12. Getting the Most from General Fitness Apps

Many people have an active lifestyle and participate in a variety of different activities as part of their overall fitness routine (see Figure 12.1). This might include working out at the gym several days per week, running on a treadmill at home, or participating in fitness classes (aerobics, spinning, or Zumba, for example) or some type of sport.

Instead of using separate apps to track each of these activities, and then hoping all the relevant and collected data accurately syncs up and comes together in a meaningful way, you might find that using a single general fitness–oriented activity-tracking app with your iPhone (and potentially your Apple Watch) is more beneficial.

Argus – Pedometer and GPS Activity Tracker, Human – Activity & Calorie Tracker, Nike+ Training, Fitnet Personal Fitness Workouts, and MapMyFitness are all more general workout or fitness-oriented apps that can track activity information and serve as powerful fitness tools, as you’ll discover in this chapter.

The Workout app that comes preinstalled on the Apple Watch (refer to Chapter 5, “Use the Activity, Workout, and Other Fitness Apps”) is also an example of a more general-oriented fitness app (see Figure 12.2).

One of the most popular general-purpose fitness apps that also has a weight loss focus, MyFitnessPal for the iPhone and Apple Watch, has evolved into the Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal, which you can learn more about in Chapter 10, “Achieve Your Dieting Goals.”

This chapter provides a sampling of more general fitness and activity monitoring apps that you might find useful if you tend to participate in several different fitness activities, as opposed to just one.

Some of these iPhone apps also work with the Apple Watch and/or other popular fitness/activity trackers, and can import data from optional Bluetooth devices, such as a scale, heart rate monitor, or a blood pressure monitor. Many of these apps also can share data with the iPhone’s Health app, and some can import data from compatible fitness equipment (like a treadmill or elliptical machine).

The app serves as a pedometer, can track your fluid intake (water, coffee, tea, and so on), and keep track of where you’ve been (via the iPhone’s GPS). The app automatically calculates your calories burned based on your activity and can display this and other information (such as your daily steps and heart rate data) in a variety of formats (using text-based tables and colorful charts or graphs).

Use this app to set daily goals for steps, sleep time, and hydration, for example, and then automatically monitor all of your activity throughout the day. Whenever you’re on-the-go (on foot), Argus tracks your distance traveled, pace, and calorie burn.

As with most fitness-oriented apps, this one requires that you set up a free, online-based account to use it. You do this the first time you launch the app. Beyond the core functionality of the app, if you opt to upgrade to the Premium version ($4.99 per month, or $29.99 per year), the app unlocks the opportunity to participate in Challenges, offers a feature called Audio Coach Guidance, gives you access to additional pre-created Workout Plans (above and beyond what’s included in the core app), and if you opt to use the app for sleep monitoring, provides you with Sleep Insight Reports.

Argus also offers an interactive, social component that enables you to share your activity information with others in the Argus online community and participate in fitness-oriented challenges with or against other people. These challenges are a fun way to help you stay motivated and active.

The first time you use the app, tap on the Menu icon in the top-left corner of the screen, and select the Settings option. From the Settings page, fill in the fields to create a personal profile. Enter your name, weight, body fat percentage, height, date of birth, and gender.

If you’ll be using the app with a compatible Bluetooth scale, turn on this feature so the app can collect data automatically from the scale each time you weigh yourself. To do this, from the Settings menu, tap on the Devices & Apps option, and then tap on the Connect button for your compatible app, device, or equipment.

Also, scroll down the Settings menu to customize specific app settings. For example, turn on the Show Steps on App Icon option to display your current step count for the day as a Badge on the iPhone’s Home screen in the top-right corner of the Argus app icon.

Tap on the Me tab along the top of the screen and a unique, easy-to-understand, color-coded, honeycomb-looking interface appears (see Figure 12.4). Each hexagon displays a useful piece of information about yourself, your activity level, or something about your daily fitness. This interface gives you a snapshot view of your daily activity, as well as one-tap tools for logging information or viewing more data. Useful fitness tips, healthy recipes, and local weather information, for example, are also available by tapping on certain hexagons on this screen.

Tap on any of the honeycomb hexagons to access additional app features or display more information. For example, if you tap on the Daily Steps hexagon, a more detailed Steps screen appears that includes an hour-by-hour chart showcasing your activity, the time spent that day being active, the number of steps taken, the distance traveled, and the number of calories burned.

The Daily Steps screen is a daily summary of your activity. Tap on the left or right arrow near the top of the screen to view your activity data for previous days. Likewise, if from the main honeycomb screen you tap on the Weight box, a Body Weight screen displays a chart that summarizes your day-to-day weight fluctuation over a one-month period, and provides additional weight-related information in a graphic way.

The Argus app also helps you track your hydration level—how much water, tea and/or coffee you drink per day. When you drink water, for example, simply tap on the Water hexagon on the honeycomb screen to quickly log this fluid intake.

You can access two other elements of this app, Challenges and Workout Plans, from the main screen to help you become more active and stay motivated. Challenges enable you to compete against other people (from the Argus online community) in daily or weekly competitions that involve achieving specific step goals, for example. Each Challenge is slightly different, so there’s plenty of variety.

