A magnetic wearable that attaches to weights. A banded wearable that wraps around weights and handles. A lifting glove that has tech built in. An upper arm banded wearable.

Attaching the tracker directly to the weight is great for barbells and dumbbells… but what about machines and cable? And it's just not convenient - you have to move it between each exercise.

A lifting glove? Too suffocating. Most lifters don't like lifting gloves as it is, and why should they have to wear something they already don't like?

Upper arm bands are more realistic, but they go through a lower range of motion. They also just aren't as natural to people in that location.

What I needed was to find what gives the most range for tracking exercises while being the least intrusive and most convenient. That is why I settled on a wrist wearable. It allows for tracking across all forms of an exercise, whether that be barbell, dumbbell, cable, machine, or anything else. It also provides the least friction and most convenience: you put it on once and go.

This choice led to another decision: one band or two bands? This was more quickly answered due to this insight:

Lifting weights is a two-armed endeavor.

Tracking: One band can track lifts, sure. But does it really tell the whole story? Can it tell you if an arm is lagging on your barbell bench? If you do dumbbell curls, does your other arm just not exist? You cannot get the full data with just one arm.

Convenience: If you do single-arm, or alternating-arm exercises, you would need to switch the band between wrists. With two bands, you put them on before the lift and never have to think about it again.

That is not to say this is the perfect solution. Wrist-based tracking has some limitations; specifically, exercises where the wrist doesn't move. Examples include:

UPPER BODY - pullups, pushups, dips, and wrist curls - the wrists are stationary.

LOWER BODY - leg press and most machine exercises (leg extensions, hamstring curls, etc)

While reps and tempo cannot be automatically tracked for these specific lifts, the bands can still track your time under tension for these lifts.

These limitations are solvable and are on the roadmap. The focus is to first build an elite wrist wearable.