Go Hevy app – lift pick up trucks

After looking for a Fitocracy alternative, I’m giving the Hevy app a trial run. The good news is, during testing I’ve just lifted a pick up truck.*

*Sigh, if I must clarify: The equivalent weight of a pick up truck. Happy now?

Fitocracy, must we part ways? (Again)

Along with Facebook (and once upon a time Gumtree), Fitocracy must have been one of the longest serving apps in my history of smart phones. Between it and the website, god only knows how many sessions I’ve logged, how many scores I’ve racked up and how many years I’ve been doing all three.

I say ‘must have been’ because all of a sudden it’s no longer in action. After a week of downtime post surgery, I tried to record my latest workout through the app but it couldn’t connect to the server. So I went to the website and it too was down like a far too heavy barbell. And the exact same thing happened roughly the same time last year:

What the hell happened to Fitocracy? Suddenly the site is down, the app isn’t working and I’m not the only one asking that question. Looking into R/Fitocracy on Reddit there’s a lot of users looking for their next hit of gamification (if you want me to exercise, attach some kind of scoring to it) and right now it looks like Thunderwave Fitness seems a possible replacement. I say possible because it’s still in beta testing, there’s no app yet and there is a fee (but you can sign up to a 30 day trial with no cc currently which is good) and there’s a few bugs and kinks to iron out but it does look like Fitocracy with a few more moving parts bolted on. And considering how much I used ‘Fito’ (including rewarding myself with small amounts of money into my savings with every workout, this might be my next move.)

-Me, wondering where Fitocracy went the first time.

And so in need of some kind of fitness recording app (I like a score in everything I do if possible), with no word on a possible return (if there will be one) and not having the funds for a Thunderwave membership just yet, it was over to Google and the Android app store to search for possibilities.

Enter the Hevy App.

No not The Heavy, the Hevy app.

But on The Heavy (band) side of things, how good is How You Like Me Now as a song? Now there’s some motivating work out music.

Right, now that the musical tangent is done, on with the look at a quick Hevy app review.

Track workouts

make progress

Hevy is a free workout tracker & planner for iOS and Android. Build routines and track progress with friends.

-First thing you see over at the official Hevy website.

Did I mention it’s free? Yes Hevy app has it’s Pro subscriptions (including a Lifetime one if you really can’t get enough of the app and website) but if you’re like me and you’re big into the whole try before you buy model, then there’s a bare bones free membership ready to rock and roll. And for the whole ‘throw some heavy metal things around the backyard on occasion’ lifestyle I enjoy, I figure a basic service with a score at the end is pretty much all I need which is handy.

And so I signed in with my Google account, gave myself a name (happily Almigo was still available), threw in a random profile pic, loaded up the headphones, walked out the back and proceeded to lift just to see what happened.

It turns out my first proper workout with the Hevy app resulted in a lot of handy feedback and not just the fact that I can lift trucks now. Or the equivalent of.

Now I don’t know if Henry Cavill is looking for more people to play Astartes/Space Marines in his upcoming Warhammer 40k series but I feel if I continue these workouts, soon enough I’ll have the bulging muscles the role calls for.

While it doesn’t give you a workout score like Fitocracy did, Hevy App does like to point out how much you lifted based on what you lifted and how many times you got it up in the air. Which honestly is up there with a workout score really as I like to try and beat previous records (or at least aim for a particular number – in 2024 any Fitocracy workout worth at least 1100+ points I counted as a win.)

But do you go light with many reps or heavy with fewer to boost up that volume score? Decisions, decisions.

And finally the best bit – the equivalent of what you lifted. The first workout was the weight of a motorcycle, this one however really packed on a few more kilos..

Now that is pretty cool, walking away from a workout thinking ‘Yeah, I just shifted a pickup truck.’
Now I’m wondering what I need to do to shift either a jumbo jet or a battleship..

(If Fitoc doesn’t come back, I think this one is here to stay!)

You can go solo but friends are welcome

I’ll be honest, I followed a few people on Fitocracy (mostly people from Somethingawful where I was introduced to the app yonks ago) but never too closely. However I do understand and appreciate the motivational aspect of people on your friends list trying to out lift you, liking your workouts etc.

So if you’re new to Hevy app, feel free to add me. I’m in there as Almigo. Just look for the aussie guy in the corner attempting to bench press a pickup truck with a motorbike in the back of it.

Hevy App review update – a month on!

A few days after I first gave Hevy a train, Fitocracy came online once more. However having now got more used to Hevy’s post work out detail system, I’ve decided to stick with it instead of going back. The combined weight score, muscles worked, workout timings and so much more even in free mode in my mind puts this quite a few steps ahead of Fitocracy and even though it’s lacking a scoring system, it more than makes up with the ‘equivilent’ lifting post workout stat. As above I was once lifting pick up trucks..

…but I’ve also lifted a shark:

A helicopter…

And after the Sunday just gone where I promised myself a small workout after lifting the helicopter on Friday… I stuffed that up completely and instead lifted an Elephant.
Or close to one.

And as we continue to grow and get stronger, I can only imagine what it’s going to tell me I’ve been lifting next…