By Leo Stiles
Whether you are a fitness fanatic or are weaning yourself off the sofa, organising and monitoring your exercise can be a bit of a chore. As you might suspect there are apps aplenty that will allow you to do all this but which ones are worth your precious time and money? JOE presents our top five apps to help get you into shape.
Run Keeper Pro
€7.99
Just like the name suggests, Run Keeper Pro is for the serious marathon runners out there and gives you all the features you would expect from a professional sports watch, along with some that could only be included in an iPhone app
You can build any type of run in the app and it will track your pace and your distance via Google Maps which it will then store online on your Run Keeper profile. During you next run it will record performance differences as well as allowing you to set the pace for the day. Voice cues will then let you know if you are on the pace or falling behind.
iPod integration is a standard feature too and allows you access your playlists without leaving the app. The app also supports Twitter and Facebook updates for the social networking crowd.
More in-depth features are also available to those who pay the €17 to become a full member of the service.
Get Running
€0.79
This one is for the running newbie and has one goal; to get you from your couch to 5k in nine weeks without killing you.
The couch to 5k method is a proven approach to easing the out of shape into maintaining a basic fitness level. The app spreads your training across 3 sessions a week to begin with and each session consists of eight repetitions. Each repetition is made up of a 90 second fast walk and a 60 second run and allows you to raise your heart rate while not overdoing it to the point of injury or basic fatigue.
The app has voice cues to let you know when to run and when to walk, giving you regular updates on your progress in an encouraging sort of way. This manages to keep you focused and further breaks up your exercise session in to easily achievable goals.
The app bookends each exercise session with a warm up period and a cool down period with initial routines lasting about 45 minutes. One particular handy voice cue lets you know when you are half way there and recommends turning back if you are not on a circuit.
As the weeks progress, the app will increase the amount of running to challenge you and build your fitness levels to the point when a five kilometre run will be achievable and you can move up to some more challenging goals.
The app supports multitasking and will run in the background so you can listen to music as you run and still benefit from the voice cues.
My Fitness Pal
Free
Because exercise is only half the battle when you are trying to maintain your fitness and your weight; we found this handy little app that will allow you to closely monitor your calorie intake and build a diet that will cut out all of the junk and give you a clear idea of just what your calorie intake is.
The app allows you to record every food that you eat throughout the day and using a massive online database allows you to accurately count each and every calorie. The total intake for the day is then measured against your height, age, weight and target weight and will tell you where you need to cut out the junk.
It’s not just about counting calories, every food you eat can also be tracked for sodium content, cholesterol and more positive things like vitamins and protein.
Nike+
€1.59
Nike have been creating fitness applications for iPods long before there was an app store with their Nike Plus fitness sensor peripheral. The sensor clipped on to your shoe and measured your progress and uploaded it to your iPod where you could then sync with a PC application. Nike Plus worked well but it was bit expensive and was hardly the most convenient way to do things.
This week, Nike has redesigned the system as an iPhone App to take advantage of the more up to date technology. First of all they have done away with the sensor; everything now relies on the internal pedometer and GPS radio found in the iPhone and the latest iPod touch.
The app is all about performance and besting yourself and to facilitate this, the app maps your running route and then colour codes the route to show you where your pace was fastest and slowest. On your next run, the app will let you know when to push yourself harder and reward you with encouragement when you beat your best time.
Like the other apps featured here you can access your iTunes playlists and in a nice touch you can select a “powersong†to push you in the vital time beating sections of your workout.
The app syncs with the Nike+ website and acts as a record of achievement as you earn badges and complete milestones. The online component also has local and global leaderboards for you and your friends and has an interesting challenges section which set worldwide competitive goals.
iFitness
€1.59
The initial enthusiasm for the gym can disappear very quickly when you are presented with an array of weight machines which can often be both bewildering and intimidating.
This app aims to fix all that with its comprehensive range of how-to guide for all types of weight equipment along with a handy workout builder and performance log. The exercises are broken down into body areas such as abdomen, arms, shoulders and so on. The categories can then further be refined by exercise equipment or muscle type.
Each category lists a series of exercises and includes a detailed description about what its benefit is along with instruction on how to do them safely and effectively. Photographs and videos are also included along with a section for you to log your performance
The routines section of the app give you 20 pre-defined workouts to get you started and are pretty comprehensive, but if you want to build your own, the app allows you do this as well.
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