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Article in App of the Week category.
X100 Counts So You Don’t Have To
Dang. If there is an app that dials in on one feature and does it well, it is X100. This workout app isn’t here to…
Dang. If there is an app that dials in on one feature and does it well, it is X100. This workout app isn’t here to offer up suggestions to you or tell you how to do your workouts. It is simply here to count your reps for you so you can focus on your workout. That’s it. And man is it cool.
X100 uses the camera and video analysis to identify repetitive motion and count your reps. The entire UI of the app is built around this singular feature with great success. An edge-to-edge live video of you fills the screen with small UI elements overlaid. Icons are easy to understand such as the triplet of sliders to represent the settings menu.
You simply dial in the number of reps you’d like to do, strike your pose at the starting point of your workout, and start doing your reps. It works best for simple exercises such as lifting weights, pushups, or sit-ups and it does struggle with complex multi-pose workouts such as burpees. It will identify that starting position and over the course of the first five reps will identify your start and end position and automatically count down as you progress.
Even cooler, you can auto-magically restart your rep counter with a simple peace sign hand gesture. That means you can do a set of 20 lawnmowers on your right tricep, flash a peace sign at your front-facing camera and reset the countdown for another 20 on your left. Just glance at the screen and see your remaining reps displayed with a large, clear number dead- center.
If you run over your set reps, maybe you’re feeling great after doing those lawnmowers and push yourself to fit a few more in, that will be counted for you as well. Jump into the stats page to see all the reps you’ve done including how many you allocated with the
added reps denoted alongside. X100 even tracks how long those reps took you to complete.
There’s only one real downside of the app, namely the oft-unflattering camera angle..! X100 seemingly tries to bypass this a little bit by putting the number on top of your image and overlaying a dark filter over your image while you workout. This keeps the focus on your reps and workout instead of staring at yourself on your selfie cam.
This app is so cool and so well put together that I absolutely love it. I love innovative use of the technology built into your iPhone that we don’t see every day. Heavy gym goers will likely see the most benefit for X100 as their rep count balloons from the paltry 10-20 reps I do for each exercise. But beginner or veteran, X100 is a free app that is worth giving a shot.
But enough about other people's apps.
