Onboarding
Push Up Example
Form detection

Chin Up

Inspiration

Whose New Year’s resolution was to work out more?

For many people, the problem isn’t motivation — it’s knowledge, access, and confidence. Fitness spaces can feel intimidating, especially for beginners who aren’t sure how to use gym equipment or whether they’re doing exercises correctly.

Research highlights this gap clearly:

53% of people are discouraged from going to the gym because they don’t know how to use the equipment or what exercises to do
2 in 5 adults avoid the gym altogether due to feeling self-conscious about how they look

These barriers prevent people from building confidence, skills, and long-term healthy habits. We saw an opportunity to empower beginners with judgment-free, accessible guidance that meets them wherever they are.

What Chin Up Does

Chin Up is an AI-powered, beginner-friendly fitness coach designed to help users feel confident while exercising — without requiring a gym membership or personal trainer.

Using real-time camera-based feedback and voice guidance, Chin Up teaches the fundamentals of working out safely at home or anywhere.

How We Built It

React + Vite for the frontend
TensorFlow.js for real-time posture and form detection using the device camera
Presage for additional stats to influence feedback like breathing and camera signal strength (e.g if your breathing is erratic, the AI coach's voice becomes more stable and measured to help you calm down.)
ElevenLabs for AI-generated voice coaching and background audio to create a supportive, immersive experience
MuscleWiki for exercise demo videos

At a high level, the system processes pose data frame-by-frame and evaluates form correctness as a function of joint angles and motion consistency:

This allows Chin Up to deliver timely, personalized feedback during workouts.

Challenges We Faced

Ensuring the real-time posture detection remained accurate
Delivering feedback in a timely manner

What We Learned

This project was all of our first experiences using a device camera as a real-time data source. We learned that working with live visual input introduces a unique set of challenges compared to traditional input methods.

We learned how to process camera data frame-by-frame and translate that data into actionable, friendly feedback.

Chin Up is more than a fitness app — it’s a confidence-building tool designed to help people unlock their potential, one workout at a time.

Keep your chin up!