Why GymLog exists.

The Frustration

There was no single app or missing feature that caused it. The annoyance accumulated gradually. A tool for recording a set would ask me to create an account. Training history would be treated as data for a service rather than something that belonged to me. Useful features would sit behind subscriptions, sometimes including basic things like graphs, percentage calculations, or personal-record tracking.

None of this felt necessary. Logging a workout is a simple, private activity. It should not require an identity, an ongoing relationship with a company, or permission to access your own training history.

Building My Own

I tried several existing apps, including the most popular mainstream trackers, and others for shorter periods. Each had things I liked, but none matched what I wanted closely enough. Eventually, continuing to search felt more frustrating than building the app myself. I write software for a living, so that is what I did.

I was not interested in making a minimal alternative or a small proof of concept. The intention from the beginning was to replace the entire app I had been looking for.

While building it, I continued using other workout loggers to understand what worked well and what did not. I took ideas that were useful, discarded those that were not, and changed things to fit the way I trained. Once my own app was usable enough, I switched to it full-time.

Shaped By Actual Training

From then on, most of its development happened during actual use. I would train with it, notice something slow or awkward, and fix it. The quick input pad came from wanting to record sets with less friction. Graphs, percentage calculations, and personal-record tracking are included because they are useful parts of a training log, not premium extras.

I still use it for every workout. That remains the main way it is tested and improved: use it, notice what gets in the way, and make it better.

Why It Is Free

At one point, I planned to release the app commercially. The idea of working on it full-time and supporting myself through it was appealing. But designing an app to be useful and designing one to be monetized are not quite the same activity.

A commercial product needs reasons for people to upgrade, limits on what is available for free, and decisions about which features belong behind a payment. Those were not decisions I enjoyed making. They pulled the app away from the reason I had built it in the first place.

Eventually, I lost interest in turning it into a business. I shelved the release and kept the app to myself for roughly another year and a half, continuing to use it for my own training.

Over time, that began to feel wasteful. I had a complete app sitting in a private repository, and I would find it genuinely rewarding if other people found it useful too. So I decided to release it.

What That Means

There is no account, no analytics, no data mining, and no advertising identifier. Your training data remains on your device. There is no subscription, and useful features are not separated into free and paid tiers.

The intention is for the app to remain free. I may add an optional tip jar at some point, but payment will not be required to use the app or unlock features.

Try The Beta

GymLog is currently in open beta. The core features are already present, but wording, layouts, screenshots, and flows may change quickly while feedback is being addressed.