Health is an essential part of life and everyone wants to take care of it. But the problem is that more often than not, it is hard to be or stay motivated to do things that keep us healthy. Procrastination usually sets in every time we think of exercising or anything related to good health.
Fortunately, there are enough big brains in the fitness and technology industry that have combined the both of these extremes to come up with Fitness apps that essentially are the embodiment of technological excellence.
Fitness Apps were designed for computers at first, but because of their least portability, they did not get the attention they truly deserved.
In came smartphones and tablets and forever changed the fitness apps scenario by inculcating fitness apps, workout apps and workout trackers that could now be accessed from anywhere and everywhere.
This feature alone makes fitness apps a go to for your health solutions, especially when you are on the run and don’t have access to a gym or something of that sort.
Some of these fitness apps come with body weight strength workouts, conditioning exercises, cardiovascular activities while on the other end of the spectrum there are apps that track your activities like running, cycling and even hiking.
Considering the fact that there is an innumerable number of fitness apps available in the market, we decided to let go of any iPad bias and include all the best fitness apps that are currently in the market. These apps range right from mild trackers to the more exhaustive exercise circuit trainers.
What’s more is that you can have a PodCast app running in the background and kill two birds with one stone and be more productive.
With all that in mind, the rest of the post is going to deal with the Best Fitness Apps in the market for all devices, including iPad, iPhone, and even Android phones.
Table of Contents
Gym Fitness Apps
The first in our category are gym fitness apps that are designed to take care of all your gym needs. These apps come with features like gym specific exercises, proper posture during exercises, a bunch of gym related tips and then a bit more. So without going into all the technicalities, we present to you the 5 Best Gym Fitness Apps.
Workout Trainer
As the name quite implies, the fitness app gives you access to abundant workout routines and programs fit for goals ranging right from conditioning to some serious muscle building. The app comes in with a step-by-step guide about exercises and workouts with inbuilt audio and video instructions.
Also Check: Video of Workout Trainer App in Action
In addition, you can also create your custom program and share it with the world or you can just download programs shared by anyone around the world.
Fitted Lifts
This app certainly passes the benchmark of being the best professional bodybuilding gym fitness app. We say this because the apps main feature is to easily look log in your sets and then calculate the time between each set that removes all the guesswork. The app also lets you target a specific muscle group and provides information about the frequency of exercise for that muscle group.
21 Day Shred
Want to get that beach body as soon as possible? 21-Day Shred has you covered. Created by Mike Simone, this app gives you access to both a diet chart as well as workout regimen you can follow in and out of the gym.
The app provides full video training guidelines which you can follow in the gym while the low carb diet can be followed out of the gym, which eventually translated into a chiseled body in just 21 days.
Note: This app only works if you have a body fat percentage in the range of 15-22%. But you can follow the same program for longer to get better results with a higher fat percentage.
JEFIT
JEFIT is probably the most extensive gym fitness apps because of the wholesome features it includes under one roof. The app is incredible for people looking to strength training and bodybuilding. The app does so by loading thousands of exercises from its database and comes with detailed instructions for each body part.
In addition, the app also comes in with a workout planner, exercise log, progress tracker, numerous times and options and synchronization with your JEFIT profile.
StrongLifts 5×5
StrongLifts 5×5 is as simple as its name, it basically challenges you to do 5 sets of 5 reps of five free weight exercises. The 5 main exercise is bench press, deadlift, overhead press, squat and barbell row. All these workouts are done in 45 minutes’ duration, three times a week.
When you confidently succeed with the workout schedule the app plots a graph of your progress and even unlocks some new exercises when you have reached a certain level of strength. Even if you are a beginner, the app has you covered as it also gives access to full video tutorials perfect exercise form.
You are Your Own Gym
Here is a gym app that is not actually about the gym, but only better. With over 200 exercises that don’t require any equipment, you will be able to chip in a quick gym like a workout, anywhere.
Fitness Tracking Apps – Running and Cycling Tracking Apps
Fitness tracking apps are designed to track your activity, whether it is in the form of running, cycling or even hiking. Tracking an activity through your fitness trackers or your smartphone’s in-built gyroscope and sensors are fairly famous these days, not only because of their ease of use but also because of accuracy.
There is a catch, however, the catch is that there are just so many of such tracking fitness apps available in the market that it becomes daunting to pick up the best one for your smartphone.
In the next section of this post, we are going to try and rectify that very problem by presenting to you the 10 Best Fitness Tacking apps available for both Apple as well as Android devices.
MapMyFitness
The first one in our list is probably the best fitness tracking app, and it should be, as it has been created by one of the biggest names in the fitness industry (Under Armour). With this app, you will be able to track more than 600 forms of activity spread and synced over 400 different devices to give you a comprehensive picture of your athletic performance.
