Chapters
- 01. The Benefits of Using a Health App to Keep Fit
- 02. Health and Fitness Apps: A Great Way to Collect Data and Track Your Progress
- 03. Health and Fitness: 3 iPhone and iPad Apps on App Store
- 04. Our 4 Best Android Apps to Keep Fit
- 05. Can Fitness Apps and Personal Trainers Ever Work Together?
- 06. Will There Ever Be an App to Replace Personal Trainers and Coaches?
The worldwide development of e-health and health apps has helped to develop a flourishing new market. This improved, connected patient-physician relationship is generating billions of dollars worldwide, and still growing! The fitness world has invaded the Internet and of course there are now countless apps that purport to help you train.
What are the best iPhone apps on the market in the field of health and fitness? What about Android? Is it possible to simulate a real personal training session?
It is possible! Your smartphone or tablet can gradually become your personal trainer at home with the right apps.
It’s a health and fitness revolution that’s developing further and further every month. But will it ever be able to replace traditional personal training?
We all use apps on a daily basis, for all sorts of purposes, such as Whatsapp, photo editing apps, Tinder, Happn, games, Shazam, Spotify, Messenger, to name a few.
If searching for personal trainer near me fills you with dread, why not use apps to monitor and develop your health and fitness too? go to the App Store to download new free sports coaching applications online.
The Benefits of Using a Health App to Keep Fit
In recent years, health apps have gotten more and more popular, to the point that even professional athletes and sports players have said that they too now use health apps to stay in shape and help them train. But why entrust your health and training regime to a smartphone?
There are many reasons! Among them is the fact that certain types of health apps can work with your doctor, with many people reporting that using this kind of tool makes the patient-doctor relationship stronger and more progressive.
That’s a definite plus! Especially if you suffer from troublesome conditions that affect your day to day life such as diabetes, asthma or obesity, for example.
In these specific cases, exchanging health information collected on a smartphone app will allow both parties to monitor your progress and set new challenges, whilst ensuring your safety in regards to your condition.
From a financial point of view, following a personal training program with an app is a much cheaper alternative to a real life personal trainer. At Superprof, we understand that personal trainers don’t fit into everybody’s budget, so we’ll show you how to economise with your smartphone or tablet!
Whether you want to work on your general fitness, abs or weight training, you can be sure that there are loads of fitness apps waiting for you!
A free health app can help a person quit smoking and get themselves back into physical activity if they’ve been inactive for a while. Some apps can also provide medical advice and warn of any potential illness or heart problems.
The final advantage of online fitness coaching lies in the incredible array of choice that awaits you. Health and fitness apps can offer a wide variety of programs for exercise and diet, making it easy to target any problem areas you might have.
With an app, you can work on whatever you like, whenever you have time – without having to spend a penny!
Combine the technology of mobile apps with the experience of an online personal trainer and make the most out of your gym routine.
Health and Fitness Apps: A Great Way to Collect Data and Track Your Progress
In 2011 and 2012, we saw the first ever health and fitness apps become available to download and use, and health information has become a huge global market ever since, with fitness trackers and apps flooding the market.
Search for fitness classes near me here.
This digital and online training promises many things, including:
- Getting fit and into shape
- Doing sports and working out in the comfort of your home
- Following a solid training program
- Monitoring your progress and health
- Building up strength and muscles
- Maintaining a better and healthier lifestyle
- Sleeping better and feeling energised
- Saving money with free or inexpensive apps instead of a PT!
The collection of real-time data, thanks to the best Apple and Android apps, has become an amazing way of monitoring and staying in control of your progress. "How many steps have I done today? How many calories did I burn? What will my challenge be today? How many kilometres have I travelled? How much weight have I lost this month?”
And this is exactly why health and fitness apps take pride of place in bestseller and top rated categories on app stores, and this popularity is resulting in billion-dollar revenues in this global market.
Health and Fitness: 3 iPhone and iPad Apps on App Store
Thanks to web and smartphone developers around the world, there are now dozens of health apps that are compatible with Apple Health on the iPhone. But which method of fitness training is most beneficial?
Here is our selection of free and paid apps for iPhone:
- Endomondo: fitness and distance training, calorie-burning
Here’s a health and cardio training app which cleverly uses real-time data collection so it's perfectly in sync with you. Endomondo, which is perfectly compatible with Apple Health, will count the calories you burn and distance you travel daily, acting as your own personal trainer to deliver personalised coaching.
The Endomondo sports coach app, which is also a pedometer, will let you know your heart rate and blood pressure, and even monitor your sleep too.
- FitBit: Improved physical data collection
You may already know about FitBit as it’s one of the best iPhone and iPad apps for health, cardio training and general fitness. The app pairs up with a connected tracker bracelet for more precision when collecting your physical data.
Similar to Endomondo, FitBit offers its users much of the same options:
- Collection of personal data in real time
- Calorie counter
- Distance tracker
- Pedometer
- Weight loss tracker
- Heart rate monitor
- Sleep monitor
The big difference in the fitness coaching provided by FitBit is the variety of exercises that it offers. It’s about much more than just walking or running: you can use this app for cycling, body building, dancing - and even mowing the lawn! You just need to add on your activities manually.
