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Beyond the Whiteboard

By February 8, 2015 May 28th, 2015 2 Comments

Chart Your Progress: Why Track WODs?

Beyond the Whiteboard (BTWB) is an application that allows you to log your daily workouts–including all modifications–to serve as a reference to track your progress not only for you but also the coaches to help towards continuous improvement.

Using the App

The Whiteboard

Upon logging into Beyond the Whiteboard, you will see a 2-week “Whiteboard” that shows the most recent (day)’s workout posted.

There are two areas to note:

  • The Workouts: each day a new workout is posted. Once available, athletes can click on it to view the Workout and review the movements to review past performance and notes.
  • The Gym Activity: For those who have visibility set to either “Public” or “Gym-only”, WOD activity and results will be displayed here. (Information on setting visibility & privacy is in the screenshots)

The most recent workout posted is visible in the 2-week view. Near the bottom is the “Gym Activity” to view posts of workouts logged

Logging your Workout – adjusting weight, volume, and/or movement

As we’ve seen in this app, accurate logging helps athletes make the most out of this app. If you elected to do a different weight or movement than what is prescribed (RX’d), you can easily reflect that when you log the workout.

Here is how to log:

1. Click on the Workout from the Home Whiteboard

2. Select “Log” in the top right.

3. Did you adjust the workout – e.g., scale the weight? ring rows instead of pull-ups? Select the movement name to open up the editor.

Log Sign-in

Select the workout movement (name – it’s a link) to open up the editor. To view image larger, simply click on the image to view full-screen.

Enter your weight, movement, or “search” to change the movement to something else, like hang snatch instead of squat snatch.

Viewing a Workout for Information & Planning

When athletes prepare for a workout, it is helpful to understand past performance and notes to best assess the target load and/or volume for the planned workout. A strength workout with heavier weights and fewer reps is going to be very different than a conditioning workout with lighter weight and higher volume, and BTWB helps assess those differences. Here’s how you can evaluate:

1.) Open the Workout

2.) Click on “Movements” drop-down to go to the movement to review past history, e.g., Kettlebells.

3.) Review “Recent Posts” to find comparable movements with the weight and rep scheme to help assess what weight to use for the workout. Each post is a link where athletes can review all details of the workout, including notes. 

Athlete Profile

This is the “landing page” for all of of an Athlete’s BTWB activity. The two notable places are calendar and Your Posts. Athletes can get to this page in one of two ways:

  • Clicking on Profile Image in the upper left, or
  • Selecting from the Drop-down in top right.

Workout History

Athletes can view a history of past workouts in a calendar or week view. The site defaults to calendar view, so click on “workout posts.”

he search box in the top right is helpful for searching named workouts or movements. For instance, an athlete can type “Fran” for a specific workout, or “Thrusters”, “Pull-ups” to highlight specific movements performed during a workout. Search results will pull up all entries with the movements performed. So it’s important to log your workouts accurately, hence the emphasis on being able to adjust the movements in the logging portion for accuracy.

BTWB Visibility & Privacy

BTWB has visibility settings for workouts; visibility to the public, our gym, or private. To customize privacy settings, perform the following steps:

  • Navigate to your settings by clicking your avatar in the top right
  • View “Account” settings section, edit privacy.

It’s helpful for gym members to be able to watch your progress so at minimum please set your access to gym-only.

Setting Profile & Post Visibility

From “Edit Profile” page, there are “Profile” and “Post” settings that can be configured for the different profile “levels.” Athletes can change them at any time.

2 Comments

  • Bob Soulliere says:

    Thank you for putting this together, Catharine. I find the mobile version to be hyper-abundant with information, to the point that I’d stopped trying to log my WODs. This explanation should help get me back on track with using BTWB.

    • cmcnally says:

      Hi Bob – thanks for your input! Please let us know if you need help — after a few posts, you’ll develop some muscle memory after observing the same patterns for logging! Let us know if you need help and we’ll gladly assist!

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