Forget Facebook and get fit!
Law graduate turned businessman Ehsun Anwar is set to launch a new mobile app allowing users to compare their fitness and stamina levels with others around the world, compete on a “global leader board” and discuss issues surrounding fitness, diet and training on a daily basis.
The app, HowFit, which will be downloadable from the app store later this month, has been developed with the help of a technical team based in Devon, but is the brainchild of Ehsun whose “light bulb moment” came while reading a magazine article about the law and social media.
Ehsun, 25, who lives at Fenay Bridge, graduated in law from Nottingham Trent University last year, but after his work placement soon decided a career in a solicitors’ office was not for him.
“Facebook is really about gossip and people sharing their news,” he said. “I had the idea for an app where people could come together in the world of health and fitness, compare each other’s fitness levels and get ‘productive’ news about fitness and nutrition.”
Ehsun said the app would allow users to type in their personal best score from any given exercise – such as push-ups – and get an instant ranking against other users doing the same exercise. The ranking system would give users the incentive to better their position in the “league table” by exercising harder.
Ehsun stressed that HowFit would cater for all people – only comparing people who shared the same age, gender and weight to keep things fair.
He said: “The idea here goes beyond bragging rights and competition. HowFit can motivate you to start exercising, to keep exercising or to take your fitness to a higher level.”
Said Ehsun: “I am very passionate about sport. I used to be a track runner and I am an amateur boxer. I am also on a personal trainer course at the moment, so I would use the app myself to tell people what exercises I am doing and what kind of food I am eating.
“I came up with the concept for HowFit from scratch using paper and pencil. It was a bit of a bizarre moment! I was so excited with the idea – and it is completely different from the law!”
Ehsun was born in Pakistan but came with his family to live in Britain at the age of 11 months.
The son of a doctor, he grew up in Burnley, but has lived in Huddersfield since 2007 and attended Greenhead College.
He joined an athletics club at the age of nine and over the years competed in the 100m and 200m sprint as well as long jump.
He’s now a member of Gladiators Boxing Academy in Huddersfield and has won three of his five contests so far as an amateur at lightweight.
HowFit has been in development for more than a year.
Ehsun launched a marketing campaign to promote HowFit about two months ago and it has been extensively trialled over recent weeks.
