Minimal, self-hosted exercise tracker
After decades of tracking my exercise programs in progressively more complex spreadsheets I eventually burned out on metrics and complicated periodization programs to the point where I had almost stopped exercising. I am now at a place where I simply want the minimal amount of structure and tracking to make sure I can maintain my fitness, so I boiled the entire concept down to what I felt was its essence: enough information and structure to remind you of what is needed today, and how it went on the same exercises last week. To reduce friction, the interface is kept as simple as possible.…
In plain words
Minimal is a self-hosted exercise tracker designed for users who prefer simplicity over complex metrics. It displays today's planned exercises alongside last week's performance data to provide basic structure without overwhelming detail. The tool features a deliberately stripped-down interface with a single text input per exercise, automatic data saving, and setup through direct HTML editing. It tracks exercise history by day of the week and shows only the last completion date, avoiding judgmental notifications or complicated periodization systems.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
After decades of tracking my exercise programs in progressively more complex spreadsheets I eventually burned out on metrics and complicated periodization programs to the point where I had almost stopped exercising. I am now at a place where I simply want the minimal amount of structure and tracking to make sure I can maintain my fitness, so I boiled the entire concept down to what I felt was its essence: enough information and structure to remind you of what is needed today, and how it went on the same exercises last week. To reduce friction, the interface is kept as simple as possible. Simple to the point where all setup is done by editing the html source file and there is only one freeform "weight" textbox per exercise to manipulate. Data is autosaved as it is entered. It never nags or judges you except by showing the last date you entered data in for that day-of-the-week's exercises. The only quality-of-life feature is a super-simple rest period timer in the footer. It has no external dependencies and only uses browser local storage. There is no possibility of monetizing it. I was on the fence about sharing since it is such a small and simple project, but decided I would share here in case anyone is looking to make a fresh start in the new year and finds the philosophy appealing.
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