Home Blog Fitocracy: A Cool Online Resource

Fitocracy: A Cool Online Resource

Written on May 21, 2012 at 1:47 pm, by Eric Cressey

One of the biggest mistakes I think I’ve made in my career is believing that I would be able to leverage all of my knowledge all the time.  In other words, early on, I assumed that if I learned something and wanted to apply it with my clients/athletes, it would be as simple as writing it into a strength and conditioning program (or nutrition plan).

This assumption (like most assumptions) was, of course, very flawed.  You see, the concept of adherence was something I learned about through experience with a lot of people.  Just because folks know that they should do something doesn’t guarantee that they will do something.  And, just because I was “Type A” and was always motivated to train regularly and eat right didn’t mean that others were, too.

Adherence is a reason people hire personal trainers, recruit workout partners, make bets with their buddies, enter “Biggest Loser” competitions, participate on online forums, hire hypnotists, and employ a host of other strategies.  They know eating right and exercising are important facets of their lives, but they need outside influences to help make these things essential priorities.  

Enhancing adherence became a central strategy to the Cressey Performance business model, too; we wanted to make our facility an experience, not just a gym.  We wanted folks to not just be accountable to their training partners and our coaches, but also be so damn excited to train that they wanted to kick the door to the gym down.

To that end, when I learned about Fitocracy, I became immediately intrigued at their approach to enhancing exercise and nutrition adherence.  

They didn’t just create an online social support network for exercisers of all ages and experience levels; they made tracking workouts fun and competitive (you earn points based on how challenging your workouts are).  It is like a combination of:

1. Facebook (social support)

2. Twitter’s (you pick what’s applicable to you)

3. Words with Friends (compete against your friends)

4. Individual sports like powerlifting, distance running, etc. (compete against yourself)

5. Beer League Softball (bust your buddy’s balls)

Now, here comes the full disclosure: I liked this company and the adherence advantage it provides so much that I invested in it.  Likewise, there are loads of well-known fitness professionals with strong presences at Fitocracy (even if they aren’t investors).  And, I think that you’ll like it, too, so I wanted to encourage you to check it out – especially since it’s free.  

In addition to what you see now (be sure to check out the iPhone app), there will be some cool stuff new coming in the months to come.  For instance, I plan to start doing some live Q&A with followers on the site, and we’ll be “bulking up” the exercise selection library.

To learn more, head on over to Fitocracy through this link (if you sign up through this link, it will automatically make you one of my followers so that you’ll hit the ground running).  I’d also love to hear your thoughts on the site and your experiences with it in the comments section below.

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16 Responses to “Fitocracy: A Cool Online Resource”

  1. John Phung Says:

    I’ve been using Fitocracy for a few months. Love it.

    Members on there are very encouraging and helpful.

    And it’s great to see how other people stronger than I am actually train. For example, I’ve discovered a few people using the Smolov squat routine, and have seen their squat increase over a period of only a few weeks. This influenced me to start implementing that routine myself (probably in a week or two).

    When are you going to start logging your workouts? I’d like to see how you train.

  2. clement Says:

    I had no idea you were investing in Fitocracy, but I’ve been using it for a while now. You’re right that the exercise selection needs some fine-tuning – for instance, there aren’t band pull-aparts of dumbbell floor presses. Also, I see double entries for certain exercises. Compared to weighttraining.com, which is more extensive and even helps you calculate calories burnt and includes a section to summarise your thoughts of the workout at the end, I feel it is a little lightweight.

    All in all, though, I like that fitocracy has an iphone app, which makes logging my workouts convenient and simple. For me, that was the factor that made me stick to it. I’ve been a fan of the “levelling up” and the fitness challenges (my next goal will be to complete the widowmaker!) since I started using it. I will continue to use fitocracy and I hope that the little niggling shortcomings will be sorted out.

    By the way, did I mention how cool it is that it has the CP seal of approval?

  3. Eric Cressey Says:

    Clement,

    Exercise selection additions are my #1 priority right now! Going to be sending stuff in today, in fact. If you have additional suggestions for exercises, let me know for sure.

    Thanks for the feedback and support!

  4. Jeff Says:

    Same here about the addition of exercises. I would love to have a resource that could track and analyze my workout routines and allow me to share them.

