So have you joined the fitness app fanatics with multiple fitness apps to keep track of your heart rate, sleep rhythm, food intake, water intake, workouts, footsteps, calories burned...etc..?
Ok well I have, here's a screen shot of my fitness apps, and that's only the first page!
I thought I'd share a bit on my experience with each one of them.
Cody
This app specifically has fitness classes that you can view and follow on your iPhone or iPad. The app comes with a few free classes as part of the starter kit including mostly yoga and some strength classes. They then have several classes that you can purchase online on https://www.codyapp.com which include yoga, strength, flexibility, nutrition and weightlifting. I've visited the site several times and have been tempted to download classes but promised myself to only purchase classes if I consistently used the free ones to begin with. That hasn't happened yet. But the 2-3 classes that I have tried were enjoyable.
Wodify
This app was downloaded when I was still at Crossfit Tempo, you can register for classes, keep a log of your performance, and see your progress over time. You can also "like" other people's performances and workouts.
UP
I purchased a fitness wristband, the UP3 and this is the app that goes along with it. It keeps a log of your sleep (deep sleep, REM and light sleep), keeps a tab of the footsteps you've taken and whether your have reached your goals. You can also log in any workouts that you have done that day, and it will add those calories for you to give you a total of calories burnt for that day. Your passive heart rate also gets logged. If you've got friends using the same app, you can follow them, check their progress and encourage each other. The app also provides you with daily feedback on how you've been doing and recommendations for how you can improve on reaching your target. I'll be honest, when I first got the band I was constantly checking the updates on it, but have gradually lost the interest as I realized that I hardly ever meet my 10,000 footstep goal, and its a bit discouraging for me to keep seeing that. I've been advised by the app to set a lower target but am in denial and want to keep the same target. It would be good to be able to set other fitness goals related to gym workouts or gym classes that are not necessarily reflected by footsteps. On the other hand, getting the band has encouraged my partner who used to hate walking to walk more and meet his daily goals.
My Zone
This is a chest band that I first started using when I joined the Engine Room at Horizon. It tracks your heart rate during workouts and gives you the information on the workout zone you are in and the calories burnt. This is meant to be more accurate at calculating calories burnt than wristbands as it is worn close to your heart. I think it's pretty cool, but I also got a bit bored of strapping something on my chest, when all I wanted to do is just go enjoy a workout rather than stress over exact calories burnt and what zone I was in.
Wellness
This app was downloaded when I joined the Wellness Center at The Wave, and gives you the option to add or drop classes. It's pretty easy and simple to use. I haven't used it for anything other than that. If you drop classes less than 3 hours before class, or don't show up to class, you run the risk of being black listed from classes, yikes, a bit harsh!
My Fitness Pal
This app was really cool for the 72 hours that I dedicated time to use it. You can add in your food and drink intake and it calculates that amount of calories that you have consumed. Its better than the nutrition section of the UP and has a lot more variety of foods to select from, including local favorites like Al Marai low fat laban. You can sync this with other apps including UP and get your caloric intake to be reflected on your UP and get info on workouts and footsteps from UP to be reflected on My Fitness Pal. Based on the amount of calories that you have burnt, it could give you additional calories to eat up. I somehow didn't always think that enough additional calories transferred over from UP to My Fitness Pal - so I'm not quite sure how the conversion works. While its fun to do for a short time, to get an idea of calorie busters, its simply not that practical to log every single thing that goes into your mouth. The app is also linked to the MyFitnessPal Blog on which you can find recipes and other health and nutrition advice.
Libra
Welcome to the new age of weighing scales. This app goes along with the Runtastic weighing scale, which gives you not only your weight and BMI, but also your water content, fat percentage, muscle mass, bone mass and tissue content. Over time it graphs out all of your data.
Health
Is an app that comes with the iPhone, you can link all your other apps to it, and you can get a dashboard of your performances. I don't really use it that much, but maybe I just haven't figured out its benefits yet.
Nurture
This is a mummy to be app, which tracks your pregnancy - tells you how many weeks you are, gives info on the baby's growth hat week, pregnancy related tips and is also linked to a community board. Moreover, you can sync it with your UP and My Fitness Pall apps to keep track of your overall fitness wellbeing and see a full dashboard of your nutrition, calories, weight and other health info that you've entered from your prenatal visits.
So in summary, although I may be a slave to downloading tons of apps and trying them out, I'm definitely no slave to the apps themselves!
