Keeping yourself fit and making the gains you want can be incredibly difficult. Keeping yourself on track, doing the right exercises at the right time and generally keeping yourself focused can be especially hard on beginners so it’s a good thing that there are a plethora of popular fitness apps littering the marketplace.
A lot of choice isn’t always a good thing mind and the high number of apps populating the market make it even more likely you will run into a bad one or one that will leave you stranded in the wilderness. Finding the right app for you that will provide the right level of focus and actable training support can be key in this day and age of distractions and mental health frustrations.
To help you achieve your fitness goals, we’ve picked out 5 of the best fitness apps available for both iPhone and Android users. For our selection, we’ve tried to pick out a mixture of diet apps, fitness apps, gym apps and outdoor exercise apps to give you the best options across a wide spectrum of choices.
Strava
Join a community of 50m+ users and track every second and metre of your runs, hikes, rides and many more. The free version is packed full of features to help keep you on track with your challenges but the paid version offers reams of data to help you make those marginal gains. The app pairs with most digital GPS and fitness devices to give you better tracking and more accessibility while on the go.
My Fitness Pal
Backed by Under Armour, this app is a great tool to help you keep track of your diet in line with your fitness activity. The app provides great tracking functionality so you keep tabs on where your diet is letting your nutrition down as well as plan ahead for big events or help you meet those last minute goals. Key to the app is the active community of over 1 million who help provide good suggestions and tips on how to improve your diet while maintaining and maximising your nutritional and mineral intake. So whether you’re looking to lose weight or bulk up, the free version of the app ticks all the boxes.
Sworkit
A fitness app that offers 1,000s of workouts which can easily be done from home – or anywhere as the workouts mostly combine bodyweight moves with HIIT-style training. HIIT has become a popular exercise routine for many working from home or trying to save on expensive gym memberships or equipment. The workouts are simple but effective and easy to customise with whatever you have readily available. It’s a popular app with beginners and the informative training sessions are a big reason why.
Couch to 5K
The ever popular app from the NHS has become a fixture for many looking to challenge themselves to run further and take up a healthier lifestyle with more exercise. The app is designed to get you running 5Ks in the space of 9 weeks with informative and encouraging tutoring from an ever growing and changing list of celebrities and athletes. Specifically targeted at beginners, the app makes that gradual build towards longer distances as easy as possible with good tips on technique and an active and friendly community of runners and amateurs helping to provide support.
Lifesum
Lifesum is an app that focuses on helping you to work on your diet, consume key nutrients, and stay hydrated. You can use this app if you’re looking to eat more healthily or you want to lose a few pounds. The app provides lots of beginner friendly recipes suited to whatever type of diet you are looking for. Whenever it is a high protein diet for muscle building or a simple cleaner eating routine to help drop some pounds, improving your weekly meals can be a massive boost and Lifesum makes it real easy to plan out sets of meals that help you meet your goals.
These are just a few of the most popular and well regarded fitness apps on the market but it is important to shop around and try a few of the freebies before going straight to a price plan. You might be able to find a budget option out there that suits your needs and there are plenty of apps available that provide a variety of different dietary or exercise plans. Also, focus on what you actually need and want. Things like Couch to 5K are brilliant and tailored to beginners but you may want something more focused on building muscle or encouraging better eating habits. Your fitness app can only do so much and you need to be honest with yourself on what needs to be done in order for you to achieve your goals.
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