Set new personal goals with the inbuilt features while the app calculates distance, speed, and calories burned through its GPS-based workout tracking mechanism. The cherry on top is the apps compatibility with Apple watch and other Android wearable devices for a more precise activity tracking.
Nike+ Run Club
I have been personally using this app for almost a decade now and have to say that it does not disappoint when it comes to just tracking your runs. The newest update of this app connects you with fitness coaches and celebrities who provide you with workouts that focus on strength, endurance, or mobility with three levels of difficulties.
The best part about this app though is that it gives you audio cues so your main focus remains on workouts instead of your phone’s screen.
Strava Running and Cycling
If you prefer to chip in your cardio in the form of both running and cycling and don’t want two separate apps for both, then Strava is probably your best bet. This run and cycling fitness tracking app adds some simple and exciting features to your mundane runs so you stay on top of your fitness game.
In addition to tracking your running stats like speed, distance, elevation, the time that was taken, and the course that was taken – the app also highlights your achievements on leaderboards and presents you with new challenges that always keeps you on the move.
Cyclemeter
This one is for people whose most of activity happens on a cycle and certainly for people who are prepping for a cycling competition.
All its cycling specific features make it probably the best cycling tracking fitness app available in the market and more so because the app provides mid-workout feedback to enhance performance.
The app is also able to track and record power and cadence along with weather conditions and heart rate. The app automatically pauses as you pause cycling and gives users the freedom to set up intervals or tempo of the workouts.
AllTrails
If you are into hiking and want to track it to the dot, then AllTrails might just be the one for you. With this app, you will be able to find over 50,000 hiking as well as mountain biking trails throughout North-America. The trails can be further filtered on the basis of their friendliness to dogs, children and even wheel-chair.
The app also provides driving directions to all trailheads and ensures you don’t ever get lost in the process. It goes without saying that the app is also able to calculate distance, speed, elevation and the maximum height of your hiking sessions.
Charity Miles
Running is all good and everything for your health, but how much more satisfying would those sessions be if they could be for something bigger than those tiring running sessions?
Charity Miles works on that very concept, that is, every time you run, walk or bicycle using this app a few cents are donated by sponsors for every mile you run.
All you have to do is select the charities you wish to contribute in and hit the road, the sponsors will club all the money together and fetch it to the charity you selected.
Digifit iCardio
Digifit iCardio is for people who believe that real fitness tracking requires heart rate monitoring and also for people who don’t have access to an accelerometer or GPS. You can pair this app with any heart rate monitoring device and the app will give you output about all the necessary stats about your heart rate and even distance, time and pace.
Endomondo
A little something on the lighter and simpler side of fitness tracking apps. The app has a minimal and subtle interface that allows you to track your runs, walks and biking sessions fairly easily and definitely a lot accurately.
Fitbit
You might already be aware of Fitbit as a fitness tracking band, but did you know that the Fitbit app is able to log in your steps and a bunch of other stuff directly through the app as well?
The app uses your smartphone’s inbuilt sensors to log in your step count, calculate calories burnt, and even manually track your heart rate and blood glucose levels. Needless to say that the app works a lot better when you have an actual Fitbit.
Runtastic Pro
Runtastic Pro is for people who need a little bit of motivation and a plan of action to get through their running sessions. With audio cues, workout programs and all the essential walk and run-tracking nitty-gritty, this app will surely motivate you to run that extra mile to achieve your fitness goals. However, instead of relying on the in-app purchase we recommend you make a one-time payment of $4.99 to enjoy the full benefits.
Calorie Tracking Fitness Apps
If your goal is to lose weight or even to gain muscles, tracking your calories is one of the most important things that can help you achieve both of these goals.
Calories Tracking fitness apps basically allow you to enter a food you just ate or wish to eat and shows you the macros of the meal, plus the total calories in the food.
If you don’t know what macros mean, macros are three major portions of any meal, Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins and while you might need to up your protein intake during muscle building or weight loss, it is imperative to also take note of your carbs and fats.
You can either go on for hours searching for the right macros and calories of your food on Google, or you can alternatively find apps that do the same job, and sometimes a lot better with a bunch of other useful features.
Keeping all those necessities of calories tracking fitness apps in mind, in the next section of this post we have collected 7 Best Calories tracking fitness apps for both Apple as well as Android devices.
MyFitnessPal Calorie Counter
MyFitnessPal passes all the criterion for being the best calorie tracking fitness app. This is mainly because of the huge database of 6 Million foods already available and being enhanced every passing day. You can just type in the food you are having and the app will provide you with all the data like calories and macros on that very meal.
