Shell interval training timer

A small shell script for doing interval training (or circuit training) coveniently from your desk. I was inspired to write this script after reading the NY Times "Scientific 7-Minute Workout" article covering the HICT research by Kilka & Jordan. The workout from that manuscript is the default for this script.

How it works

The shell script loops through a list of exercises (potentially user-supplied) and announces each one verbally (literaly, over your speakers) using the say command. The script sleeps between exercises using the sleep command. This basically sounds like

Ready? We're going to do 10 exercises for 30s each, starting with 'push ups'.

[a moment passes]

Ok, 'push ups' for 30 seconds, Go!

[30s passes]

Stop, Rest 10 seconds. Next, you will do 'sit-ups'

[10s passes and the process repeats itself]

So, the computer is leading you through the exercises in a manner that

• keeps track of time for you;
• does not require looking at the computer;
• alerts you to the upcoming exercise so that you can get ready; and,
• allows you to play music in the background.

Installation

The easiest way to install the script is to clone the repo on GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/kljensen/shell-interval-training-timer

Or you can just grab the shell script

curl -O https://raw.github.com/kljensen/shell-interval-training-timer/master/workout.sh

Usage

First, you probably want to make the script executable

chmod a+x ./workout.sh

Do the default workout

./workout.sh

Or, you can supply a file with your own exercises, 1 per line

./workout.sh -i my-exercises.txt

Finally, here's how you would supply a file with your own exercises, 1 per line and do each for 45 seconds, resting for 20.

./workout.sh -i my-exercises.txt -t 45 -r 20

Caveats

This has only been tested on Mac OSX.