There’s an App for that!
Thanks to the Coronavirus, and varying degrees of lockdown we have all had to adjust and learn how to use more Apps in our everyday lives. We’ve all started to use Apps like Zoom and other Online Meeting Apps.
Along with the expansion in communication technology, we’ve also seen an advancement in the fitness industry’s App technology. With people not being able to go to their regular gym, and see their trainer or workout partner, we’ve had to adjust in this aspect too, & with most people not being able to purchase a full commercial gym to put in their home, we’re dealing with more Apps!
With people doing more and more equipment-less workouts at home, the fitness industry needed to come up with the best fitness Apps to get people working-out and sweating with minimal equipment, and minimal understanding of HOW people are doing the exercises at home.
We wanted to give you a quick little guide on some of the Apps that are worth downloading, and why you should be downloading them too. We’re going to have a look into Apps for workout options, beginners, food tracking, running, meditation, sleeping, and other habit tracking apps.
Health App for Workout Beginners
Everyone has to start somewhere! Home workout Apps for beginners have to be very specific, they have to be easy to use, easy to understand, and somewhat motivational. Here we’re talking about the J&J 7minute workout App.
J&J Official 7 Minute Workout
This App is great for beginners who may be a little light on time, or motivation. It gives you the ability to not only track your workout, but also to design your own workout routine depending on your fitness level. The App has 22 preset workouts that vary in their intensity, meaning that no matter your fitness level, you will be able to find a workout that suits you! The App also contains a “Smart Feature”, which depending on your fitness and motivation level, will design a workout for the day for you – making sure you get the most from your workout every time!
The biggest advantage of this App for beginners is all the exercises and workouts have demonstration videos with a detailed description of how to perform each of the exercises. Along with that, the exercises are also demonstrated in real-time on the App as you’re performing the workout. You can also “like” or “dislike” the exercises as you’re going through them during the workout, which makes them less likely to show up in your workout, however, as the App is limited in the number of exercises uploaded – those burpees will show up again at some point!
Although the App is called the “J&J Official 7 Minute Workout”, the workouts aren’t all 7 minutes. The minimum amount of time in a workout is 7 minutes, however, you can also do workouts for up to 32 minutes, depending on your goals and fitness levels.
Overall it’s a good workout App for beginners, as it walks you through the exercises as you need to and keeps you motivated and on-time for your workouts too.
Health App for Running
There are a million and one different apps available to track your running, but there are some that do it better than others. The one that we’re focusing on here is the Nike Run Club App.
Nike Run Club
The Nike Run Club App is a free run tracking app that has so much more beneath the surface than originally thought. Yes, the App tracks your run and does it quite well, but it also does a bunch of other things really well too!
If you were to just download the app and start running you would find the data from your run to be quite useful, without any additional purchases or equipment it will track your distance, time, average pace, elevation, calories burnt, and your cadence (steps per minute). It then breaks your run down into segments, so you can see which km was your fastest and which was the slowest, along with your elevation at different points during the run. The benefit for those of us who are very visual people, it shows your different pace on a map in different colours.
The App also keeps track of all the kms you rack up, while keeping them separated into weeks, months and years. Each individual time-frame has its own cumulative total distance, average pace, & time per run.
Some of the lesser-known features of the App include the social aspect, along with the training or guided runs. Through the NRC App you’re able to connect with other runners all over the world and help to keep each other motivated and accountable for your running.
Along with the social aspect is the guided running feature, making it an almost seudo mental wellness app. The guided running is great for those who are new to running and need some guidance on HOW they should be feeling during the run, along with their pacing to make sure they achieve their desired distance. The guided runs are also great for those who need a little motivation for longer runs, or simply get bored while running. They use different voices for each of them and have a range of different topics for the different runs, including a meditation run, along with their “head starts” series which gives you a physical and mental workout at the same time while running.
Overall the Nike Run Club App is a great running App for beginners, veteran runners, and those looking for a running for weight loss App.
Health App for Food Tracking
My Fitness Pal
My Fitness Pal is one of the best food tracking Apps around. While the App is fantastic for many different reasons, the one we’re going to focus on for now is the food and calorie tracking. We’ll talk about some of the other advantages of this App later on.
