A bit of technology in Gym Class

Thinking about a colleague who teaches Gym. She was recently considering incorporating Youth Crossfit classes into her schedule. Programming a physical conditioning curriculum is much the same as programming a math course, but the EdTech resources seem to be relatively limited. This got me thinking about the Wodify website and how it helps Crossfit coaches plan their training schedules, and helps athletes log their progress. I believe this technology would be very useful for high school students involved in Youth Crossfit as it has many of the key aspects of Gamification, freedom to fail, a map of progression, healthy competition between members, etc. 

This app would also enable students in a weight training class to be more autonomous with their goals, nutrition and physical progress. Think of it as a fitness blog, meets a leader board, meets fitness data collection. 

Another application that might interest Gym teachers who run weight lifting classes is the Stronglifts 5x5 app. This app has an available calendar with all of the 5x5 programming available. It shows you a progression of your results in each of the 5 key lifts and enables you to add other activities that you want to improve upon. Much like Wodify, there are certain aspects of Gamification, but the concentration here is more on the Freedom to Fail. When you fail a repetition of a movement, Stronglifts encourages you to take a longer break, a sends you an encouraging message to explain to the user that failure is part of the process. 

Understandably, both of these applications are for older students, capable of logging their progress independently. But it is a good start!