I recently wrote about how I was doing push-ups as a cross-training exercise using the new Hundred Pushups iPhone app. Now that I’ve been using it for a few weeks, it is time to share some of my disappointments, to temper the positives vibes of my initial post.
First off, no doubt it is very simple to use, and the app has absolutely pushed me to do push-ups more consistently than if I was left to my own devices. But…
- The app is not free – of course it says “free to download” but that is a lot different than “free”. The free app only gives you the first 2 weeks of workouts. Honestly, if you are trying to do the hundred pushups program you ultimately will have to pay since you are not going to stop at 2 weeks. I don’t mind so much that you have to pay to get the remaining 12 workouts (3 workouts times 4 weeks), as it is a small price to pay, but this should be more clear on the website or in the app store when you download.
- At the end of the 5th set, the app asks to you max out and do as many additional pushups as you can. It even counts them up for you as you go. However, and quite shocking to me, it doesn’t count those extra push-ups in your grand total for the day.
- On a related note, when I got to week 3 I found the workouts were too hard for me and I was not able to finish each set. What I want is a way to stop each set at the point I’m ‘done’ and have the app only count those reps that I could complete, but that feature is not available. There is a ‘done’ button on the screen, but that kills the entire workout.
- Again, slightly related, the app isn’t always accurate, although I’m sure this is a limitation of the camera that can’t be helped. Sometimes it misses a rep and sometimes is double counts. Since this is a fairly common occurrence in my use of the app, it would be nice if at the end of the workout you could make adjustments to the totals for the rounds if necessary, to set the record straight. Or allow you to do that on the pause screen between sets.
- The app can be clunky to use and has virtually no help information at all. I accidentally swiped up in one of my sets and the screen jumped right into to a different set and it took a while before I realized what I did and swiped back. (Actually now that I think about it, swiping between sets is probably the way you stop a set in the middle if you can’t complete it, but I am sure the app will still report that you completed all reps) Icons on the screens are not labelled and when I wanted to pause the countdown between sets, the only available button fast-forwarded me immediately to the next set. Yes, the app is fairly intuitive, but if I’m going to pay $2.99 for the app, give me a help screen with basic instructions.
- While the reminder system is a great feature, and key to me remembering to do my workouts, it doesn’t keep up with my actual workouts. I started a bootcamp this week so I temporarily stopped my pushup program. On Monday it reminded me to do the workout scheduled for that day, which I did not complete. Today on Wednesday, it reminded me to do the following workout, even though the prior workout had never been completed. That’s just silly. The app knows I didn’t complete the workout and so when it gives me reminders, it should be for the next workout not yet completed. Or let me ‘pause’ the entire program.
Yes, I realize some of these complaints are petty, and probably typical with a 1.x release and I’m sure will be improved on and fixed in future versions, but still, if you are reading my blog and see only the positive things I had to say in the original post, I wanted to make sure you saw both sides of the coin.
In the end, I still do really like the app and it has pushed me to do a lot of pushups. In fact, when I couldn’t keep up with week 3, I decided to start over at week 1, and was happy to see that in just a couple of short weeks, I had been able to tack on 5-10 additional push-ups to each of the Week 1 workouts when I did them the second time around. In looking at the log I keep myself, I can see that since I started the program on Dec 11, I have done 13 workouts for a total of 608 pushups! It would be great to get these kinds of metrics from the app itself.
As mentioned, I’m taking a little break from the program now because I’m taking a bootcamp class twice a week, but once that class is over, I look forward to starting the Hundred Pushups program again using the app, and seeing if I’m able to keep up with Week 3 and beyond! I just hope the app developers make the improvements that I believe are needed.
