Personal Training Partner Biggly and Biggly Exercise Software

Biggly Exercise Software – Review

Keeping a close eye on your calories is obviously important but not so many people think to track and monitor their exercises.

Biggly’s exercise software goes beyond the usual calories and tracks both weight lifting workouts and cardiovascular exercises. As some of my clients seem allergic to pen and paper and some have asked about software I thought I’d check it out.

First Impressions

The download was fast and installation was quick and painless. This was helped by the fact I have a modern computer; older models running XP may have to download an update called .NET 2.0 if not already installed.

When you start the program it asks if you wish to use “Imperial” or “Metric”, meaning centimeters and kilograms as favored by Europeans or pounds and inches but you can change your mind later if you wish. You’re then presented with a screen asking for all of your physical measurements, both left and right for the dedicated, and your target figures.

It’s a little daunting but once filled in the program comes to life, calculating your calorie needs, your BMI and your score on its unique “Biggly Body Index. Unlike the usual BMI (Body Mass Index) this takes into account your shape and other such stuff to give you a score from a maximum of 100%. Anything over 90% and your body is considered “Biggly”. It’s a fun element yet addresses a serious concern with the BMI scale, as the BMI doesn’t account for muscular bodybuilders.

Workout Tracking

As I’m already familiar with terms such as “reps” and reverse or “negative” reps, “1RM” and so on, I found it extremely easy to use, especially compared to some other programs. For the complete novice the handy instruction manual explains such terms.

I was particularly impressed by the rep calculator, which tells you how much weight you need when following different programs and also the instant graphing. Click any exercise you’ve entered and it immediately graphs your progress over the last 4 weeks. The main page also tells you how many calories you burnt in your workout, the total weight lifted, again compared to the previous month. Overall its exercise tracking is 1st rate for workouts with weights.

Cardiovascular

Cardio’ exercise tracking is equally impressive but missing one point. While it will calculate your speed, lap times, monitor and graph your distance and calories, it does not allow you to enter a resistance factor. The exact same exercise on the same treadmill but with the incline turned up for example is a tougher exercise than without it, whilst Biggly treats both entries the same.

As Diet Software

As diet software it is simple, clean and easy, covering calories, food groups, vitamins and minerals. It does not leave you over-whelmed with data and once you see the way it tracks your diet over time you find it encourages good food choices. It’s easier to avoid certain foods when you know what they will do to your carefully cultivated graphs!

There are no recipes or forced meal plans, just a huge database and easy means of saving favorite foods, complete meals or entering new items not already stored.

Overall

There are similar programs out there but none make it so simple or reward with such graphical feedback. It touts itself as “bodybuilding software” and it lives up to that promise. For in-depth medical nutrition you may need something else and a lot more expensive. For tracking your diet, workouts and cardio, complete with a handy daily journal and graphing changes in your physique, it’s a very impressive software program.

It is also refreshing to see that updates are free, whilst most such programs try to rope you in with updates, modules and other hidden costs.

A free demo is available from the website-

Biggly Exercise Software