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How your phone keeps you fit

Contributed by: Jason Ryer on 1/16/2008

Golden Resident Creates Fitness Routine that Works on Your Mobile Device

Fitness on your cell phone? That's right! Golden local Jason Ryer has invented a fitness application for mobile devices. It's called xFit and it helps people get in shape and stay fit by giving them a full collection of exercises that train and develop the entire body and require no weights or special equipment.

So how did he come up with this invention? Well, it's an interesting story...

It all started while Ryer was serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia several years ago. He wanted to keep up with his fitness routine but had one major problem: There was no access to a gym in the small village where he worked.

"During my service, other volunteers turned me on to a workout that really helped mix things up and keep my exercise routines fresh. They used a standard deck of playing cards, shuffled the cards, and flipped one at a time. They assigned an exercise to the cards beforehand; for example, Ace for abs, Two for push-ups, Three for lunges, and so on. We called it The Deck," explains Ryer, Co-Founder of mobileXware, the business that now produces and sells xFit.

Ryer then passed the concept to others, introducing them to his newly discovered workout routine, and also began using a more advanced deck of cards with graphical and text descriptions of specially designed exercises. One friend in particular, Joel Lenorovitz , was immediately sold on the idea and integrated the workout into his fitness routine - first during his travels to Antarctica where he worked on a research ship, and then at home as well because it offered such an effective and convenient workout.

"I loved the card concept of The Deck but thought that it could be taken a step further. With more and more uses for cell phones and other mobile devices, I thought, 'why not put your workout on your mobile device and carry your exercise routine with you everywhere?' It would be the ultimate in convenience for working out," states Lenorovitz, Co-Founder of mobileXware.

While home in Littleton for the holidays in early 2007, Ryer and Lenorovitz discussed the possibility of taking The Deck and making it available on mobile devices. Jason then returned to Bolivia where he spent part of his time writing an initial business plan and developing a proof of concept for xFit. In May, Ryer had decided to depart Bolivia, come back home, and focus on the new business.

Ryer and Lenorovitz now work full time developing and promoting xFit. "Our goal is to get xFit on as many different devices as possible and in the hands of as many people as possible, thereby helping people get in shape and stay fit," says Ryer.

xFit is a full body workout consisting of 50 exercises complete with images and descriptions for each exercise. The exercises can be randomly shuffled to mix up the workout or sorted to target specific body regions. Each exercise offers beginner, intermediate and advanced levels of difficulty.

xFit is available now from mobileXware's website, www.mobileXware.com. The software is free to download and runs in a demo mode with a small sample of the various types of exercises. Entering an unlock code, which can be obtained from the website for a one-time purchase price of $24.95, allows unlimited access to the entire workout. In the near future, additional xFit-compatible content modules featuring yoga, pilates, free-weight, swiss ball, kettle bell, and other exercise methods will be available to help users expand their fitness routine even further.

mobileXware was founded in 2007 to offer mobile solutions that promote healthy lifestyles. With xFit, the company plans to keep the simplicity of "The Deck" concept, add features that utilize the computing ability of mobile devices, and help promote fitness among the increasingly large audience of mobile device users.


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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Jason Ryer

Golden , CO

Jason Ryer has posted 3 stories and 1 comment since joining on 1/6/2008. Jason Ryer 's average story rating is 5.
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