TrainerTap: Weightlifting Support System Simulating a Personal Trainer's Tactile and Auditory Guidance

Problem — solo workouts lack a trainer’s quality

Working out alone at the gym rarely matches a session with a personal trainer, in both quality and intensity. How can we close that gap for people exercising on their own?

Solution — a wearable that replicates a trainer’s touch and voice

A personal trainer taps your body to draw attention to the muscle you should be using, counts reps aloud, and cheers you on to keep tension through the set. TrainerTap reproduces that tactile and auditory guidance with three parts:

• a Y-motion detector on the bar (a Bluetooth-enabled Bluno Beetle Arduino, coin batteries, and a distance sensor) that senses the bar’s vertical motion;
• vibration devices tucked into gym-clothing pockets (Bluno Beetle + battery + vibration motor) that mimic the trainer’s tap;
• a mobile app that ties the devices together and delivers audio cues.

Walkthrough

The user picks a target exercise in the app, attaches the detector and places the vibration devices, then does three warm-up reps so the detector can calibrate their range of motion. From there it tracks the lift and signals each vibration device, which buzzes in different patterns to cue which muscle to use and when — while the app counts reps, guides breathing, and encourages.

The big three lifts

The first prototype supports the big-three lifts, with four vibration devices giving feedback on primary and secondary muscles. We designed the vibration patterns together with three experienced trainers.