The app’s Workout Plans feature enables you to choose and then follow a pre-created workout plan. Each plan includes a personalized schedule, video-based instruction and demonstrations, a virtual coach that offers voice guidance and feedback, and daily summaries of your progress. To set up a Workout Plan, simply tap on the Workout Plans Sign Up box on the main screen. Subscribe to the Premium version of the app to access many more specialized Workout Plans.

After the app collects activity data over an extended period, tap on the Insights tab at the top of the screen to view detailed and colorful charts, easy-to-read tables, and summaries of your activity level, goals, and achievements. If you opt to become active in the Argus online community, tap on the Friends tab at the top of the screen to access newsfeeds from other people and communicate with fellow app users.

Like many of the general fitness-tracking apps, Argus focuses on monitoring your daily movement primarily using a pedometer. Thus, it doesn’t matter what types of activity you participate it, because the app continuously tracks your movement. This app is visually interesting, easy to navigate and use, and customizable.

In addition to more than 100 video-based workout sessions (hosted by certified fitness trainers), the app offers weekly fitness challenges that you can unlock as in-app purchases. Fitnet also works with the Apple Watch, and to watch the workout videos, you can use AirPlay (via an Apple TV device) to see this content on your HD television set.

Fitnet requires you to select from a library of weekly Workout Plans, each of which can help you achieve a specific goal. The plans are sorted by level of difficulty. After you select a plan, you can add it to the iPhone’s Calendar, so you’re reminded to participate in each daily session.

As you work out, the app (with the help of an Apple Watch or a fitness/activity tracker) monitors your activity level, steps, and heart rate, and then calculates your calories burned. This is all information that you can share with the iPhone’s Health app. The information and data that’s collected depends on whether you’re using the iPhone app alone, or using it with the Apple Watch or a third-party fitness/activity tracker. To gather the most accurate data automatically during your workouts, use this app with the Apple Watch or an optional fitness/activity tracker.

When you’re ready to begin a session, simply tap on the Play icon, and then follow along as you watch the workout videos on your iPhone’s screen. These videos are professionally produced and easy to understand. While you work out, your iPhone (and Apple Watch or activity tracker) gathers data, which is ultimately used to help you track your progress.

If you’re using an Apple Watch, it displays information pertaining to the workout video you’re watching, and works as a remote control that allows you to play, pause, and resume the videos on your iPhone.

Fitnet is ideal for beginners who want to become more physically active and participate in an organized fitness routine, without making a serious time commitment or having to join a gym.

Throughout the day, the Human app continuously measures your active minutes, distance covered, and calories burned, and collects other data if you use the app with the Apple Watch or another fitness/activity tracker.

You can set up the app to remind you throughout the day to stand up and be active, so that you can achieve your daily activity goal. At any time from the app, you can see an “at-a-glance” summary of your progress.

In addition to tracking your movement, the app encourages you to be active with other people (real-life friends).

After you set up a profile in the app and register for a free online-based account, the app begins tracking your activity. You can view activity data from the app’s main dashboard, or exit out of the app by pressing the Home button, and then go about your day. The app continues tracking your activity in the background.

The Human app is not designed to transform your body, help you lose a lot of weight, or assist you in building muscle. It’s simply a tool created to help you lead a healthier overall lifestyle by motivating you to move and be active for at least 30 minutes per day. What’s nice is that you can spread out your daily activity throughout your day in short increments. You receive activity credit for doing basic activities such as walking your dog or taking the stairs instead of an escalator or elevator.

MapMyFitness, shown in Figure 12.7, is available as a free or paid ($2.99) app. An additional in-app purchase option for subscribing to the premium MVP service is offered for $5.99 per month or $29.00 per year. The free version of the app displays banner ads, whereas the paid version offers an ad-free experience.

Unlike the other more specialized Map My... apps, this one allows you to track activity for more than 600 different types of workouts and activities, from walking or running, to cycling, yoga, gym workouts, or cross training. You’re free to do whatever fitness activities you want, and this app tracks and analyzes the results of the activity.

Although as of Summer 2015 MapMyFitness did not yet support the Apple Watch, it is compatible with many of the other popular fitness/activity trackers and optional Bluetooth health and fitness-related devices on the market. When you use any of these devices with the MapMyFitness app, it can collect a broader range of data.

Depending on your chosen activity, the MapMyFitness app automatically collects relevant data and stats, like pace, route, distance, time, heart rate, and calories burned.

Like the other apps in the MapMy... collection, this one has a strong focus on route planning and tracking where you’ve been. This feature is particularly useful during outdoor walks, runs, bike rides, or other similar activities, but less useful during traditional workouts, fitness classes, or in-home exercise routines, for example.

The app’s other features, however, are more useful, regardless of the activity being tracked. If you’re already using one of the other MapMy... apps, use the same MapMyFitness.com account login information and password. After you create your free account, you can freely participate in the active MapMyFitness.com online community, and share details about your achievements online.

