This week I wrote about apps that can take the place, at least in part, of a personal trainer. These fitness apps can coach and provide encouragement as you try to get fit. With summer fast approaching, now may be a great moment to take advantage of these apps to improve your overall fitness, lose some weight or tone your muscles.
The free Android app Fitness Flow is designed to be more cheerful and quirky than many of its peers. Its text is written in playful-looking fonts, and to pause the app you hit the “take a rest†button, and to stop you hit the red “that’s enough†button. Tapping on the “quick start†button on the app’s home page takes you straight into a random workout. As you exercise, the app’s main display shows a video of what you’re supposed to be doing. Along with the video, a voice tells you how to move properly and relays other information like the time elapsed.
You can adjust the app’s settings to focus your workouts on particular body sections, but the free edition only comes with a short list of exercises and coaching videos. For the full experience of over 100 different exercises you have to pay $3.99. The app displays video only when your device is connected to the Internet, but you can exercise to the audio cues alone when you’re offline.
The free iOS and Android Alpha Trainer app is almost the opposite. It’s very sophisticated, and has a much more serious tone about working out and getting fit. It’s centered around the idea of a 14-week program, which it builds for you based on the goals you enter into its settings menu. You can tell the app you work out at home or in the gym, and it will adjust â€" for example, recommending that you use simple hand weights at home or that you use a particular piece of bodybuilding equipment in the gym.
The free part of the app is limited, however, and to access the full functions you have to pay for in-app purchases that vary, from individual workouts (for example, plyometrics jump training costs $9.99) to “elite†membership that unlocks the app for $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year.
On the other hand if you prefer a simpler type of workout, like going for a bicycle ride, taking a fast walk or going for a jog, then there are apps like the $2.99 Run Tracker Pro for iOS. This is one of the training apps I use because I prefer not to be “nagged†or even motivated by a trainer (albeit in video form) and instead I make my own targets. The app also lets you try out interval training workouts, such as alternating your pace every minute as you run. But its main purpose is to track you through GPS and monitor your pace. The app can show you each workout on a map, and it stores information like your pace and split times so you can see how your current times compare with your previous ones. For a similar alternative app, check out Endomondo free on iOS or Android; you may find its interface better suits your tastes.
Have fun getting fit!
Quick call
Rovio has added 100 new levels to its Angry Birds game on the Windows Phone platform. The game is a classic of the touch-screen smartphone era and if you’ve not played Angry Birds before, now is a good time to try it out. It’s free for Windows Phone 8 devices and for those running the 7.5 version.
