Kg, lbs, and Units (Read 593 times)

Hi Eric, Some of my strength training is done on universal equipment that uses undefined 'units' instead of kg or lbs. Can you add 'units' to the drop box for strength training? (or maybe this will be solved with the upcoming template feature?) Best regards, -Sam

Hi Eric, A universal machine is a strength training machine that replaces free weights (e.g. barbells & dumb bells) for the same exercise. The photo from the wikipedia entry will give you a better idea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Gym Machines make weight training a little safer for beginners because it's difficult to drop the weights on your foot or head. Most universal machines have vertically staked fixed plates with a pin to set how much weight you want to use. Normally the plates are measured in lbs or kilograms, but some machines measure their plates consecutively. Normally, if there are five plates stacked vertically and each plate is 5 lbs, the plates will be numbered 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 corresponding to the amount of weight in lbs you would life. e.g If you put the pin under the '20' plate you are lifting 20 lbs because you are lifting 4 plates total. For some reason, some companies that sell to the US and Australia consecutively number the plates, instead of putting the actual lb or kg weight on them, so you get 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Instead of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 lbs. The problem is plate weight varies between the type of machine, so a bicep curl machine may have a small plate while a leg press machine will have a large plate. What makes it worse is there is no indication of how much each plate weighs in lbs or kg. So I call this arbitrary units. i.e. a '5' on the bicep curl machine is not the same resistance as a '5' on the leg curl machine. I just suggested adding 'units' or maybe a blank entry to the weight drop down box to accommodate these machines, and probably because I'm a little pedantic :-)

Hi Eric, Unfortunately, units are not the same across machines of the same type unless they are from the same company. Maybe as a simple fix, instead of 'units', a blank line in the drop down menu maybe less confusing for users. And if you have a chance sometime in the future, arbitrary units can be added later as a configuration option?