In our modern age of smartphones and apps, you do not need to sign up for an expensive gym membership or hire a personal trainer to achieve your fitness goals. You can now get all those benefits for little to no money with a smartphone app that tracks your progress and helps you plan your diet and exercise. Try one of these handheld personal trainers to see if they work for you.
These apps are often free to start, with more content locked behind paywalls. That is great because it gives you a chance to try out the app and see if you like it before committing any money.
1. Fitbit Personal Trainer and Accessories
This is one you have probably already heard of. Despite what you may have heard, you do not actually have to spend any money to get started using Fitbit. Just download the free app, and you can start tracking your progress and using many of its great tools. If you like the app, there are plenty of accessories you can buy to improve your experience. The most popular accessory Fitbit sells is their wristbands, which automatically monitor things like your sleep patterns, steps taken, and heart rate. They synch with the app on your phone, so all that information is automatically tracked and recorded. Plus, they have other great features like phone notifications, alarms, and GPS tracking. You can also get body weight scales from Fitbit that sync with your app so you can track your weight loss progress. With all those tools, you can easily track your workout and diet schedules and accomplish your fitness goals with ease.
2. Runkeeper
If you are a runner, this app is perfect for you. Runkeeper helps you plan your running schedules to reach your running goals with ease. It can adapt running schedules to your lifestyle, give you reminders, and it lets you track every run you do. Plus, there is a rewards system in the app that you can use to earn shoes and other products from Runkeeper’s advertising partners. You can display your records in graph form, so you can literally see your progress. Seeing how much you have improved is a great way to motivate yourself to keep running and set more goals.
3. Endomondo
Endomondo is an awesome app and website that allows you to track your runs, walks, or bike rides. It records your distance and speed, and it can update you on your progress during your run in real-time. You can glance at your phone to see how far along you are on your route, your current speed, and how many calories you’ve burned. Like Fitbit, Endomondo supports a few different wearable fitness trackers it can sync with to give you extra info like your heart rate. Post your times and routes to Facebook, so your friends can see your progress and compare their own times.
4. Drop And Give Me Twenty!
This app is specifically for push ups. It may sound like a limited-use app, but Drop And Give Me Twenty is a great app that helps build a regular habit of doing push-ups to develop full body strength. You can use it to record your push-ups with a proximity sensor, or by touching your nose to the screen with each push-up. It sounds a little weird, but it totally works. You can also manually record your push-ups. It comes with a six-week program that gradually increases the difficulty, helping you get stronger and stronger. You can also display your records in a graph to see your progress as you go.
5. Ease Into 5K
This app is all about getting you from a sedentary lifestyle to being able to run five kilometers. It guides you on an eight-week plan that very gradually introduces additional challenges, with three workouts per week. By the end of the plan, you will be running five kilometers like it is nothing. You will start out mostly walking, then you will start adding bits of jogging in, and eventually, your workouts will mostly consist of running. It has tools for tracking your progress, and the app provides audio cues for when you should switch between running and walking, so you can listen to your own music while you run. This one is not free. You will have to pay $2.99 to download the app, and then you can unlock an “Ease Into 10K” feature if you have success with the initial app for an additional $2.99. It seems expensive when most fitness apps are free, but three dollars for an eight-week program is an incredible price if you think about it.
Using a Handheld Fitness App
Smartphone apps are a great way to keep track of your fitness goals and get into better shape. Of course, no app or trainer can replace hard work and dedication. What these apps can do, however, is help guide you and track your progress. Any tool that makes developing healthy habits easier is absolutely worth pursuing. See if any of them click with you, and keep working hard to achieve your goals.
About The Author: CALEB PALMQUIST