Top 5 Fitness Apps
At Mountain Trek we know how important it is to have help staying on track during our hectic lives. We regularly hear from our alumni that they love staying in touch with the other guests they met while at the resort and that this support network is key to integrating healthy habits in their day-t0-day.
But sometimes we need more than just a friendly phone call to help us with our health or weight-loss goals. This is when new technology comes in handy. Below are five of the best health-related mobile apps that we’ve come across. Do you have other suggestions for us? If so, please comment below.
FitnessPal Calorie Counter and Diet Tracker
FitPal is one of the most popular apps on the market, and not just because it’s free. Users can set a daily calorie goal, then record food intake and exercise to help stay on track. The app records your meals and workouts, then automatically calculates the number of calories consumed. And it’s food database is extensive with caloric and nutritional details of over 425,000 foods. It includes:
- Calorie Counter
- Nutrient Summary
- Food Search
- Food Diary
- Food Database
- Personalized Diet Profile
WalkJogRun
WalkJogRun is an online community of runners, walkers and hikers sharing routes and encouragement with one another. It uses your smart phone’s GPS technology to pinpoint your current location and then suggests routes that have been uploaded by other users. From there you can plot a course, record your own route and at the end of your run you can check distance, pace, time, etc. The $4.99 version includes:
- accurate mapping
- ability to log training sessions
- record your heart rate, weight, cadence, ascent, distance, pace, time, etc
- download other people’s favourite walking/running/hiking routes (there are over a million of them)
- training plans and diary
- community interaction with like-minded people
Six Pack App
This app is a little more hardcore than what we’d normally suggest but we really like the yoga and stretches component. Six Pack App offers multiple exercises and routines for the chest, shoulders, back, legs and, of course, abs. One of the best parts of the app is the “Don’t” section which shows you things not to do while performing the exercise, thus ensuring you maintain good form and avoid injury. Get the $0.99 version to avoid all the pop-up ads. Features include:
- Step-by-step tips
- Photos
- Muscle Diagrams
- Advice about how to use equipment properly
- Suitable exercise routines for when you travel
Nike Training Club
Nike’s most popular training app is called NTC and it’s billed as “your personal trainer, anytime, anywhere.” While it lacks the personality of say, someone like Mountain Trek’s head guide Kirkland Shave, it does have more than 100 custom-built workouts as well as those used by celebrities Serena Williams and Paula Radcliffe. For a free app, NTC is very robust and it does a lot including:
- Full-body workouts for 30 or 45 minutes.
- Targeted and professional athlete workouts for 15 minutes.
- Set your workout to your own music.
- Audio guidance to keep you on track and motivated
- Step-by-step instructions and video demonstrations for every drill
- Track details of your workout history and training progress.
- Share your workout and reward status on Facebook and Twitter.
Calm
- 7-step program designed to give users the tools they need to become calmer
- 7 guided relaxation sessions (ranging from two to 30 minutes)
- 10 nature scenes from which users can choose a calming background for their phone.
