Proposal:

Problem Statement:

In the sport of powerlifting (which tests a lifter’s one rep max strength in the squat, bench press, and deadlift), the bench press has 3 commands given by the head judge: “start”, “press”, and “rack”. Once the lifter unracks the bar on bench press, the lifter has to wait for the head judge to give a “start” command. After the “start command,” the lifter lowers and pauses the bar to his/her chest, and waits for the head judge to give the “press” command once the judge sees the bar motionless on the lifter’s chest. In other words, the lifter must pause the bar on his/her chest and wait for the judge to give the “press” command.

In training, many powerlifters try to emulate this pause, but often cut the length of time it should actually be. A lifter might think they did a competition-length pause but in actuality it is noticeably shorter. To remedy this, training partners often give press commands to a powerlifter to ensure that their bench press is as close to competition standard as possible. However, not everyone lifts with a training partner. Powerlifters who train alone face the problem of not pausing long enough on the bench press.

Project Idea:

The project consists of an embedded system that emulates this "press" command given at a powerlifting meet. The device will be placed on the bar. Since the weight of the device is non-negligible, this device is a "proof of concept" type of project. On the bench press, when the lifter lowers and pauses the bar to his/her chest, the device will emit a sound from the buzzer. Once the lifter initiates the press, the buzzer stops. There is also an LCD screen that keeps track of the number of reps done in the set.

Details:

For peripherals, we plan on using an accelerometer, a buzzer (from the arduino starter kid), and a LCD screen. For the accelerometer we are using the GY-521 MPU-6050 MPU6050 3 Axis Accelerometer Gyroscope (which uses I2C). For the LCD screen the part number is ILI9225, and the communication protocol is SPI.

Video Demo Link: https://youtu.be/pnFD_Wt7Poc