No gym, no problem! Childhood friends Jai Patel– a junior at Framingham High School – and Benjamin Gershenovich – a junior at Newton North High School – have invented RapidRoutines AI to make fitness more accessible.
RapidRoutines AI, released to the public on April 21, is an app that aims to make at-home workouts achievable for those new to calisthenics.
Once signed up on the free app, users are able to ask an AI chatbot questions about fitness, complete a series of seven workouts on camera, and track and get feedback on their progress.
Users are able to see if they are using correct form during exercises, as the AI involved with the app measures the angles of the user’s body so that, over time and with practice, users can perform better.
The students said they want to make being fit more accessible because gym memberships can be expensive. “A lot of people don’t need another bill coming in monthly […] We’re not going to make this paid for the near future, probably, like, never at all,” said Patel.
For now, the co-founders share the cost of maintaining the servers that run the app.
Patel and Gershenovich met when they were in kindergarten and share an interest in both computer science and calisthenics. “We always had similar interests, and throughout school we’re always competing against each other too, like, to push the best out of each other,” said Patel.
Last year, in February, the teens decided to create an app geared toward at-home workouts. “We’re like, let’s create something related to fitness so we can inspire and help others start working out at home, just like we once did a few years ago,” said Gershenovich.
The friends taught themselves how to program the app and the AI mechanisms through YouTube videos and other online resources. “We didn’t have a lot of knowledge and skill, so it was like a learning process for both of us,” said Patel.
Now the team is focused on generating users for the app. “A future goal would be basically getting people to consistently be on the website and kind of working out at home consistently, and progressing through these calisthenic skills, like slowly but surely,” said Gershenovich.
Gershenovich has a large following on social media for teaching calisthenics exercises.
While the duo looks for ways to market and promote their app, other future goals for them include expanding the scope of exercises covered. Currently their library has 25 exercises of which seven can be tracked by the AI app, providing feedback for users.
The two also plan on attending college together and pursuing the app even further after they graduate high school. “We’re gonna bring this with us through college,” said Gershenovich. “We’re gonna just make everything better.”