Sportlyzer released new design which, in addition to improved usability, teaches users to see the specifics of their workouts, and therefore learn how to train smarter. Four main updates are given below and there are many things still in progress.

• Detailed workouts
• Daily training suggestions
• Bar for weekly training load
• Heart rate zones and your ideal weekly balance
• Data export

Click here for detailed description.

Last week we asked our users’ opinion about Sportlyzer. Our aim was to find out who are our active users,  what are Sportlyzer’s main values for them, what is missed most and so on. Given below is a short overview of the results with some comments from Sportlyzer’s side.

Our clients are mostly 20-40 years old and besides their favourite endurance sports practice also ball games and gym. The most valuable features according to their opinion are:

Training advice. Further improvements are on process and more precise feedback and advice are on its way.

Weekly overview, the graph and split between sports (endurance, skill sports and strength training) and heart rate zones.

Goals. It’s nice to see that users have adapted it so well. Goal development (more personalized goals) is in our plans but it’s too soon to give out specific dates.

There are also 3 things that stood out in responses for question “what do you miss most”:

• Specific trainings for each day, more precise advice on the structure of training. It is our top priority and the work on this feature should start any day now. So, be patient – this is worth waiting for .

• Better integration with devices such as Garmin, Suunto, Polar and so on. Point taken. Our tech team is already working with the integrations.

• “Totals” (e.g. how many km/miles run during the season, last month’s total etc.). Indeed, it’s not possible to count totals yet, but it is in our to do list and we hope to add it to our new design as soon as possible.

The key point, why people come back to Sportlyzer was mostly similar to the to 3 features, but in addition to that, our Heart Rate zones system got quite a lot of votes. The fact that we’ve managed to educate users to train according to heart rate zones makes us very happy.

There were many other intersting suggestions and we’ve them added all into our roadmap. Thanks for your feedback and while we keep on working with improvements, you keep on giving valuable feedback. So, don’t forget to use Sportlyzer’s feedback feature and/or our forum.

Sportlyzer launched a virtual trainer that focuses on training advice – a required supplement to numerous exercise tracking applications and devices. Sportlyzer is providing a virtual trainer that uses complex algorithms to compose and modify workout plans and give training advice based on a user’s previous workouts and current training schedule. Just as well as a real trainer. This major step is the result of months of hard work and development – yet it is just the beginning of the next generation virtual trainer.

Sportlyzer’s uniqueness is based on 2 core features:

• Relevant training advice delivered by the virtual trainer
• Uniquely tailored training plans which adapt to changes.

The virtual trainer is supported by social networking which enables users to do numerous training related things. Hereby we would like to give a short overview about the possibilities in the public beta.

Workout log.
Adding and editing workouts is made easy. Workouts can be added either manually or from a heart rate monitor (Polar .hrm and .gpx are currently supported types). It is also possible to add multiple workouts to the same day.

Goal setting and individual workout plans.
Based on physical characteristics, goals and previous workout history, Sportlyzer’s algorithms tailor a unique workout plan for each user. Workout plans are flexible to changes and are therefore modified after every change in scheduled workouts.

Training advice from the virtual trainer.
Virtual trainer gives training advice based on individual workout plan and data from previous workouts: suggests training loads and warns if user’s training load is too high or too low. As common in newer sports practices, the training advice is concentrated on heart rate zones and minutes instead of kilometers/miles. Explanations are available for the beginners and to those who are new to this system.

Workout community and shared training routes.
One of the most common reasons why people skip workouts is lack of people to train with. “Community” and “Join a friend” tools in Sportlyzer enable users to share workouts and join friends’ trainings with just one click. Besides trainings, it is also possible to track your favourite routes on map and “borrow” interesting training routes from your friends.

Sportlyzer’s team is working with further improvements. Until then, everyone is welcome to join, try and give us feedback, so we could tailor our virtual trainer according to our users’ needs.