Gym Journal's Bitwise Guy
I'm Stu Ellerbusch, and I'm responsible for everything that is Gym Journal; the Concept,
the Design, the Code, the Graphics, and all around Maintenance of the Website. I've got
10 years of software development experience, as well as a Masters Degree in Computer
Information Systems and another Masters Degree in Computer Science.
Much of what is Gym Journal, I owe to my everloving wife, Shas, for helping
to make this site possible. Without her suggestions, love, and support this site would
not exist. Shas and my little one bring many sunny days and warm smiles to each hour
I am with them.
It is my goal for Gym Journal to provide you with the technology necessary that allows
you to make your fitness goals a reality.
Not really "About Us", more like "About Me" ...
Gym Journal came alive in 2001, because I was unable to find a suitable
Journal system to track everything pertaining to my fitness. Not that there
weren't any quality sites out there ... just not anything that did exactly
what I wanted it to do.
So I decided to develop one myself that specifically met my needs. In 2002,
I opened the doors to anyone and everyone who wanted to use the site. Currently
Gym Journal has members from all over the world including Australia, Norway,
and Germany with 70% of its members residing here in North America.
Between 2001 and 2004, Gym Journal had 5 face lifts, and contained just
over 30,000 lines of code, while it continued to grow with features and enhancements.
In 2005, I got itchy to sling some code at Gym Journal. So I did. Near the end
of 2005 Gym Journal had a complete overhaul. Not only was the site moved to a
new web hoster, but the technology on the backend changed from PHP to ASP.Net 2.0. New
graphing software was added, as well as some nice features to enhance the Gym Journal experience.
During 2006, there were some things on the backend that I wanted to improve for my own
personal satisfaction. So I began the process of tightening the code, and adding some
enhancements based on members' suggestions. At the end of 2006, another Gym Journal
upgrade was complete. Most of the enhancements centered around the backend
architecture, as well as front-end aesthetics. In keeping with Gym Journal's goals, it is my
never ending quest, to make Gym Journal as easy-n-quick as possible while providing you with the
most information necessary to obtain your fitness goals. As with that famous catch-phrase,
"I'm not only the owner, but a member". Again, for those keeping
score, Gym Journal is now at version 6.0, and at last count has around 53,000 lines of code.
In 2007, I spent much of my free time working on my Master's Thesis, but I grew tired of the look
of Gym Journal. After passively searching color schemes, and reviewing web site templates, I came
across a template that I felt fit with Gym Journal very well. The new template allowed the application's
real estate to expand to accomdate a new menu idea that I had. Also during this conversion process, I
updated each page with AJAX, or asynchronous javascript, to enhance the User Interface experience. Gym
Journal is now at version 7.0.
During 2008, I finished my Masters in Computer Science and was ready to start working out
again. After a two year hiatus from working out, I found it a bit difficult to get back into the
swing of things, and I thought that there must be others out there with the same issues. So, I
went back to the drawing board with Gym Journal, and redesigned it with the primary focus of keeping
people motivated in achieving their fitness goals. Thus version 8.0 was born.
During 2010, I enhanced and cleaned up the UI to make Gym Journal even easier / faster
to use.
Enjoy Gym Journal, and as always, Thanks for helping to make it better!
- Gym Journal
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