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Get fit with your iPhone - Daniel Sheppard, FitBase

Get fit with your iPhone

The Apple iPhone allows access to a huge amount of information at a touch of the screen. The internet has allowed Apple to create a massive selection of apps that allow you to do things from scanning a bar code to find the cheapest retailer to keeping up to date with the football scores, but did you ever consider that you can use your device to become healthier? There are literally hundreds of apps out there that can make you thinner, leaner and fitter.

Finding the right app can be tricky but get it right and you will all you need to workout anytime, anywhere, boosting your motivation and keeping all your data in one place. Having started to use the apps myself I have brought together a few of my favourite exercise and fitness programmes including everything from strength training to yoga.

Gym Buddy
Being a regular gym goer can be massively rewarding, having a chat, working out, getting fitter and feeling the buzz afterwards can be a great motivator. The idea of Gym Buddy is to support this by allowing the user to create, plan, log and monitor progress from day to day or year to year, all of which is downloadable to your computer to view on a larger screen. Having features that allow you to create your own exercises and workouts means this app is for the more knowledgeable gym user. It also has the facility of a count down timer between sets of exercises to stop your drifting off to what is for dinner or chatting to a friend about work. A fantastic app for those who know your exercises!

Ifitness
For those that need a little more guidance there is the ifitness app. This app provides a list of exercises for each muscle group that is supported with a visual demonstration of the technique. Along with similar feature to the Gym Buddy, ifitness allows you to access exercise routines created by fitness professionals. These routines are based on a specific goal and allow for a varied and motivational workout, excellent for those after a little direction in there exercise. Both the Gym Buddy and Ifitness app have the ability to track your body mass index, weight and body circumference measurements to see whether you have lost weight or gained some muscle.

Yoga Relax
Yoga relax is a excellent app for those wanting to perform yoga at home without having to look at a book or the TV to understand how to perform the moves. Set to soothing music this app gives detailed exercise descriptions without having to touch your iphone as you progress through the routine. With 35 different posses the routines are varied but do seem to be fairly basic in terms of difficulty. A nice feature is the ability to turn both the music and instruction off if preferred.

Run Keeper
Running is one of the best calorie burning exercise, it gets us out in the sun (hopefully) and improves our bones. But as a exercise it is hard to track your progress unless you keep to the same route which will soon become demotivating. The development of GPS within iphones has allowed Run Keeper to create a running app that tracks your routines and allows you to save the route as a name of your choice. Saving information such as average speed and heart rate allows your to monitor your progress and test yourself. Other features I particularly like are the ability to choose from a variety of exercises ranging from cycling, skating, wheelchair and many more. This easy to use app also has a pro version that creates audio cues at certain distances as well as target pace that updates whether you are keeping to your set speed.

Exercise Timer
Lastly on the list of fitness apps is the exercise timer. It is as basic as it sounds but as I am a great advocate of boxing, skipping and circuit training this is a must have app. The exercise timer allows you to set a exercise time or rounds and then updates you with a voice on how long you have left to complete. It is really useful for when you are completing sprinting intervals, sparring rounds or doing burst of exercises that means your hands are full and need some motivation towards the end of the exercise!

If you are after motivation, exercise information or just a way of tracking your progress, a little time spent on these apps to get used to them is well worth the time and effort, give them ago.

(photo: William Hook)

Daniel Sheppard

Daniel is the Head Fitness Trainer at FitBase see www.FitBase.co.uk for more information

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