Many of the more than 100 video-based workout routines available via this app are hosted by celebrity athletes and Nike Master Trainers. Beyond just providing workout videos to watch and follow along with, the app focuses on motivating you and serving as a virtual fitness coach that’s available to you whenever and wherever you can work out.

Whether you’re looking to tone up, lose weight, or enhance your strength, for example, the individual workouts offered by Nike+ Training Club can help you achieve specific goals. However, by grouping these workouts together into organized four-week programs, this single app can help you more systematically achieve your goals.

Nike+ Training Club is for people at all fitness levels, enabling users to design a fitness and workout routine that fits into their schedule and that’s for the home, outside, or at a gym. The app includes tools for gathering, tracking, and analyzing activity data, and for sharing the workout experience with others.

After you create a free online-based account, the Nike+ Training Club encourages you to select an initial workout based on a goal. Goal options include Get Lean, Get Toned, Get Strong, or Get Focused. Next, select an Experience Level.

Based on your overall goal and activity level, the app recommends various workouts, which range in length from 15 to 60 minutes each. After you select a workout, the iPhone downloads it from the Internet. The workout’s description lists its focus, duration, approximately how many calories you’ll burn, how much NikeFuel you’ll earn, and whether special equipment is required, such as a resistance band.

One nice feature of the app is that while you’re watching the workout videos, you can select your own music to play in the background. From any workout’s description screen, tap on the musical note icon, and then select a pre-created Playlist from the iPhone’s Music app, select an Album that’s stored on your iPhone, or choose songs from the Music app’s library.

Tap on the Customize icon to see an exercise-by-exercise list (see Figure 12.10) and how much time will be spent on each exercise during the selected workout. If you choose, from this screen, tap on the Edit icon to adjust this list and modify the workout by moving, adding, or removing exercises, or altering the amount of time you’ll spend on one or more of the listed exercises during that workout.

After the workout loads into your iPhone, either watch the video on your iPhone’s screen, or use the iPhone’s AirPlay feature (with an Apple TV device) to view the video on your television set. When you’re ready to begin, tap on the Do Workout button, followed by the Play button.

Now, follow along with the fitness trainer. At any time, tap on the Pause icon to take a break. To end the workout early, tap on the End Workout button. Because a real-life personal trainer isn’t on-hand to help you, pay careful attention to the onscreen trainer during new exercise demonstrations.

Out of all the general fitness apps available from the App Store, the Nike+ Training Club app is one of the very best. It offers you a comprehensive workout plan, top-notch instruction, flexibility, plenty of variety, and the ability to work out when and where it’s convenient, without your having to visit a gym.

By using more of the technologies offered by the Internet and iPhone, including text messaging and video call capabilities, some fitness apps provide innovative ways to enable human trainers and fitness experts to interact with people using specific apps. Of course, using one of these apps is more costly than one that relies solely on a virtual coach or instructor, but this alternative is much less costly than hiring a personal trainer at a local gym, for example.

What’s great about apps that merge interactive technology with human trainers or coaches is that the data the iPhone (and Apple Watch) collects while you work out on your own can easily be shared with the human coach, so he or she can see exactly what activities you do, without physically being next to you during your workouts.

The Fitmo app for the iPhone provides the knowledge, experience, and benefits of a personal trainer during your workout. What sets this app apart from other general fitness apps is that this one connects you to a handpicked personal trainer who is matched up with you based on your experience level and your goals.

The personal trainer you’re linked up with helps you more clearly define your goals, and then develops a personalized plan to help you achieve them. The Fitmo app tracks all of your workout activities and relevant data is sent to your trainer, who stays in contact with you via text message and video chats.

Using an app like Fitmo, you can work out when and where it’s convenient, follow a fitness plan that was created specifically for you by a professional trainer, and have access to that human trainer who will hold you accountable, help to keep you motivated, and make sure you’re doing everything correctly.

Fitmo, for example, is ideal for fitness enthusiasts at all levels who are too busy to join or visit a gym on a regular basis, or who travel often and find themselves needing to work out at different times of the day or night in various locations.

Prior to being matched up with a trainer, you must answer basic questions about your goals (see Figure 12.12). Your primary goal can include maintaining a healthy diet, building strength, losing weight, running, enhancing your flexibility, or it can be something more specific or personalized. If you need help choosing a goal, tap on the Need Help? option to initiate a text message–based conversation with a fitness expert.

Based on the overall goal you select, the app asks you additional questions to help you more clearly define that goal. Then, based on the responses you provide, the app asks you to choose a subscription level, which determines how much access you’ll have to your personal trainer each month.

For less than $10.00 per month, one plan includes one monthly video call with your trainer, as well as a personalized training program. For about $50.00 per month (prices vary based on the trainer), in addition to one video call per month and the personalized training program, you can communicate daily with your trainer through unlimited text messaging.

Starting in 2016, the app will also offer an option to hire your personal trainer for in-person training sessions (at a per-hour rate the trainer sets), in addition to the monthly video call and ongoing text messaging. Apple Watch integration is also in the works.