Q) What can PodSweat do for me?

PodSweat will keep track of all your exercise workouts for you. You can store as many workouts on your MP3 player as you want, and simply select the one you want when you get to the gym or wherever it is your do your workouts.

PodSweat will prompt you (with voice and text technology) with what exercises you have to do and in what order, it them plays your favourite music for you to keep you motivated during your workout.

Q) How does PodSweat work?

Click on the "How It Works" tab above to find out!

Q) Who is PodSweat designed for?

PodSweat is designed for anyone from the beginner right through to the advanced trainer. You can adjust what PodSweat includes in the voice instruction file, so if you don't need to know how much weight you should lift then you can tell PodSweat not to annoy you with that information.

Even a professional trainer cannot remember every routine in every order, so PodSweat is able to provide this prompting for and is of great benefit to elite athletes and trainers as well.

Personal Trainers can use PodSweat to provide customised workout instructions and music for their clients.

Q) How are exercise instructions stored on my MP3 player?

Exercise instruction files are stored as MP3 files, just like your songs. They are ordered so that the instruction files play in the correct sequence with your music. Encoded MP3 tags allow you to easily find you workout by selecting "PodSweat" as the Artist, and then the workout name as the Album - easy!

MP3 tags are also used to store and display your exercise information while your songs are playing.

Q) Does PodSweat work with iTunes?

Yes. A standard .M3U playlist file is created which can be read by iTunes. If iTunes is your default player then the playlist file can be added automatically after updating.

Q) Does PodSweat work on ANY MP3 player?

Yes. PodSweat will work with any MP3 player, iPod, or other obscure brand portable music player, so long as it can play MP3 files. Instruction files are stored as standard MP3 files, and all of the files are stored in workout order based on the filename and the embedded MP3v2 tag. Even if your player only supports filenames and not MP3 tags then it will still work.

If your player does not have screen (like the iPod Shuffle) then the voice instruction files will tell you want to do. If your player has a screen then you get the voice instruction files and the text instructions on screen.

Q) What WON'T PodSweat do for me?

PodSweat will not tell you how to perform an exercise, you have to know how to do it yourself.

Most other MP3 exercise programs will bore you the death with "now lift the barbell" instructions every time. That might be OK for the first time beginner, but after that it's useless and annoying. PodSweat won't insult your intelligence and ability like this. If you do forget how to perform an exercise, or are unsure of correct technique, then ask one of the gym staff, that's what they are there for!

Q) Why can't PodSweat use the existing songs on my MP3 Player?

PodSweat needs to create and download a copy of the songs you want so that it is capable of keeping the files in play list order and changing the embedded ID3 tags. This makes PodSweat compatible with ANY MP3 player on the market. This might take up more space on your MP3 player, as the songs will be duplicated, but it's the key to how PodSweat is able to work!

Q) Can I use the random shuffle feature on my MP3 Player with PodSweat?

No. PodSweat needs to make its own list of files in play list order, otherwise your exercise routine will be completely out of order, and that means PodSweat would be essentially useless. PodSweat has it's own "random" song selection feature.

Q) Why do I get multiple PodSweat files on my player or in iTunes?

PodSweat cannot delete files in your MP3 player software for you, so when you perform an update the song names can change and these will be loaded into your MP3 software. You need to ensure that you remove the PodSweat files from your MP3 software before you run the PodSweat update.

Q) I don't like the Computer voice, can I use another?

Yes. The computer voice is Microsoft Sam, and is the only voice which comes free with Windows XP. You can download two additional Microsoft voices HERE, but they are only slightly better. New voices are automatically detected when PodSweat is started, and are available for selection in the Settings menu. PodSweat supports the standard Microsoft SAPI5 voice interface, so you can use any commercial voice (such as AT&T) which supports this format, but these commercial voices are not free.

Q) Who is the female "voice" in PodSweat?

That will remain a mystery, but if it helps you work out, picture someone attractive ;-)

Q) Why is my favourite exercise name not included in the supplied list?

It is simply not practical to include every exercise ever invented. The same exercise can have different names in different countries, cities, from one gym to another, and from person to person!

The standard installation of PodSweat includes every weight exercise from Arnold Schwarzenegger's book "The New Encyclopedia of Modern Body Building". This is widely regarded in the industry as the "bible of body building", so the exercise names from this book have been used.

If you want to know how to perform an exercise, get the book, or ask an instructor at your gym.

Q) W

Can I change the