Hello fitness enthusiasts! It’s that time of the week again! That’s right, it is Friday! You know what that means, another exciting blog post from yours truly! Today, I am going to be discussing downloadable apps that can assist you in your journey to the intersection of Health Avenue and Fitness Lane. Some of these apps are free for everyone to use and some of them have a price tag just under $5. I will only be touching on a few of these apps as to not have a novel of a post today.
All of them. Download all of them.
There are numerous apps all shapes and sizes with different uses for health and fitness. Whether they are just timers or actual workout specialization apps, they all have their unique uses. I will start off with apps for your daily health. First, there is Calorie Counter - MyFitnessPal. This app works primarily as a calorie counter. It has a food database of over 5,000,000 foods with the ability to customize your own foods to add to that list. It has the ability to let you scan UPC codes off of food packaging to easily add to your foods eaten for the day, making it easy to use. It has the ability to connect to your other fitness devices as well, collecting fitness information to help adjust your caloric needs for the day. Beyond calculating your caloric needs for the day, it also tracks every other component of nutrition as you add foods. Best of all, it does all of this for FREE. I highly recommend downloading this app, especially if you are looking to shed a few pounds.
Then, we have two apps that have to do with hydration. The first app is Water Your Body. This app is free and reminds forgetful athletes to hydrate on a regular basis. It saves daily stats for you to look back on to see if there is a trend of not drinking enough water. The other app is called Plant Nanny. I know what you are thinking, “What does this have to do with drinking water” and the answer is simple. The point of this app is to keep track of your hydration for the day in an entertaining and involved manner. You select a plant which absorbs that water and grows as you drink throughout your day. It has various types of cartoon plants, pots, and scenery that you can purchase for your own style as you use the app. I, personally, started using this app and will try to continue to make it part of my daily effort of making sure I am drinking enough water (I have a terrible habit of getting involved with my daily tasks and not realizing that I’m not drinking all day).
Next, there are several apps that work as timers for workouts. A few of us trainers use an app called Impetus Interval Timer. This timer can be used for a variety of workout styles such as HIIT, Tabata, Fight Gone Bad, running, and several other activities. It’s simple to use and customize and, best of all, it’s FREE.
For those weightlifting athletes out there, there are a few apps that can be utilized for your lifts. First, there is Body Balance. This app uses a base lift and weight to determine a generalized expected lift weight for other exercises to help you determine muscular imbalances in your body. However, it should not be used as an estimation for a weight in a never before attempted lift. It should only be used as an estimation of what your balanced strength lifts should be. It also has the ability to determine your one rep max for a lift. Second, there is Rep Max Calculator. This app is FREE and utilizes lift and weight information entered to determine max reps for the range of 1-12 reps.
Finally, there are a wide variety of apps available for workouts and other activities (running, biking, etc.). There is a FREE app for female athletes called POPSUGAR Active that comes highly recommended by Kerri. This app features video workouts, photo tutorials, and treadmill workouts. Bodybuilding.com has an app that brings a lot of their web-based tools to the mobile platform in the form of their own app with the same name. Runtastic offers a variety of apps with both FREE and PRO paid versions (PRO prices range from $1.99 to $4.99). Runtastic Running PRO comes highly recommended from Kerri. There are also apps for mountain biking, road biking, push-ups, sit-ups, squats, six pack trainer, leg trainer, and even a butt trainer. There are two apps available that take a more entertaining approach to running called Zombies, Run! and Zombies, Run! 5k Training. With Zombies, Run! there is a FREE version that can be upgraded to PRO for $2.99/month or $19.99/year. This subscription unlocks 200+ story-based missions, plus interval training and an airdrop mode. With Zombies, Run! 5k Training you pay $1.99 for an 8 week training program with audio adventures tuned towards the beginning runner. It also keeps track of your running stats and makes them available online for FREE via ZombieLink. I think I just sold that app to myself.
That’s all I have for this week’s blog post. What apps do you use? Leave a comment down below or email me at Joe@dedicatedfit.com and let me know! Don't forget to check out the online workout database and to check out the other blog posts from this week by Logan, Dakota, Sage, and Kylee. As always have a great weekend!
Then, we have two apps that have to do with hydration. The first app is Water Your Body. This app is free and reminds forgetful athletes to hydrate on a regular basis. It saves daily stats for you to look back on to see if there is a trend of not drinking enough water. The other app is called Plant Nanny. I know what you are thinking, “What does this have to do with drinking water” and the answer is simple. The point of this app is to keep track of your hydration for the day in an entertaining and involved manner. You select a plant which absorbs that water and grows as you drink throughout your day. It has various types of cartoon plants, pots, and scenery that you can purchase for your own style as you use the app. I, personally, started using this app and will try to continue to make it part of my daily effort of making sure I am drinking enough water (I have a terrible habit of getting involved with my daily tasks and not realizing that I’m not drinking all day).
Next, there are several apps that work as timers for workouts. A few of us trainers use an app called Impetus Interval Timer. This timer can be used for a variety of workout styles such as HIIT, Tabata, Fight Gone Bad, running, and several other activities. It’s simple to use and customize and, best of all, it’s FREE.
For those weightlifting athletes out there, there are a few apps that can be utilized for your lifts. First, there is Body Balance. This app uses a base lift and weight to determine a generalized expected lift weight for other exercises to help you determine muscular imbalances in your body. However, it should not be used as an estimation for a weight in a never before attempted lift. It should only be used as an estimation of what your balanced strength lifts should be. It also has the ability to determine your one rep max for a lift. Second, there is Rep Max Calculator. This app is FREE and utilizes lift and weight information entered to determine max reps for the range of 1-12 reps.
Finally, there are a wide variety of apps available for workouts and other activities (running, biking, etc.). There is a FREE app for female athletes called POPSUGAR Active that comes highly recommended by Kerri. This app features video workouts, photo tutorials, and treadmill workouts. Bodybuilding.com has an app that brings a lot of their web-based tools to the mobile platform in the form of their own app with the same name. Runtastic offers a variety of apps with both FREE and PRO paid versions (PRO prices range from $1.99 to $4.99). Runtastic Running PRO comes highly recommended from Kerri. There are also apps for mountain biking, road biking, push-ups, sit-ups, squats, six pack trainer, leg trainer, and even a butt trainer. There are two apps available that take a more entertaining approach to running called Zombies, Run! and Zombies, Run! 5k Training. With Zombies, Run! there is a FREE version that can be upgraded to PRO for $2.99/month or $19.99/year. This subscription unlocks 200+ story-based missions, plus interval training and an airdrop mode. With Zombies, Run! 5k Training you pay $1.99 for an 8 week training program with audio adventures tuned towards the beginning runner. It also keeps track of your running stats and makes them available online for FREE via ZombieLink. I think I just sold that app to myself.
That’s all I have for this week’s blog post. What apps do you use? Leave a comment down below or email me at Joe@dedicatedfit.com and let me know! Don't forget to check out the online workout database and to check out the other blog posts from this week by Logan, Dakota, Sage, and Kylee. As always have a great weekend!