Mobile App Project: Fitness Log
Overview
From Fatherhood to Fitness: Why I’m Building a Workout Tracker for My Son
My eldest son reminds me a lot of myself — in his creativity, his independence, and, yes, his reluctance to embrace team sports. I’ll respect his privacy and not share too much, but I will say this: staying active doesn’t come naturally to him. It didn’t come naturally to me either.
In my early twenties, I weighed nearly 300 pounds. It took years of trial, error, and persistence to turn my relationship with fitness around. That experience left me with two things: a deep respect for the process and a commitment to helping others — especially my kids — build a healthier foundation sooner than I did.
With guidance from my sister, a former Olympic athlete turned coach, I designed a simple, effective weight training routine my son could follow to build strength, confidence, and consistency. The challenge wasn’t the workout — it was getting him to track it.
Building a Tracker, One Rep at a Time
So, true to form, I started building a solution: a mobile workout logging app, customized for his needs, preferences, and attention span. Like everything I create, it had to feel engaging, a bit gamified, and frictionless enough to integrate into real life — not just ideal conditions.
The app is still early in development, but I’ve already begun using an alpha version to track my own workouts. This hands-on use gives me real feedback on flow, friction, and where the product needs to evolve.
Development Stack & Tools
The tech stack mirrors what I used for my N-Back project: React Native, optimized for rapid iteration and cross-platform support. As before, I’m working primarily in VSCode with Copilot selectively enabled, toggling to Cursor.ai for deeper code insights and exploration.
This project sits close to home, and I’m building it with a very specific user in mind. But I believe it could help others — especially parents of teens who need a gentle nudge toward a sustainable fitness habit.
Stay tuned for more as the app progresses — including UI previews, gamification experiments, and lessons learned from designing for real-life motivation, not just ideal user personas.