Technology exists – so use it! Get your clients into the digital age with these amazing Apps
There are tons of free apps to help your Clients with their diet & exercise plans, but you might not have time to test them all. Luckily we’ve been putting them through their paces all month. Smartphone in hand and ready to track progress and keep motivation up.
So here are our top 10 free health and fitness apps:
1. MyFitnessPal – Calorie counter
Perfect for keeping a food diary and charting weight loss, you can tell this dieting app what you’ve eaten and how much exercise you’ve done and it’ll calculate how much of your recommended intake of calories is left for that day. The genius of this app lies in its barcode scanner, which allows you to input all the necessary information simply by pointing your camera at food packaging. In the supermarket and at the dinner table, I found this useful and informative (and surprisingly fun!)
2. RunKeeper – Tracks running, walking & cycling
Keep a live journal of your outdoor exercise and receive motivational feedback every time you go out running, walking or cycling with your phone – which uses GPS to provide details of your route, average speeds, calories burned and more. There are tons of apps like this, but none I found were nearly as reliable or intuitive as RunKeeper. I used it for a week on my commute to MSE Towers, and found I would sometimes risk life and limb to avoid a few seconds’ delay at a pedestrian crossing, as I pushed hard to beat my strolling personal best. Stay safe out there, folks!
3. The Workout Coach*
(*Disclaimer: This is our software). The Workout Coach brings tracking your Client’s Personal Training results into the 21st century. No more dog-eared paper sheets strapped to a clipboard, full of hard-to-read amends that you can only try to decipher during a PT session. We make tracking results easy, and allow you to take onboard more clients and stay on top of their progress easily. The Workout Coach is free for PTs.
Signup: iPhone & Android
4. My Weight Tracker – BMI & body fat calculator
If you’re trying to lose weight, or improve your body mass index (BMI), there are loads of great free apps that’ll let you track both, but many do overcomplicate things. My Weight Tracker provides a single, easy-to-read line graph charting your weight, BMI and body fat percentage. Remember though, it’s only ever as accurate as the information you put in.
Download: Android
5. Water Your Body – Keeps you hydrated
Nutritionists are always banging on about the many, many benefits of drinking lots of water, but on busy days it’s easy to forget all about the need to stay hydrated until you’re absolutely parched. Water Your Body issues reminders at regular intervals, and invites you to log how much H2O you’re getting. It does involve a bit of guesswork (unless you’d normally drink out of a measuring jug) and if you’re wondering whether cups of tea count, I’ve no idea but I logged them anyway.
6. Sleep Better – Helps you feel less tired
Most of us now use our phones as an alarm clock, and Sleep Better allows you to take this one step further. Before you nod off, place your phone beside you on the mattress and during the night it’ll use its motion sensors to determine how much you’re tossing and turning. It’s not an exact science, but based on these readings the app decides when’s the best time to wake you up – within a 30 minute window of the time you actually set your alarm for. The idea is that it’ll rouse you from your slumber when you’re practically awake anyway, so you feel less rough in the morning. I’m not sure whether it really works, but I have enjoyed using the app’s dream journal to keep a note of my recurring nightmare (in which I roll over and squash my £500 phone).
Download: iPhone (US only) / Android
7. Drinkaware – Reduce your alcohol intake
For anyone who’s trying to drink a bit less, or if you’ve never actually considered how many units you consume, the Drinkaware app is a must have. Tell it what you’re quaffing and it’ll dutifully inform you of how many burgers’ worth of calories you’re taking on board. If you’re serious about cutting down on your favourite tipple, you can use it as a diary to record your progress – setting yourself goals and unlocking achievements to keep yourself motivated. It can even detect when you’re near your favourite pub and remind you to just have a Diet Coke instead.
There are thousands of apps out there, many of them free (or at least free lite versions so you can test them out first). It’s worth taking the time to browse the App Store or Google Play – you can use our top 7 as a good starting point.
Good luck!
