Obesity rates, heart disease, and diabetes are major concerns. These problems have been growing steadily since the 1980s, but our dependence on technology has caused them to escalate.
There is a brighter side to technology, though. It can be used to help people get themselves into shape. There are lots of smartphone apps that help people meet their fitness goals.
Best way to use Smartphone for Fitness
Here are some ways you can use smartphones for fitness and to improve your health.
Look at these 5 Ways to Make your smartphone a fitness buddy.
Table of Contents
1. Monitor Your Health
Health problems rarely surface overnight. You need to monitor your health for signs of any long-term issues regularly. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to keep track of any issues on your own, so it is a good idea to use a health monitoring app.
MyNetDiary (Android / iOS) is a great app for monitoring the calories you consume. This app is particularly helpful for people trying to lose weight.
There are also some life-saving apps to help you monitor any major medical conditions that you are suffering from. Isabel Symptom Checker, WebMD Symptom Checker, and iTriage can help you monitor your vitals and alert you to any warning signs.
2. Online Health Coaching
According to various studies, about 73% of people give up on their fitness and wellness goals. One of the reasons they don’t follow through is that they have a hard time meeting them on their own.
Many people have the drive they need, but they don’t have the right direction. If you can’t afford to hire a personal trainer, there are a number of awesome fitness coaching apps that you can use instead.
Here are some of the top fitness coaching apps for iPhone and Android users:
- Charity Meters motivate you to work out by donating on your behalf to valued charities.
- MyFitnessPal provides great, well-rounded fitness advice.
- Cyclemeter provides detailed feedback for avid cyclists.
- Pear Personal Coach is another app that provides broad advice for anyone trying to improve their fitness and physical well-being.
- Digifit iCardio is developed specifically for people that want to improve their cardio fitness. It is used by runners, swimmers, and cyclists.
- Pumping Weight is made for people that want to build more muscle.
These apps all have slightly different purposes but can help you with your specific fitness goals.
3. Finding Music for Your Workouts
Working out can be very tiresome. Sometimes you need a pick me up to get through it. Of course, munching on a candy bar or drinking a soda is a bad idea. Junk food is going to undo all of your hard work and also dehydrate you.
So what is a better alternative? Listening to your favorite music! Listening to a playlist of your favorite songs can help you get excited.
There are a few good apps that can help you put together a great playlist to make it through longer workouts. Here are some that you may want to check out:
- Spotify Running
- FIT Radio (Android App / iOS App)
- Spring (iOS App)
- Rock My Run (Android App / iOS App)
Note: If you are a Spotify user, ensure you are not using Spotify wrong.
If you are planning on swimming, then you may want to get a waterproof MP3 Player. Here are some great ones to check out:
All of these tools will help you come up with a great playlist. Just make sure that you choose music that invigorates you, rather than songs that make you want to fall asleep.
4. Logging your Development
Sabah Karimi, a fitness expert with Curves, states that it is very important to track fitness goals.
As you get busy planning your next round of fitness goals, and possibly adding new workouts to your weekly regimen, make sure you’re also taking steps to track your fitness progress. Paying attention to how your body is responding to your fitness program can help you make appropriate changes and tweak things along the way. Whether your goal is to lose weight or gain muscle, you’ll find it easier to stay on course with some type of tracking system in place.
Smartphones make it easier than ever. You don’t even need a special app. You can just use the Notepad feature that comes with your phone.
5. Taking Progress Pictures
Taking before and after pictures can be a great way to keep yourself motivated. Whether you are keeping track of how much weight you lost or how much muscle you have gained, you will want to work harder when you start to see results.
You can even go a step further and use your smartphone as a vlogging camera, taking a regular video log of your progress!
Lots of people like to take pictures of their progress with their smartphones. Some of them like to share them on Facebook, the r/progresspics sub on Reddit, and other communities. There are lots of photo-sharing Android apps out there to share your pics. Apple users can check iOS Apps for photo designing.
If you would rather keep them to yourself, then you can use a VPN to keep them safe. It offers security benefits due to how VPN works. It re-routes your internet data through a private network that has the end result of masking your data and protecting your identity while online.
I hope this guide to using a smartphone for fitness motivates you to stay healthy and to build your muscles. Don’t forget to share this post with your gym buddies. It may help them too.
Editor’s Note: This article is shared by Christopher Beattie.
