Get Fit with Motivation From Your Favorite Netflix Characters

The holiday season feasts are all finally behind us, but the winter doldrums are still here, and frankly that leaves me and many others I know feeling less than resolute about keeping up with our workout routines. Netflix has stepped up with another wonderful project to help get you motivated to get fit: The Netflix Personal Trainer.

Coinciding with the launch of their new show The Ultimate Beastmaster, where uber athletes compete in a massive, crazy, over-the-top, obstacle course, Netflix has released plans on how to build your own DIY fitness tracker. If you’re like me, these kinds of shows get the blood pumping and I’m inspired to go work out, but once I’m at the workbench, the motivation dwindles. Netflix’s project battles that waning drive. The personal trainer can be programmed differently based on how you like to exercise, but the main function uses an accelerometer to detect when you’ve fallen below a pre-set activity threshold, then perform an action.

Check this out; it can detect your movement and serve up inspirational quotes; think Dustin from Stranger Things telling you to “use your powers” or Frank Underwood telling you that “There is but one rule. Hunt or be hunted.” Pretty cool right?

The project is loosely based on a “commitment device” hack created by Netflix engineers at the company’s Hack Day. That project used “temptation bundling” to get you to do the things you hate (say, burpees) by rewarding you with the things you love (say, Orange Is The New Black).

If you like to open Netflix, turn on something loud, cheesy, and full of explosions while you’re working out — you can program the personal trainer to pause the action if your movement drops below the acceptable threshold, guaranteeing you’ll keep moving so you don’t miss out on the fun stuff. As Netflix mentions on their Make It website, everyone’s motivational needs are different, and there are plenty of opportunities to tweak the code they’ve provided.

The Netflix team has supplied us with a limited number of custom boards that we will be giving away on Twitter on Wednesday, March 1. For the chance to win, make sure you’re following us on Twitter . We’ve got 5 already assembled as well as 25 in kit form. You’ve got to respond to our tweet quick to get one! 

Go get the instructions to make your own Netflix personal trainer at MakeIt.Netflix.com

This project is brought to you by Netflix.