    None of the services that I’ve tried have a complete enough set of exercises. So at the very least, it would be great if the exercises I did at CP were included.

    Then additionally, I’d like to see integration with my Withings scale and possibly LoseIt which I use to track what I eat and my calorie differentials.

  5. Steve Says:

    Please add rope climbing and prowler/sled pushes and pulls!

    Also, log your workouts. 😉

    Thanks!

  6. Mike M Says:

    Hey Eric:

    I have been using Fitocracy since December and have really enjoyed it.

    My gripes are the same as far as the exercise selection goes.

    Other issues I struggle with are that there seems to be a stronger emphasis on endurance type work. Folks who are runners, bikers, rowers, etc. get incredible amounts of points for things that are considered average by the same folks doing them.

    It is the same with weight lifting. You get way more points for doing reps as opposed to weight. For example, if you do 10 pull ups in a row this will give you more than double the amount of points than if you strapped 30lbs on and did 6 reps.

    If you deadlift 300 for 5 reps you will get less points than if you deadlift 275 for 6 reps. 15 dips will get you a lot more points than 6 dips with 80lbs added on. Reps seems to be the deciding factor in how you acquire points even when they give the option of showing that you added weight for an exercise.

    The only other thing that bothers me a little is the ego factor. When listing people in different categories they don’t take into account the start date for when the person started tracking workouts. It might be impossible to do it is my guess. So you might be in the top 10 in a category for total points even though you have 6 months of tracking on people who are not in the top 20.

    Overall, I like it and continue to use it. I definitely did a lot more exercise and was motivated to do something on the days when it was just really hard to find time when I was involved in a challenge.

    Look forward to the new changes. Glad someone like you is involved now.

  7. Steve F Says:

    Eric,

    You’re right, there is a reason that so many people use personal trainers and all those other things that make them stick to their workouts and healthy diets.

    It’s all about accountability, and sadly, too many people have trouble being accountable to themselves. They will be accountable to others, however.

    Congrats on your involvement with Fitocrcacy

  8. Donny Irwin Says:

    already a member but I can’t seem to find you on there.. could we get the name you go by on Fitocracy?

  9. Eric Cressey Says:

    Donny – it’s EricCressey.

  10. Donny Irwin Says:

    hmm… turns out because I searched for your name in all lower case it didn’t want to find you..
    thanks…

  11. Dan Says:

    It will be so good to see more of the exercises from Show & Go in Fitocracy. Like some of the others above, I’ve been using it for months and would like to see more of the exercises I’ve been doing included in their choices.

  12. Dan Says:

    Oh, and one other thing, how about an Android app, for those of us not in the iPhone fold? If you can pass that info along to the powers that be, I’d sincerely appreciate it.

  13. Will Says:

    I used to use Fitocracy quite a bit. I signed up back in the *early* beta days of February 2011, when the promise of a site that combined fitness and gaming was strong, and before the devs decided that social networking was more important when it comes to attracting users and VC dollars than the original concept.

    And so they shifted their attention away from fixing the core of the site (activity selection, points allocation, the quest system, etc.) and started working on CSS hacks and expanding their userbase. The net result of this was alienating their early adopters and their users who were more interested in improving their fitness than in chitter-chatting online and giving “props” to everyone under the sun. Oh, and there’s that whole “let’s roll out untested changes onto the live server” thing the devs seem to love doing…

    Now the site is less than useless to me; it’s become aggravating to log in and see what it’s become and how far it has slid from its original vision and promise. I haven’t logged in in six weeks, and haven’t missed it for a second.

    I wish you luck with it, Eric. But unless it gets back to its original roots, I’ve got no interest in the site, and I have no more faith in its ability to actually promote fitness than I have in Burger King adding more salads to their menu.

  14. Eric Cressey Says:

    Will – This is very useful feedback, and certainly something I’ll take into account. Please keep an eye on it over the next several months and let me know what you think with a follow-up comment on this post.

  15. Bradley Says:

    I’ve tried both Fitocracy and Konkura in the last 3 months. I like both, but must say I think Konkura just has the edge.

  16. Steve Says:

    I have just joined fitocracy – just getting the hang of it and like it so far!

    Better than Konkura, that’s for sure!


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