For tracking your calories, micros, and macros, the MyFitnessPal App is excellent! While logging your first couple of meals and calories can be a little tedious and annoying, once you have gone through your major foods and food groups, the entire process becomes easier. The App runs you through some calculations to determine your fitness goals, and your current fitness levels, this allows the App to calculate what your caloric and macronutrient needs will be on a daily basis. Once you have determined your goals and macro needs, everytime you enter food into the App it will automatically update all the information to show you in real-time where you’re up to on your daily goals – helping to keep you accountable.
One of the biggest advantages of the App is the barcode scanning functionality, which allows you to simply scan the barcode of any food item you may have purchased at the supermarket. Once you have scanned the barcode, you can simply enter the amount of that particular item you are eating. One the second time you eat the same food, all you need to do is search for that food in your database and enter the amount you’re consuming.
At the end of each day you’re also able to analyse your day of eating, showing you which of your meals you’re consuming more or less calories. This means that you’re then able to adjust your eating habits to ensure you reach your goals.
Health App for Meditation
Headspace
We’re living in a world where almost all our actions and interactions on a daily basis are under scrutiny. This can lead to increased mental fatigue and mental health issues along the way. Luckily there are plenty of mental health care Apps out there, and in our experience one of the best Apps is Headspace.
The Headspace App can be used for a multitude of different things in your life meditation, sleep, movement, & focusing. Each of the different sections are well laid out on the homepage of the App, with each section having several different aspects that you can explore and use. Including different sounds and noises to help you fall asleep, or different quick little workouts that you can run through.
Overall the app is very well-designed and has a very aesthetically pleasing layout, which works really well for an App that is supposed to be helping with your mental space. There are a few sections and portions of the App that you need to have a paid subscription for, which is a little frustrating. However, you can still get plenty of functionality from the App without having to spend the money on their subscription.
Health App for Habit Breaking
Smoke Free
The push to be healthier in all aspects of life have never been more prevalent than it is today, and one of the largest unhealthy habits still remaining in today’s society is smoking. The Smoke Free App is one of the most, if not the most, successful Apps for helping people to break the negative habit of smoking and quit for good.
There are plenty of different techniques within the App to help you break the habit, and all of these techniques are backed by stop smoking counsellors, meaning there is most likely a strategy that will work for you.
On the main page, dashboard, there is a large timer on the top of the screen keeping tracking of your “time smoke free”, which as your scroll further down the page you see more in-depth information regarding your quitting statistics and how your health is improving in relation to the amount of time you have been without a cigarette!
The further down the page you scroll the more interesting information you come across, such as; money saved, daily missions, triggers and cravings, and finally your progress. Which includes information on the amount of cigarettes and time you have spent not smoking, along with how you have “regained life” in hours. This is calculated information on how many hours you have “gained” back because you quit smoking!!
Through the App you can also be in daily contact with a quit coach, stop smoking advisors, and in a small, private chat room of other smokers trying to quit! There is also a diary for keeping track of your day, and ways to track your cravings and how they’re impacting your cigarette use – helping you to avoid certain triggers in your daily life.
Overall this is a great App for those who need to quit smoking, there is a large variety of options to help you achieve your goals. Giving you plenty of motivating pieces of data along the way!
Best Health App Overall
My Fitness Pal
We’ve spoken about the food tracking capabilities of the MyFitnessPal App already in this blog, however, we find the App is so much more than that we had to mention it again!
Not only can the MyFitnessPal App be used to track your calories-in, but it can also be used to track your calories-out, that’s right, it can be used to track your workouts!! Through the App you can log your own cardio or strength training session, which will then re-calculate your calorie count for the day. There is also a full library of workouts that you can trial yourself, and the information is automatically adjusted for your caloric expenditure.
The workouts range from beginner workouts with no or minimal equipment through to people with vast workout experience and a full range of equipment! There is also a large variety of different workout types, meaning you could start a strength training block, or use the App to start some HIIT style workouts instead, either way the App has you covered.
Along with all of this, the App also gives you some great blogs and articles on different health topics from all sorts of different trusted sources. There are articles on foods and different things you can cook, as well as blogs on why you should be working out daily, and even information on different newsworthy events happening in the world of health and fitness.
Because the MyFitnessPal App is so diverse and has the ability to do so many different things, we think it is one of the best health Apps for iPhone, one of the best health Apps for Android, and one of the best free health and wellness Apps.
The team at Leaders Sports & Spine Physiotherapy in Brisbane’s CBD are experts on everything in health, everything from Health-related Apps through to how to treat musculoskeletal conditions. So, if you have a question about a particular condition, or you have another App you think is better, please let us know!