The app also allows you to input a meal using the barcode scanner and the best part is that the app synchronizes with your Fitness trackers like Strava, Fitbit, MapMyFitness and the like to help you with your calorie deficit or surplus goals.
Fooducate
Fooducate is so much more than a typical calorie counter, besides doing the tracking the app also coaches you on real-food diet options. All you have to do is enter your activity level, dietary goals, desired weight loss, or health condition and the app will come up with a diet plan that is highly customizable.
With this app you will also be able to track your sleep, mood and hunger levels, all of which have been proven to consequently affect food intake. The best part though is that the app can scan the barcode of any food in the supermarket and give you a warning about any harmful ingredients like preservatives, monosodium glutamate (MSG), artificial sweeteners, gluten, etc., and then suggest better and healthier options.
Athleats
Athleats is for professional athletes in particular and fitness aficionados in general. The app in addition to keeping track of your calories will also help you plan meals certain days in advance and build grocery list for delicious recipes that come bundled with this app.
To give you a gist about the recipes, the app houses an extensive list of over 60,000 recipes with full nutritional values to track your calories and macros.
Lose it!
Lose it, as is quite implicit by its name, has been meticulously designed to help you with your weight loss goals. The app does so by setting up your current weight and the target weights, height, gender, and gives you to freedom to decide your desired weight loss pace.
The app then assigns you calorie budget for each day. You can further input your meals manually or by using a barcode and everything, right from macros to micronutrients will be logged into your app and presented as a beautiful and comprehensive graph.
Noom Coach
Noom Coach is mostly like the other apps listed in this section of calorie tracking fitness apps and that’s one of the reasons why we decided to end this section with it.
You simply set your current weight and the desired weight goal and the app give you a full-blown calorie budget.
The feature, that sets it apart from the rest of the apps though is its ability to categories food into three different colors, green, yellow and red with their respective recommendations to eat 30% from green, 45% from yellow and only 25% from the red-tagged foods.
Weight Loss Fitness Apps
There are plenty of Weight Loss fitness apps available in the market for both iPhone, iPad and all the android devices.
But, a lot of them actually come with jargons and technicalities that a lot of us mere mortals are not able to comprehend and thus consequently making the process of losing weight a lot more daunting.
In the next section of this post, we will try to address that very problem by only giving you summaries of the top 5 best weight loss fitness apps that will help you achieve that aesthetic physique you always wanted.
MyFitnessPal Calorie Counter and Diet Tracker
We have mentioned this app earlier, and we mention it again because one of most important aspect of losing weight is diet and this app will surely help you with that.
The app uses your age, gender, height, current weight, time frame and desired weight goals to devise a best-suited plan customized for your personal targets. It checks your daily calorie input, your exercise calorie burn and then provides a comprehensive list of things you should or shouldn’t do to reach your mark.
Traffic Light Food Tracker
Classifying food according to its value has never been easier. This Food tracker developed by Obesity Policy Coalition compares packed food depending on salt, fat, sugar content per 100g and then deems the respective food as highly fatty- (red), moderately fatty (amber) and low fat (Green). This, in essence, keeps you off from wrongly claimed fat-free food and eventually helps you lose that fat around your waistline.
Easy Diet Dairy
This one is for really ambitious trainees desiring to lose fat by limiting and keeping track of daily junk. Click a Photo of your meal, upload using this app and it will be automatically organized in a food diary for future references and allowable food limits.
Cardio trainer
Nothing burns fat faster than Cardio and nothing helps you do it better than this Daily Cardio Workout weight loss app. With on-screen instructions and timer, this app is set to provide you video Cardio exercise tutorials from trained professionals for fast weight loss.
The app generates 5-10 minute cardio workout, which if taken regularly after proper intervals will whip you into shape right from the comforts of your home.
Lose it
Lose it! is both simple and effective with its quick dietary and workout logs. You have to enter a few details about yourself, followed by a weight goal and this app will help you achieve it well within the time frame of your choosing.
The seamless connectivity with people, devices, and food information makes it one of the best result driven sustained weight loss app.
Home Workout Fitness Apps
This section of this post is going to be for creative procrastinators, we say this because it takes a bit of creativity to put off your workout routine every time there is an opportunity to hit the gym.
For such people, Home workout fitness apps are a perfect solution, especially because they allow you to squeeze in a quick workout whenever you have time in your daily busy schedule.
These apps range from the basic cardio exercises, stretches to more demanding strength exercises, so we are sure there is something for everybody.
