Imagine walking into a huge gym you’ve never been in before and the staff literally pats you on the butt and says, “Good luck, you’re on your own!” Whenever I’m explaining the world of fitness apps to people, this is what I tell them to imagine.
It can seem impossible to not only find good apps, but also to actually use them consistently. Think about it, if I told you to go look for a fitness app to download right now, how would you go about doing it?
The fitness app industry is booming. Companies are trying to be where people are all day long – on their phones. So, instead of aimlessly scrolling through social media, you can pull out the best piece of workout equipment you have – your phone. Whether your phone acts as your personal chef, personal trainer, GPS, fitness tracker, or fitness diary, using the right apps can help you reach your goals faster than just doing it on your own.
If you want five apps that will cover every aspect of your fitness here are our choices:
Best App for Goal Setting: Lift
With anything you do in fitness, if you don’t actually set goals then you will be less likely to stick with it and see results. The Lift app helps you build healthier habits by providing you guidance along the way to your goals.
You start off with picking a habit you’d like to work on. In this example, I chose “Drinking More Water.” Lift then let’s you set reminders and track your goal. Every goal you set is public and other users can cheer you on, provide encouragement, or even hold you accountable to keep you motivated.
Next Steps:
- Address what part of your fitness journey is toughest, i.e. diet, going to the gym frequently, or smoking.
- Only choose two or three habits to address at one time.
- Get some of your friends involved to download the app and help cheer you on. It’ll mean more to you to have them on there.
- Pick a time everyday to check-in to the app and set reminders beforehand so you don’t forget.
Unlock you potential. Change your life with Lift.
Best App for Nutrition: Yummly
I think we all know by now that without a healthy diet, the best workout program in the world will get you minimal results. The problem is most people don’t know where to start. Should you do paleo, low-carb, or vegetarian? And then once we choose, we get bored because we end up eating the same five meals taught to us by a friend who talked us into switching our diet in the first place.
Yummly let’s you browse personalized recipe recommendations, find ones that match your diet preference, and build your grocery list. Not only does the app list all of the recipe ingredients, it also shows you how many calories are in it, and how long it takes to prepare.
Next steps:
- Choose which diet you’re going to be following.
- If you’re not going to follow any particular diet, that’s fine, type in “healthy” in the search bar and over 211K+ results will pop up!
- Start building your healthy grocery list
- Use this for all of your meal planning.
Discover the world’s recipes at Yummly.
Best Apps for Workouts: Gain Fitness
Ever wanted a personal trainer? Well, Gain Fitness is your very own digital personal trainer that will set you up with customized workouts to help you reach your goals. The workouts will progress, never get boring, and keep you seeing results – just like having a personal trainer in your pocket. The best part is that you don’t even need to go to a gym to do the workouts.
Next steps:
- Designate when and where you’ll be doing your workout, i.e. at home (once a week), in the gym (every time), or just on rest days.
- Choose a difficulty level and address an area you want to work on i.e. Fat Loss, Muscle Gain, etc.
- Track your results!
Start your workout with Gain.
Best App for Cardio: MapMyRun
If you enjoy running, jogging, or walking or want to get into any of those, you will love MapMyRun. Not only does it track everything so you can see your progress, but there’s an awesome community of people to interact, compete, and become friends with. MapMyRun has tapped into a great social aspect by allowing users to share about a run they did to their social media sites.
Think of it as your running diary, offering GPS tracking, time logs, daily activity, and calories burned, and that can all be done while you’re listening to music, on the phone, and going about your daily routines.
Next Steps:
- Pick one or two days a week to go out for a run or jog.
- Choose a route that you know and get comfortable with that at first.
- Once you get comfortable use the app to explore new running routes.
- Start tracking your daily activities as well to actually put an actual number to how active you are throughout the day.
Make every mile count with MapMyRun.
Best New App: FitTag
If you have ever felt overwhelmed by dog videos, political rants, and weird memes on social media, then FitTag could be the place for you to start hanging out. The app builds a place for you to go if you just want to be around fitness-minded people.
The mission of FitTag is to create a visual guide for everything healthy going on around the world. FitTag uses their #100FitDay Challenge to see if users can capture a healthy moment they’ve experienced each day for 100 days. Users can share workouts, diets, and recipes, while getting tips along the way helping them to reach day 100.
Next Steps:
- Each day capture a photo or video of you making a healthy choice.
- Encourage friends to take the challenge to see who can last until the end.
- Inspire everyone around you.
Discover new fitness at FitTag
If you’ve ever said, “I don’t have time,” “Working out is boring,” or, “I don’t know what to do,” then fitness apps can do a great job for you in squashing all of those excuses. But don’t get paralysis-by-analysis when it comes to choosing one. Use apps as tools in your toolbox to help keep you on track, discover new ways to get fit, and inspire those around you.
