How would you design this application???????

[Train at Home]

I work as a personal trainer with older adults. I want to keep track
of their progress now kept manually. I want to track their progress
and chart the progress. Seeing their progress is a huge motivator for
them. I was thinking of using Excel but I seem to be "caught in an
application design loop".

I use a series of machines that provides data at the end of the
workout. One machine provides about 6 variables. One variable is
workload and I manually enter it. At the end of a 5 minute session I
record the other data. Ideally I do three sets of an exercise. The
workload variable may increase on the subsequent set and will increase
over time.

If I put the machine name on the left side of the spreadsheet (column)
and each of the 6 variable fields under that heading. I can't figure
out how to structure the top row (s)?

If I make the top row cells sets 1, 2 and 3 how do I identify the date
associated with those sets? I thought of creating a merged set of
sells above the sets called date. However with that structure can
Excel plot the variables?

Graphing is the what prompted me to use Excel. Can I plot data points
(sets 1,2 and 3) and have a date over that set (associated with)?
What if a third set was not performed?

I also thought of creating an average field for the three sets and
having a date field above the average.

This seems like a fairly simple application but I am not sure how to
structure this?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Rich

 

[David Portwood]

I think the problem here is that you have not defined "progress". The
complexity of the machines is not important. Perhaps not relevant at all.

For instance, if you define progress by how much weight an individual can
lift then you can test each person on a daily or weekly basis and display a
nice line chart showing (hopefully) a continuously rising line over time.

If you define progress by how long a person can run at a given pace then
again you can test periodically and chart progress.

If you define progress by how well a person performs on a given machine with
a fixed set of parameters, then periodic testing will yield chartable
results. Just note the parameters. Eventually, the individual "graduates" to
a new (tougher) set of parameters and at this time you start a new chart for
that individual.

The testing idea is probably good. Like an exam at school. Otherwise you
might be spending too much time trying to chart everything every minute and
you don't have time to do your real job.

Good luck.

 

[Guest]

It looks like you would be better off using Access. You could try posting to
some Access group.

You could also provide an example of your input data , and describe results
you expect.

 

[Ed]

Rich:

I think I would set this up a bit different if you're going to use
Excel. Have one worksheet for each machine. List the client's name
down Column A, put the session number (maybe include the date in that
number) in Col B, and then all the machine data you want to record in
Cols C through whatever. You can then use the chart wizard to create
a series of charts that show the progress for each client on one
machine over time, for each client on all machines on a given day, and
any other combination you want.

Like urkec said, in Access this would be a bit easier in the end. But
your learning curve to set up might be steeper - you'd have a table of
clients keyed to a separate table for each machine, input forms to set
up your client table and get your data in, and queries and reports to
show what you want. If you want Progress Reports as an added-value
package to distinguish yourself from your competition, it might be
worth paying an Access expert to set this up for you. If it's just a
simple tool for your own use, it can be done in Excel.

For more info, especially on the charting, you might want to check out
the "Excel 2003 Bible" by John Walkenbach.

Ed