Tempo post who is looking at getting into this space, and they asked me some questions. It got me thinking about what I would want to see in this space, as realistically as I can imagine.

• I will tolerate paying for your expensive proprietary hardware, especially if there’s a 0% financing plan.
• My landlord and I want it to be easy to install without holes in the wall
• It should fit into the average person’s home.
• I want it to be returnable for at least 90 days
• I will pay your usurious monthly fees as long as I don’t have a brick if I stop paying, and it’s easy to pause when I get sick
• I will even pay more for personal training with a probably-huge markup because I hate being injured the most
• If you want extra credit, figure out some camera AI magic to count stretching reps in the workout and let me record stuff like ankle mobility in your app
• I want it to look nice. Don’t have me leave the accessories in a big pile on the ground. Don’t charge $300 for a basic flat metal wall-mounted accessory shelf or I’ll buy the knockoff one on Amazon
• I want it to be easy if I’m stiff from sitting at my desk all day writing long blog posts where I complain a lot.
• I want it to be usable if I’m injured
• I want it to avoid injuring me, either directly or by letting me work out with bad form
• I want it to track every single thing I do and give me credit for it – yes, even the bodyweight stuff.
• It needs to track my heart rate and export the workout data to Apple Health.
• I want it to be fun. Yes, really.
• Let me listen to my own music from any app in addition to the system audio of your product. Please. I don’t know why almost nobody allows this.

Nothing, not one single product on Earth, hits all the requirments above. Most of them don’t hit half of the requirements. I realize that developing smart strength-training machines (hardware that can injure or kill you combined with consumer software at subscription-demanding quality) requires tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, and that’s why the field is relatively thin right now.

Free billion-dollar idea: imagine the Duolingo bird, but swole

I have the disastrous combination of capital-H Hatred for working out, fear of (another) injury, and the persistent desire to build muscle and improve my cardio health despite those two things.

I am not the only person who wants this – I have a friend who has both a Tempo and Peloton and both are collecting dust becuase they don’t consdier how many people hate working out. My parents had a cable machine – and later, a spin bike – collect dust in their basement for years. Peloton and Aviron make an effort at this massive untapped market, but the sky-high prices (of both the hardware and subscription) push people away. Tonal has a shockingly smooth workout experience but no amount of software can let you see a screen on the wall behind you during a bench press, the subscription is even more expensive, and you need to pay to have it moved (and patch up the holes it left).

Workout equipment is not the problem here, anyone who has all the intrinsic motivation they need can just buy equipment. Very few people have enough intrisic motivation to push through barrier after barrier, though, but we’re collectively learning that making things easier mean more people do them (shocker!). We have language learning apps for people barely motivated to learn a language, we have (two!) product ecosystems for people who barely want to do cardio: we need a great strength training product for people who barely want to do strength training. I can only imagine how difficult/expensive it is to build something like this, but whatever the ideal hardware format is, we definitely haven’t hit it yet.

We have a few good at-home cardio products, and a handful of good-to-mediocre at-home strength systems, where the ones on the “good” end are two or three times the cost of the cardio machines, and feel primarily targeted at people who are already athelethes. A great at-home strength training product for everyone does not exist. We aren’t even close.