Let’s face it, our cell phone is the one, single item most of us have within reach 24/7. Why not use it to our advantage while trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle? Fortunately, there have been many apps released, especially through the iTunes App store, specifically engineered to help us make healthy choices daily. Below is a list of some of the most popular and most helpful health and fitness apps!
1. Argus – Motion and Fitness Tracker by Azumio
Argus pretty much does it all. This free app is able to monitor your activities, food, workouts, sleep, hydration, weight, and vitals. Some of its featured highlights include: a daily step counter, food diary, Sleep Time (which monitors your sleep cycles), Instant Heart Rate, and a GPS system to track fitness activities like running. You’re also able to set daily goals for steps, sleep time, and even hydration!
2. Fitness Buddy/Fitness Buddy Free
Fitness Buddy takes all the thinking out of planning your workout/training regiment. The full version, which costs $1.99 on iTunes, has over 1,700 exercises, 1,000 videos of specific moves, and detailed exercise instructions. You can even search the part of the body you want to work on and Fitness Buddy will supply you with specific moves that will work and tone that area. There are also 75+ professionally created workouts that you can start right away. A free version is also available for download; with the only difference being the number of exercises available (which becomes 300 exercises).
3. Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock
Although somewhat creepy, Sleep Cycle analyses your sleep and wakes you up when you are in your lightest sleep phase. The Sleep Cycle app does this by monitoring your sleep movements using the accelerometer in your iPhone. Therefore you have to place your phone in your bed next to you while you sleep. The main features of this app include: a detailed sleep statistic and sleep graph for every night, a customizable wake up window, and long term graphs which track your sleep quality over time.
4. WebMD
WebMd Health Corp. is the leading provider of health information services, and their iPhone app doesn’t come up short! Whether it’s local health listings, information about conditions or medicines, or even healthy living fun facts. Web MD is sure to have it all. Personally, I’m a fan of its Symptom Checker, which allows you to select the part of the body that is troubling you, choose your symptoms, and learn more about what might be causing you an issue.
5. Charity Miles
Charity Miles is an altruistic app that allows you to give corporate donations to the charity of your choice based on your workout. How cool, right? The app measures your distance, and for each mile you walk or run 25 cents is donated to the charity of your choice! You can bike too at a rate of 10 cents per mile. All you have to do is choose between a wide range of charities and hit the road. Some of these charities include Autism Speaks, Special Olympics, Habitat for Humanity, and Stand Up To Cancer. Not only can you get a good workout in, but you can also donate to your favorite cause!
6. Ab Trainer
It’s never too early to start working on that beach body for next summer, and by beach body I mean 6-pack. With this free app, toning those abdominals has never been so easy! Voice cues and animations help guide you through various core workouts. There are 10+ tailored workouts that you can do anywhere, even your dorm room!