Five Minute Workout: Core and Cardio

Inspiration

I looked through the selection of health and fitness skills offered by Alexa, and NONE of them really fit the bill for the kind of life hack workout skill I had in mind. Everything out there was way too boring, didn't explain how to do anything, and wasn't fun to use.

What it does

This skill provides a 5 minute workout with a custom narrator and music that anybody can do at anytime anywhere. Here are the features it has that I think makes it the perfect life and health hack:

1. Five minutes is time that anybody can commit to
2. No need for any equipment, its just get up and go
3. Exciting In-skill music already there. No setting anything up
4. Engaging narrator keeps is fun and friendly with jokes and encouragement
5. Each exercise is introduced in a way that total beginners can learn, yet experts aren't left bored
6. Exercises are designed to work for anyone, yet scale for those in better shape

How I built it

I built this by doing some research and surveying friends in the fitness industry. I wanted to learn what the most effective, easy to learn, and do anywhere exercises are. Once I came up with what I wanted to include, I wrote up a script and hired a voiceover actor who has experience in keeping people engaged to narrate the skill.

On the technical side, I coded this up using the Node Alexa SDK and the Audio Player interface, hosted on AWS Lambda, with a Dyanamo DB data store for analytics on number of sessions used etc. Also tracking other analytics through the Dashbot platform.

Challenges I ran into

Writing a script and getting it narrated for a workout skill in the voice space is harder than it sounds. A user could be of any skill level and it took a number of rewrites to get the perfect combination of instruction, rest time, and exercise length to feel right.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I'm proud of making a skill that I can share with family and friends to help improve their lifestyle. I've shown this to few people already and they have actually come back to it on their own for more!

What I learned

I learned that Fiverr can be an amazing resource. Everyone has their talent, and mine is definitely not voiceovers, so Fiverr was a perfect pick to connect me with someone who could do what I needed.

What's next for Five Minute Workout: Core and Cardio

I'm asking users to leave feedback on what they like, and what they don't like, and plan to add new workouts in different styles. I also would love to expand this skill further on the echo show by incorporating video for those users that support it.

Built With

• alexa
• alexa-sdk
• alexa-skills-kit
• amazon-web-services
• javascript
• lambda
• node.js
• s3
• serverless