Some apps are very useful when you decide to keep track of your fitness activities and habits.
Here I list some apps I have used and others I still use and recommend.
Runkeeper
This is one of the most well known apps out there. If you like taking long walks, running or biking, it’s perfect for that. It tracks your speed, pace and distance (using your phone’s GPS). In the end of your activity it shows you a map with where you’ve been through and it also allows you to add a photo to your activity so you can create good memories for yourself to look at in the future or for your friends. Talking about friends, it’s even better when you have many friends added there, so you can compete with each other and set goals in the app and website.
Jefit
In my opinion this is the best workout app ever. I always use it when working out at the gym, as I’ve saved all my trainings and routines there. It allows you to create new workout plans by days and body parts, it has several registered exercises you can add to your routines and when you start a workout, you can log the weights you’re using so you keep track of your progress. After each exercise it starts a counter for your rest time (60 seconds or 30 seconds, for example) before it shows you the next exercise on your list. The free version comes with ads but the Pro version is worth it.
HIIT Interval Training Timer
If you need to burn fat, HIIT (High-intensity interval training) is the best way there is. Many articles and studies say it’s better than steady state cardio (running having distance as a goal, for example). On a HIIT workout you run as fast as you can for some seconds, then go slowly, then repeat that for some series. This app helps with that by counting the intervals and sounding a whistle when they begin.
Fitocracy
As their description states: “Track your workouts, earn points, unlock achievements, beat quests, and slay the laziness dragon”. This app and website represent a community of people who are working hard every day to level up. Fitocracy works with a lot of gamification, so you can earn badges and level up according to your points. It’s great for when you need some extra motivation for your achievements. It also has many challenges you can complete in order to earn more badges and points. It integrates with Runkeeper but, unfortunately, not with Jefit. I’ve always used Jefit, so I had to log the exercises to Fitocracy manually, back when I was using it more often.
Stretch
Stretching is always important and it brings many benefits to your health. This app has many stretching poses arranged in categories for training various body parts. You can pick a few stretching poses as a daily routine.
Muay Thai
I don’t believe in this “learn Muay Thai by yourself” crap, but this is a good app if you need some suggestions for a trainig with a punching bag or with a friend, also for some shadow boxing.
Hydro
It is very important to drink a certain amount of water every day and it even helps you to lose weight. This app allows you to set hourly reminders so you are able to achieve your goal for the day. If you do not drink the correct amount of water, this is the perfect application, which will restore your healthy habits and will help you care for proper hydration.
MyFitnessPal
This is a great app for tracking what you eat and counting calories intake. It comes with a barcode scanner and it has a huge database of products, so it will almost certainly identify what you ate if you scan its barcode. You just need to put there the product and the amount and it will count how many calories, protein, carbs, etc. I tested it with products in Brazil and products in Czech Republic and the barcode scan worked very well, identifying many products. It also has a log for how much water you drink during your day and you can integrate the app with Google Fit or with Fitbit so it sends the calories you log to these apps.
Google Fit
This app allows you to track your walking, running or biking activities using your phone or Android wear. It shows real time stats so you can see your speed, pace, distance, etc. It can be integrated with Runkeeper, MyFitnessPal and others. You can set goals based on steps, time, distance, calories burned and reach your fitness goals. Last time I used it was long ago, so it seems to have evolved pretty well. Nowadays I don’t use it anymore as I use Fitbit instead.
Fitbit
I just bought a Fitbit Charge 2 band and I’m really enjoying it. This app works integrated with your fitness band by Fitbit and it tracks your steps, distance (using your phone’s GPS), calories burned, allows you to set daily goals and has some gamification as well, with badges. It also tracks how well you sleep so you can set goals to sleep better. You can also tack your weight changes, body fat, heart rate, water and food intake. On the fitness band you can check the current time, your current heart rate, start an activity, start the stop watch, have a 2 minutes relaxation exercise and set silent alarms. A silent alarm is an alarm that vibrates the fitness band instead of sounding any alarm, so you can set reminders or even set it to wake you up with no sound (doesn’t work for me, as I keep sleeping after that). It also sets a reminder to get you ready to go to bed some minutes before the time you configured that you plan to start sleeping and it also shows on the fitness band screen notifications from your favorite messenger (Facebook messenger, whatsapp, whatever you use more often) and phone calls.
Conclusion
Do you know another app that could be included on this list? Please let me know in the comments below :)