A University of Worcester lecturer has developed a new app designed to bring friendly competition and social interaction to gym workouts.
Gym Wars®, a free app created by Associate Lecturer and Technician in Sports Science Matt Davies, allows users to challenge their friends, track workouts, earn points for exercise and compete against rival gyms through a range of fitness challenges.
The app is available on the App Store for iPhone users, and the Google Play Store for Android phone users.
“Once you’re signed up, there’s a real social element to it,” he said. “You can post your pictures and videos and there’s a fitness tracker where you can add your workouts and you’ll get points for the effort you’ve put in.”
Matt continued: “Your friends will be able to see your progress, and you can invite them to take part in challenges that you design so you can see which of your friendship group can climb to the top of the leaderboard through lifting, bench pressing, or most other forms of exercise.”
Users can create their own fitness challenges, inviting friends to compete against one another and track their progress through the app.
“The app also allows gymgoers to work together to outperform a rival gym, so there’s a really nice, friendly competitive element to it,” he added.
Matt said seeing the social and competitive apps available to runners gave him the inspiration for Gym Wars.
“Runners use apps to track their progress and share their exercise with other runners,” he said. “This is great, as it allows people to congratulate and encourage each other, hype each other up, and see how their friends are progressing.”
He said: “Gymgoers can form really close bonds, and Gym Wars is a great way to help people turn their workouts into a way to socialise with friends, gamify their results and progress their fitness in a competitive way.”
The app features leaderboards, streaks and a "wall of workouts", where users can share photos and videos of their training. It also allows gymgoers to compete as groups or go head-to-head with a friend in a duel.
Matt, who graduated from the University of Worcester before returning to work in the School of Sport and Exercise Science, has built his computing skills while developing Gym Wars.
“Studying at Worcester gave me the critical skills I needed to analyse sports and nurtured my thirst for learning,” he said. “Completing a placement in Strength and Conditioning really prepared me for a career in sport, combined with the research and critical thinking from my degree it laid the foundation for me to apply to learning app design and development.”
“Developing the app has been very complex,” he explained. “I started this about three years ago, and it has been a long road and a steep learning curve for me. It has been tough, but I am so proud of the app and I can’t wait to see people using it to improve their fitness and connect with their friends.”
Although his background is in sport science, Matt taught himself many of the skills needed to develop the app, drawing on research skills developed during his studies at Worcester and guidance from friends working in the technology industry.
“I’ve learned an awful lot along the way,” he said. “It’s been a huge challenge, but seeing the app finally come together has made it all worthwhile.”
Visit the Gym Wars website for more information, or search for Gym Wars on Tiktok and Instagram.
For information on courses at University of Worcester visit www.worcester.ac.uk or for application enquiries telephone 01905 855111 or email admissions@worc.ac.uk