- Bing Health & Fitness: the perfect app for running
Bing Health & Fitness is among the best iPhone apps for fitness, cardio training and well-being. This app offers you features which are also quite similar to the two previous apps we’ve seen: calorie counting, sleep and heart rate monitoring, blood pressure checker, speed calculation, GPS, distance tracker and a pedometer.
But where this app is unique is in its nutrition tracker – you can log everything that you eat and check how many calories and grams of fat are present in what you’re eating, helping you to stay healthy and disciplined.
Our 4 Best Android Apps to Keep Fit
If you check out Google Play Store with your Android phone, you'll find lots of health and fitness apps for all kinds of exercises, training and nutrition. Among the best Android apps available, here are our 4 favourites.
- Runtastic Pedometer: free pocket fitness coaching!
Runtastic is one of the best running apps out there and a fantastic way to really connect with your exercise, and a favourite among budding runners and athletes. This Android app allows you to track your activity and progress every day, from small to big efforts.
With the right motivation, Runtastic will get you back into shape, help you stop smoking, encourage you really push yourself, provide you with personal training, monitor your sleep and help you lose weight.
The World Health Organization recommends that you do 10,000 steps a day, so the incredible accuracy of Runtastic Pedometer allows you to start counting yours and helps you reach this goal.
What’s even more impressive is that this app also offers analysis and other statistics to show you in detail how well you’re progressing and how you can improve.
- 5 Minute Home Workouts: fitness and muscle building at home
5 Minute Home Workout is aimed, as the name indicates, at all those people lacking time to fit sports and exercise into their busy schedules. When your days are busy and hectic, you might find that you only have a few minutes to fit in a bit of exercise, which this app makes possible.
The app lets you to start your fitness training through 12 sessions and 42 exercises that you can choose between, tackling abs, torso and arms, glutes and legs, and general weight-loss. There are also some yoga and pilates options for a gentler, toning session. It’s like having a mini gym in your pocket!
- Runtastic Push-ups: pure bodybuilding
Runtastic has done it again – and this one is definitely among the best training apps we’ve found. Runtastic Push-ups is a program of intense muscle toning and muscle building, turning your phone into a free pocket-sized personal trainer.
The app sensors count your every rep and movement, with an onscreen coach to encourage you and challenge you, helping you reach your goals! It’s the ideal app to keep your focused and disciplined.
- Seven: your daily physical activity in 7 minutes!
You’ll probably know this feeling as well as the next person: waking up at the crack of dawn, the chaotic journey to work, an exhausting day at the office, and then doing it all over again.
It’s difficult, in fact nearly impossible to find the time to enjoy a bit of sport or fit in a gym session, and by the time you’ve found a spare moment you just want to relax and put your feet up!
Seven will offer you:
- Videos showing how to perform each fitness exercise to avoid mistakes
- Varied fitness, strengthening and stretching exercises to choose from
- Challenges to motivate you every day: you win or lose hearts and unlock new exercises according to your attendance – you can even win trophies for your effort!
- Calorie counter and statistic charts showing your results and progress
That’s why Seven could be just the solution for you – an app specifically designed for busy people who are always on the go, who only have a few minutes to squeeze in an effective workout.
Can Fitness Apps and Personal Trainers Ever Work Together?
Some personal trainers and sports coaches will certainly tell you that fitness app and real-life personal training are not compatible. But we don’t think that’s necessarily the case when you take a step back to look at these two trends and analyse the needs of consumers.
Lots of people take up a personal trainer to find the drive and motivation they need to exercise, which can’t always be found in a regular work out alone. For this reason, personal training can be the most effective way to improve fitness and the most efficient use of money.
Having a personal trainer with the right experience and qualifications can result in the best progress and help you reach your goals. With the Internet becoming ever-more present in our lives, even personal coaches have started offering online classes through Skype or YouTube tutorials.
However, for many people, a personal trainer is financially just not an option, and even finding the time to fit one in can be difficult. This is exactly why fitness apps are a great alternative, allowing you to work out whenever and wherever you like, and still focus on your specific problem areas.
Let's not forget that free or paid applications such as the ones mentioned above can actually work alongside a personal trainer. They are ideal for setting goals, doing physical preparation and upkeep around your training sessions, and controlling weight and muscle mass.
Apps can be used whenever you have the time, so you can fit this kind of training into a busy schedule – and still enjoy your favourite fitness classes such as Zumba, yoga, pilates, ab workouts, etc.
Will There Ever Be an App to Replace Personal Trainers and Coaches?
It would take a lot longer to ever develop an app that would replace real-life personal training entirely.
However, at the rate things are going these days, it’s unfortunately looking possible for sports educators with professional certificates to have fewer job prospects. Year after year we are becoming more and more connected, from phones to computers, bracelets to watches and even glasses…so why not our PT as well?
But we think that there will always be people who prefer the aspect of human contact and communication that comes with a qualified personal trainer, the exchange element of the trainer-trainee relationship.
Because, after all, training isn’t just about mindless activity, it’s about physical education, learning about and taking care of our bodies, and adapting activity to reach personal goals.
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