Enode attaches directly to our barbell, tracking your sets and repetitions. It analyzes the weight you’re using and makes recommendations to increase or decrease weight based on your bar’s velocity. It charts your bar path on every single rep, so you can make changes to your own form.

How to Get Signed Up 

It’s free to use Enode on your own device; MIT Recreation covers the subscription. To link your profile to MIT Recreation, follow the steps below or review the video here:

• Head to the squat racks in the 2nd floor fitness area at the Zesiger Center
• Using the tablet, open the Enode Pro App 
• Press the hamburger menu button in the top left corner until you see the Management Section appear 
• Press the Management button 
• Press the Athletes button 
• Press the “+” button in the top right corner of the Athletes screen
• Add all information: 
  • Name (real name not required)
  • Email
  • Body weight (optional, but helpful for accurate projections)
  • Body height (optional, but helpful for accurate projections)
  • Switch Device Login to “On” 
• Click the “check mark” icon in the top right corner 
• Download the Enode Pro app to your iOS or Android device 
• Login to your device using the email you input previously 

How to Use the Device 

• Enode is located in the barbell with the “Lifted by Data” sticker
• Open the Enode Pro App, select “start a workout” or “select a workout”
• Select “Connect Sensor”
• Once the display appears, hold your phone next to each end of the barbell until the sensor icon stops rotating
  • The sensors may need calibration. If so, rotate the bar towards the floor in each direction based on the orange arrows on your device.
• Track your workouts 
• Assess your workout data 
• At the end of your session, please click “Finish” so that the next user can enjoy Enode
• Email fitness@mit.edu to learn more!

Lifted by Data: Connecting Data to Strength Training Announcement Post

By Luke Olivier, ACSM-CPT
Assistant Director of Fitness, Performance & Equipment

For those interested in strength training this may be of interest to you. 

For those excited by assessing their own progress this may be of excitement to you. 

For those thrilled by optimizing their own form—and who have always wondered if they were lifting just right—this may be a thrill to you. 

Over at the Zesiger Fitness center, in an office cozily nestled behind a teeming forest of dumbbells, lives your local Assistant Director of Fitness, Performance and Equipment, pouring through rows and rows of spreadsheets of workout equipment. Sometime after treadmill no. 67 came in, but before our gleaming, brand-new Hip Thrust machines came in (try them out at both Zesiger and Alumni Fitness Centers!), he noticed we were missing something. There was an empty space between two lines in a Microsoft Excel document, and as he stared at it, that gap grew to become a swirling, yawning, rainbow portal to something new.  

That something new was this: 

Students and members of MIT’s gym have multiple ways to engage with and get expert knowledge on Getting Stronger: hiring a personal trainer, taking a group exercise class, getting one of our Performance or Fitness or Inbody Assessments, buying a workout program from one of our personal trainers. But the barrier can be high for getting in the gym by yourself: “How much weight do I use on this exercise if I want to get stronger? Does my form look okay? How fast should I lift the bar?” 

As he emerged from the other side of the Excel sheet, he saw in front of him a barren landscape of rubber and iron, twisted forms of barbells wrought into shapes beyond mortal ken, and he realized the gym needed some really cool tech to help with all those questions. After questing through the Undergym for 40 sets and reps, and answering Questions Three from the Old Wise Gym Lords, your local Assistant Director of Fitness, Performance and Equipment re-entered the Zesiger Center; passed the Dumbbell District; did a few experiments in the Leg Lab; made his way back home. He had found and brought Enode with him. 

Enode is a device that plugs directly into your barbell, and tracks your sets, reps, and weight used for you. It analyzes the weight you’re using, and makes recommendations to increase or reduce weight based on your bar’s speed. It charts your bar path on every single rep, so you can make changes to your own form. It also does more things. 

There will be an Enode equipped barbell set up on the 2nd floor of the Zesiger Center at the rightmost deadlift platform. You can’t miss it; there will be a sign. Want to see it in action? Join us on February 22nd as we unveil it in a special Rec Day presentation in W20. Don’t worry, we’ll also bring swag and stickers too!

Give Enode a shot because it’s completely free! Just download the Enode pro app on iOS or Android. If you have any questions or curiosities, check out their website or as always email fitness@mit.edu.