Caliplay : a mobile application to get fit

The goal of this work (“Caliplay”) has been to help people improving their strength and flexibility, as if they were taken care by a personal trainer, who takes into account individual characteristics in order to sketch a customized and dynamic fitness plan. There are currently many applications in the context of bodyweight training and, more generally, of fitness, which try to lead the user through different sessions of training to improve her look and performance. However, the most part of applications shares three limitations: 1) they provide users with non-customized instructions: in other words, they do not take into account individual characteristics, but offer pre-defined fitness programs that may not be suitable for all kinds of users and - most important – may even lead to injuries. 2) they often do not include exercises and progressions for flexibility, which is crucial for every kind of sport or fitness activity, and this is really a limit and the main cause of injuries; 3) they do not follow a true scientific approach (i.e. grounded on the current principles of training discipline) Caliplay aims at overcoming these three limits by providing users with special step-by-step progressions, and specifically with features such as the followings: 1) customization of the training based on user data and user feedback, to supply users with custom programs created “dynamically”; 2) use of gymnastic stretching exercises chosen in relation to the muscles used in each exercise; 3) use of a scientific methodology based on agonistic training courses at international level, scaled down to fit the needs of “normal” users. The main target of this mobile application includes healthy (without injuries) people between 16 and 40 years old. Caliplay was implemented using Android, the most used mobile operating system all over the world, as well as an open source operating system based on Linux kernel, installed in many different kind of devices. The app development required about two thousand hours of work and four hundred icons [24] downloaded and elaborated on PowerPoint. Moreover, Caliplay contains now about twenty videos of exercises, but in the final version the number of exercises (including warmup and cooldown exercise) will be about one hundred. The progressions elaborated for Caliplay are about six, and each one contains from five to ten exercises. Caliplay underwent a detailed expert-review evaluation with eight users and four standard users in order to assess its usability. Though of course open to improvements, the app is on its way to be at the core of a business model of a startup.