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The Phyzseek Story

Our story is typical of many aging health and fitness buffs. We worked out for years, watched what we ate, with the occasional splurges, but as we got older we seemed to be losing the battle. Fat was starting to accumulate around the mid-section, fatigue was setting in earlier in the day and sleep was restless. Oh, and it was obvious, hormone levels weren’t what they used to be. But why? We thought we ate right and kept fit. How could we turn the tables to regain the strength and energy we had when we were younger?

At about this time we were introduced to a well-known boot camp style high intensity workout program. The exercise program was very different than anything we had ever done and the results we were seeing were amazing. We had lost weight, gained lean muscle mass, and had more energy. Unfortunately, the exercise program also included heavy weights and Olympic style lifting, which combined with workouts measured by speed and number of reps, eventually took its toll on our bodies. Due to frequent injuries, what began as the answer to our fitness woes, came to a sudden end.

Now what? With backgrounds in medicine and analytics as well as a passion for working out and staying fit, we were determined to find a better way to enhance our levels of fitness while maintaining functional longevity. We studied the science, researched methodologies, tested theories and eventually discovered Phyzseek.

Eric J. Ende, MD, ACSM-CPT
Co-Founder
Eric is a co-founder of Phyzseek as well as its CEO and CFO. Before starting Phyzseek, Eric received his medical degree from the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and an MBA from NYU – Stern School of Business. Combining the two degrees allowed Eric to become a biotechnology industry analyst and eventually a consultant to multiple pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and investors. To further his passion for and understanding of health and fitness, Eric received a Personal Training Certification from the American College of Sports Medicine. Using his medical & science backgrounds, his business degree & analytical expertise as well as his ACSM-PT certification, Eric researched, designed and co-founded Phyzseek to bring forth a revolutionary workout motivation mobile app for men and women seeking supreme fitness and functional longevity.
Chad P. LaBonte
Co-Founder
Chad is a co-founder of Phyzseek and serves as COO. Prior to this venture Chad had a 25 year career in real estate, building an extensive knowledge of several facets of the business such as asset acquisition, property management, leasing and developing retail shopping centers and large scale master planned communities. Chad was a competitive athlete for most of his early life, playing a variety of sports, including college football and lacrosse. Training for sports - weight training, powerlifting, plyometric and speed drills - was central to Chad’s life. His enthusiasm for physical fitness didn’t end after he hung up his cleats. Chad continued to pursue fitness in a variety of disciplines from bodybuilding, HIIT, stationary bike, running, kickboxing, swimming and yoga. Today Chad sticks to PhyzWOD’s (Phyzseek Workout of the Day) and yoga for fitness and golf and fishing for recreation. He’s known to rock out playing the drums in a band too!

Frequently Asked Questions - Key Features

Exercise demo videos are accessible in two ways through the App. From the Workout details page, you can click on the exercise name and watch a demonstration of how to properly perform each exercise.  In addition, from the same page, you can access videos of potential exercise alternatives and modifications. The videos are also accessible in the education section.

Workout results are easily captured by the Phyzseek App. Different workouts require a different level of user input during or after the workout. Timed workouts will automatically capture pertinent information once the user presses stop upon completing all of the required exercises of the workout. Tabata-type workouts require the user to input the number of reps achieved for each exercise (using a keypad) and AMRAPs (As Many Rounds As Possible) require the user to input the number of rounds and exercises (using a keypad) achieved during the allotted time for the workout. For all types of workouts, other information such as Max HR, %Intensity, Avg. Intensity and Calories Burned will be automatically captured as long as the user is wearing a heart rate monitor.

Following the workout, the user is brought to the Workout Complete screen to easily view all of the important information captured during the workout including the workout result (time, reps, rounds), whether or not they beat their record, their PhytRank, their new PhyzioLevel, where they rank on the Leaderboard, and all of the health metrics described above.

The Pacer is designed to keep you motivated to maintain a certain workout intensity even when you are working out alone. The Pacer will tell you where in the workout you should be at all times to achieve your pre-programmed workout result (time, reps, or rounds) and PhytRank. In other words, what specific exercise of the daily workout you should be doing as well as what rep and what round you should be in at every point in time during the workout.The Pacer will show you at what point in time you should be completing each exercise to achieve your performance goals.

Before each workout, you can adjust the Pacer to the time, reps or rounds as well as PhytRank that you strive to achieve. For example, if you aim to achieve a time of 24:35 and want to perform better than 80% of your peers in a specific workout, the Pacer will calculate where in the workout you need to be at all points in time in order to achieve a time of 24:35 and a PhytRank of 80.

PhytTest is a standardized physical fitness test that all Phyzseekers should take prior to beginning the Phyzseek workout program.  The test is designed to assess your fitness level, identify potential areas of weakness and provide a baseline to easily track progress.  PhytTest consists of five sections: (1) a one mile run to assess aerobic capacity, (2) 60 seconds of sit-ups to determine core strength, (3) 60 seconds of push-ups to assess upper body strength, (4) 60 seconds of air squats to determine lower body strength, and (5) 60 seconds of burpees to assess full body endurance.  You will be given a PhytRank for each section so that you can easily compare your performance to other users of the App and determine your strengths and weaknesses.  Each time you perform the PhytTest you will be able to easily assess if your performance is improving in each section.

PhytRank represents the percentile rank you achieved in a workout as compared to your peers (age and gender for modified or non-modified workouts) or All Users (modified or non-modified workouts).  The PhytRank should be utilized to compare yourself to your peers for your performance in every workout in order to motivate you to improve over time.  For example, if you achieve a PhytRank of 35 that means you are better than 35% of your peers that performed that specific workout.

PhyzioLevel measures your overall fitness across all workouts. You will get an overall PhyzioLevel consisting of Scores for each category of workout: Endurance, Lactic Loading and Intervals. The PhyzioLevel should be used to compare your performance to other users of the App, to assess any weaknesses you may have, and to determine your fitness improvements over time. You can track your performance in the different workout categories and what percentage of workouts were performed within each category by viewing the information in the Fitness Analysis Dashboard.

For example, you may have a PhyzioLevel of 53 consisting of an Endurance Score of 65, Lactic Loading Score of 46, and Interval Score of 48.  The interpretation of the above scores would be that your overall fitness level is better than 53% of your peers while your Endurance, Lactic Loading and Interval scores are better than 65%, 46% and 48% of your peers, respectively.  To improve your PhyzioLevel you should work harder in the Lactic Loading and Interval workouts.  By analyzing your performance in specific workouts within each category, you can determine the weaknesses that may require improvements.  Over time, you should see improvements in each individual score and your PhyzioLevel.

There are a few ways to analyze your workout results and fitness in the Phyzseek App.  You can analyze your individual performance on specific workouts by viewing easy to understand graphs that show your time, reps and rounds achieved each time you performed that workout, calories burned, workout intensity, and your heart rate trends.  You can also view graphs exhibiting your fitness level changes over time such as PhyzioLevel (including the individual scores for Endurance, Lactic Loading and Intervals), weight and resting heart rate.  And, you can view comparisons of your performance in different workouts to the entire Phyzseek community or to just your peers (age group, gender and modified or non-modified workouts).

The Top 25 Board shows who amongst users of the App ranks highest based on various criteria.  The Top 25 Board is available on the Workout Analysis screens.  It shows who performed best for a specific workout, who has the highest PhyzioLevel, or who has worked out at the highest Intensity. 

The Leaderboard shows where you rank amongst different users.  It can be shown for all users of the App, for only your peers (same age group, gender and workout modification) or for only your PhyzTeam.