A few months ago, a friend of mine invited people to do a 30-day arm workout challenge, and since several of us were L&D geeks, eventually I started asking, “what if we xAPI-ified this?” A few people were into it, so I made it into a mini-experience to access the workout instructions, track our activity and progress, and encourage each other.
Things to know
First, the answers to your questions about the workout part:
-
no, there is no equipment necessary… two of the four ways to measure your progress involve a pull-up bar or monkey bar on (or about) Day 1 and Day 30, but there are alternate methods too
-
about a minute a day
-
yes, there are planks
-
no, no burpees
Also: I intend to make the xAPI data available to all, so if you want to be anonymous, use an email address that is not personally identifiable.
What this is not
While this is technically a physical workout, the main purpose is not to create a workout app. I’m not a personal trainer and I’m not going to play one on TV.
It’s also not an “xAPI bootcamp” – if you’re looking for an ongoing experience to learn about xAPI and connect with experts, I highly recommend the xAPI Cohort, which also starts this week!
In fact, I’m not really going to teach you anything… this is a self-directed development experience.
What this is
One main purpose is to explore a type of L&D experience that we don’t often employ in the corporate world: an activity-based program that continues for a set duration. A boot camp, if you will. (Yes, it occurred to me too late that xAPI still exists in a very gov/mil-dominated space and the phrase boot camp means very specific things. I promise that the workout will not be that intense.)
Another main purpose is to play with the xAPI that is generated from that experience and see what we can learn from the patterns of participant activity.
In addition to feedback we’ll gather along the way, I’d like to end the experience with a synchronous debrief among as many participants as possible, so stay tuned for that!
How to start
The experience will open tomorrow, and your tasks on that day will be to set your baseline and to complete the first (1-min) workout.
To set your baseline, you can choose one of the following:
— count how many pull-ups you can do
— clock how long you can hang from a pull-up bar
— count how many push-ups you can do (no equipment required)
— clock how long you can stay in a plank position (no equipment required)
If you want, take a picture or video of you doing your baseline! You’ll be able to share it… but of course, this is completely optional.
If you’re interested but don’t care for working out, I get it. You’re welcome to join anyway. I also hope to run this again with a non-physical development program soon… I’m open to ideas for the next domain.
If you’re interested, DM me your email address… or just reply “Interested!” and I will grab your email address from LinkedIn.
I will send out invites tonight, 8/31. If you don’t see this for a couple of days, no worries… I’ll let you in whenever you want and you can start at your leisure!