Sworkit
I am a big fan of Sworkit, apart from using Nike+ Running for a decade now, this app is my personal favorite. There are a lot of reasons for that, one of the most important being the ability to input the time you have for a workout, the level of intensity and the rest periods between each exercise to prevent you from running out of breath.
You can choose from a variety of options, ranging right from strength, yoga, practice cardio to stretches and Pilates. If you have a few family members to work with you, the app also has a unique boot camp feature to keep you all motivated for a strenuous workout at home or in your garden.
Runtastic Sit-Ups Pro
Everyone wants those ripped beach-ready abs as quickly as possible and everyone knows it needs discipline, determination and above all a hardcore workout plan. And when it comes to abs, there is no better exercise than the conventional sit-ups that swirl the abdominal muscles, oblique’s, love handles, Adonis belt and everything related to beautiful ripped abs.
Runtastic sit-ups do that fantastically by providing a 3 level sports science program customized for every single user and keeps track of your sit-ups using your smartphone’s accelerometer.
The data is then calibrated, shared and tracked for sustained motivation and eventual improvement.
Daily Yoga
It would be unfair if we did not mention something as important as Yoga in-home workout fitness apps. And Daily Yoga seems to be the best app in this category considering its huge content and the fact that it is free.
It offers various certified Yoga instructions as per needs and capabilities of an end user. There are over 200 well-detailed Yoga exercises accompanied by soft voice guide and graceful yoga background music for complete relaxation and lifestyle improvement.
Johnson & Johnson Official 7 Minute Workout App
If all you have are 7 minutes for a quick workout, you can use this functional app that comes with customized workouts to give you a tremendous burn in just 7 minutes.
Besides the routine for beginners, the app also lets you choose a more strenuous and challenging workout routine, all of which last only 7 minutes and can be used as many times during the day as you like.
FitStar Personal Trainer
FitStar was introduced by former NFL Player Tony Gonzalez and later sold off to Fitbit. And as the name quite suggests, this app has been designed keeping in view the need of a personal trainer for achieving fitness goals. The app provides workout routine on two times per week basis and therefore leaves no room for alibis, even for the greatest laggards.
Honorable Mentions: Miscellaneous Fitness Apps
The last section of this post is going to cover fitness apps that can’t be confined to a category but are still worth mentioning and will help you live an overall healthy life.
Fitness Builder
A free app designed for fitness enthusiasts and beginners as well. You get access to a vast source of inspiration and workouts with more than 5,600 exercises presented in the form of images and videos. You can also opt for personal trainer advice for personalized workout sessions.
Nike Boom
A simple and inspiring App from Nike with more than 60 workout sessions designed specifically to tone up your body. The seamless music integration with workout session makes it a must-have for everyone looking to stay fit and enjoy it at the same time.
Compiled by famous fitness professional Jeffery Back, this Fitness app contains workouts, exercises, schedules, and individual body part exercises designed precisely for lean muscle growth, weak point eradication, and overall fitness improvement.
You can also calculate the resting metabolic rate for calorie management that eventually helps you to either gain or lose weight. It can also keep track of your workouts and progress for complete guidance and sustained motivation.
FitoCracy
If you are looking for some real fitness improvement or goal-oriented fitness program, Fitocracy has you covered. It has schedules, workouts, plans, progress traction, professional advice about exercise/nutrition, levels for conditioned motivation, competition and just about everything you can demand.
It is particularly more helpful if you are looking forward to winning a marathon, losing weight or succeeding any such fitness goals.
HeadSpace
This Meditation app by Red Hammer Software relaxes, soothes, relieves stress, alleviates anxiety and sometimes even provides peace of mind, happiness with its enchanting euphony list.
The soundboard contains 80 peaceful meditation numbers for quality meditation, relaxation, yoga, physiotherapy, or spa therapy. There are plenty of other features embedded in this app that overall make it worth a buy.
HypnoHero
Custom hypnosis can be used for an array of daily problems and although doing it under the guidance of a proper professional is advised, trying a custom hypnosis app won’t hurt.
You can use this app to relieve yourself from habits like smoking, insomnia or find the motivation to exercise and improve overall health.
A little something for your healthy and beautiful skin from Olay. It uses the local real-time UV-Level information to help you choose the right SPF and moisturizer for your skin. Although it seems like a mundane simple idea, on the ground it can protect quite substantially and even potentially save you from inadvertent skin cancer.
Further Reading:
- The Workout Gizmos That You Will Actually Use
- Fitness and Wellness Gadget Guide For The Healthy Entrepreneur
- Go Lean: A Guide For Women’s Fitness!
We hope you enjoyed our extensive list of Fitness apps, use them and enjoy a healthy life. If you have any personal favorites that we forgot to mention, feel free to reach us.
