Street workout app Madbarz helps you get fit without a gym
Street workout is a simple — not easy, but simple — way to get fit. You don’t need a gym membership or fancy machines; all you need is a couple of bars in a park somewhere, and you’re good to go, if you’re ready for a challenge.
Madbarz, a Zagreb, Croatia-based startup founded by street workout enthusiasts, recognized the potential of this niche early, in January 2013, starting out as a news and resources web site. In August 2014, Madbarz announced a mobile app designed to provide guided workouts and a leaderboard to measure your success against others, and thousands — 95,000 at the time of launch — have signed up on the waiting list.
On Monday, the app finally became available for iOS and Android. It offers several dozen workouts, together with illustrations showing how to perform exercises, as well as which muscles you’ll activate. You can also track your progress on a global leaderboard, track your weight and create your own custom workouts on the Madbarz website.
In practice, it’s quite simple to start. Choose a workout routine (we recommend one of the easy ones; if you struggle with push-ups or pull-ups you’ll encounter problems right away), set the desired rests between exercises and cycles, and let the app guide you while you work out.
Madbarz shows you which muscles you’ve activated during your workout. It also lets you time your workouts, track the progress and see how other users are doing.
Image: Madbarz
The app is well done and nicely illustrated, but we’ve seen plenty of fitness apps before. What separates Madbarz from most is the focus on street workouts, attracting a large base of people who are into the niche. Right after launch, thousands downloaded the app, which soared to the top of various app ranking charts. Madbarz founder Luka Macner told Mashable that the app immediately broke into the top 100 free health and fitness apps in the U.S. on the Apple App Store, and is rising fast.
While the app itself is free, Luka and his team, which received a $115,000 investment from Budapest VC seed fund TractionTribe in September 2014, have a monetization plan. However, details are still scarce. “We’re looking at pro accounts, nutrition plans, workout plans and a digital coach as ways to monetize the app,” says Macner. “However, right now we’re focused on growth.”
Madbarz is available for free (and it’ll stay that way forever, the founders claim) on iOS and Android.
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