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9 Fab Smartphone Apps for Tracking Health and Fitness

We know that our patients and friends are busy, active people. One part of being fit and progressing toward your personal health goals can be right on your smartphone—whether your goals are based on weight loss, endurance, flexibility, or recovery from an injury.

There are several apps for Android and Apple products that can track everything from your food intake, your steps, your heart rate, or even help you keep up with friends.

Track Your Fitness

  • Endomondo

This app is available on both Android and Apple devices and tracks distance, speed, duration, and calories burned as well as your route. Paid versions ($5.99/month or $29.99/year for premium memberships) can coach you and keep you motivated over weeks of training.

  • Strava

This is another app great for running and cycling. The Strava app supports bluetooth and ANT+ devices and boasts a large user community. Having many users gives this app a unique advantage. Not only can you beat personal goals, but you can compete against other members who bike or run the same routes as you!

  • Map My Fitness

Varying versions of this app include Map My Run, Map My Walk, and Map My Ride. Map My Fitness has around 600 activities to choose from, and will map your route and distance no matter your activity, plus elevation, time, pace, and speed. The paid version offers several more features and requires a $5.99 per month fee, or $29.99 per year.

Track Your Nutrition

  •  My Fitness Pal

Although it takes some discipline to enter your food, My Fitness Pal has made it as easy as possible to log your food intake, calories burned, and net calorie goal. My Fitness Pal also lets you scan food UPC’s, save meals, and save recipes that you make and enjoy. You can also enable friends to see your activity and profile so you can encourage and congratulate each other.

  • Lose It!

Count your calories taken in and calories burned through this app with a full community of users to support each other. Similar to My Fitness Pal, Lose it! can be linked up to other apps and trackers and pull in your workout data automatically. Nike FuelBand, Fitbits, Map My Fitness, and Jawbone UP are all compatible with this app.

Get the Right Tunes

  • FIT Radio

Trying to move to a beat but all your songs have different tempos? Or maybe you’re just sick of your playlists. FIT Radio plays carefully chosen music based on your choice of genre, workout, or Beats Per Minute. It even detects your pace as you move, and will adjust the music to match you. Let the music lead you!

Follow Along with Workout Videos

  •  Down Dog

Down Dog’s tagline is “Great Yoga Anywhere” which is entirely the point. Follow along with real people doing real poses (not illustrations), and keep track of your favorites. The app automatically leads you through new variations of a Vinyasa yoga sequence each time you launch it, or you can request specific areas to focus on.

  • Sworkit

This app guides you through workouts of all levels and difficulties based on your personal fitness goals. It shows you the move and instructs you how long or how many to perform. It also has music and playlist options to keep you grooving.

  • ActiveX

As a community-based platform, you can join in on trainer-led spin or tabata classes, keep track of your workouts, or, for an additional fee, participate in training plans.

Do Some Good For Others and Yourself!

  • Charity Miles

Do some good while you’re out there! Charity Miles logs your movement and makes charitable contributions on your behalf based on your distance. You pick the charity you’d like to support from their list of dozens, then run, walk, or bike as you normally would, while sponsor companies make donations for you based on your distance. It’s a win-win!

 

Fitness apps like these can do wonders to help people stay organized, keep track of progress, encourage each other, or just gather data and gain more knowledge about their own wellness. We hope you try some out and keep moving!