Our goal at Flexit is to surface the best workout videos out there for our users. But what defines a good workout video? Over time, as we have looked at hundreds of videos and have actually used them in our own workout routines, we have formalized all the things we look in a video before we add it to our site.
Some of the criteria we use to determine the workout are:
- Length of the workout
How long are the workouts? If you search on youtube, there are hundreds of thousands of videos which are < 5 minutes in length. Some are good to learn a technique but they don’t really cut it for us because we concentrate on full length workouts. - Does the workout have warmup and cool down?
It is extremely dangerous to start working out without warming up first. It is also important to cool down after the workout so your heart rate comes back to normal slowly. We are ok (not ideal) with videos which make it very clear you have to do your own warmup and cool down but some just start the exercises in full swing which is not a good idea. - Quality of the video
Some are shot in a studio which is neat but we are ok with videos shot outside in a garden or in a clear room. Low quality videos don’t pass the Flexit test. - Quality of the audio
It is really annoying if you can’t hear the instructor well when you are trying to follow an exercise. Sometimes the instructor is just talking as they workout and they don’t do any editing later which makes for a not so happy workout. - How creative are the workouts?
Some workouts do the same jumping jacks, so pushups and same pull ups through out the video. It might be useful for beginners but we have a mix of users and they expect different/creative exercises to make the entire workout enjoyable. - How well are each of the exercises in the video explained?
Some videos have a small preview window just before the next exercise starts which is pretty cool. Some of them clearly explain what is next before starting. The place where it gets really hard is when some instructors just jump from one to another and the user has to either pause or rewind. Such videos make for a bad overall experience. - View Count
As the saying goes, ‘Numbers don’t lie’, we look at the view count (if it is on youtube). This is not a major factor but it does give us an idea how popular this video is.
If there are any other things we should be looking at, just send us a note to hello ‘at’ flexit.co.