Frankly speaking, I can’t say that I’m a devoted sportsman. But recently I’ve changed my mind and have made friends with jogging and warming-up in the mornings. And great part in this friendship played a number of mobile applications for sports. After trying out a lot of them I’ve cut down the number of useful apps to three that I really liked.
It’s really difficult to do something without sufficient motivation. For me it was difficult to simply run around the park. But to try to win a race from a guy from Facebook is absolutely different. You feel the spirit of competition between you and your virtual rival. The sports apps provide you with such possibility.
Such applications help you to set goals for your training’s, provide their systemacy and the spirit of competition. These are the thing that you miss in order to turn your amateur training into really useful and effective training. Another advantage of these applications is quality consultation. The programs are created with the help of experienced coaches and thus they help beginners to avoid most common mistakes. Very often these apps contain video instructions and useful recommendations on training, on technique, on a diet and on recovery.
The difference between the apps for sports and for fitness, the application itself is just a top of an iceberg. Especially if we speak about apps for running and cycling. Behind these apps are massive multi-platform complexes that allow you planning of your training, considering the results, making up graphics and sharing your records in social networks. The use of such apps turns into a new way of life for many people.
Fitness, yoga and strength training apps have different goals. They replace your personal coach for those who train at home. Such applications contain a wide base of exercises with descriptions, video lessons, choosing optimal training program and so on. So here’re the best apps for different type of sports (in my opinion, surely).
App For Running, Cycling And Walking
In order to start running or walking you don’t need any special spends or special training. At the same time it’s pretty simple to compare the results in these sports. So it’s no wonder that such apps are in high demand among the users.
One of the cult applications for runners is Endomondo Sports Tracker. It is available for all mobile platforms including iOS, Windows Mobile, Android and Symbian. For tracking runner’s position during training this app uses smartphone’s GPS. It calculates average speed of movement, distance and even burnt calories. In addition to that you may listen to your favorite music without exiting the app. Before activating the program you need to register on the developer’s site. After that you’ll get access to your statistics data, to your goals and tasks and to the results of other runners.
App For Fitness And Strength Training
Personally I prefer fitness and strength training in a gym to running. That’s why I paid a lot of attention to the apps for these activities. One of the most universal apps is All-in Fitness, which you can buy in App Store just for one dollar. It includes more than a thousand exercises with detailed descriptions and videos. This app will help you to create a plan for home training, to watch your training technique and to keep your results. The All-in Fitness interface is user-friendly, all exercises and their description are downloaded automatically from a server.
If you need a free app then you may try Workout Trainer which is available for Android, iPhone and iPad. The app has a similar functional to All-in Fitness. First of all, you need to choose the direction of your training and to set your goals. For example, to get rid of excessive weight or to build muscles. The program chooses the best training variant for you and virtual coach shows you how to do exercises.
Yoga Apps
Surely, app developers couldn’t have passed by yoga. Most of these apps contain the description of positions with detailed descriptions on how to do them. One of the most popular apps for yoga is Yoga HD which is available for Android and iPhone users for one dollar. The app contains 300 positions which are grouped according to the level of their difficulty (beginner, intermediate, guru). Each exercise is provided with text, photo and video instructions.
Among other yoga apps I’d like to pick out the app called Yoga RELAX. The app contains only relaxing exercises and is a wonderful addition to your main training. The exercises and position are accompanied by relaxing music.
Conclusion
To cut a long story short, I’d like to say that no application can replace the power of will to do something. But these apps will help you to find some additional incentives for your training. It’s easy to cancel you training when you train alone or with a friend, but it’s hard to find arguments for a dozen of friends who share their results and ask about yours.
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Guest article submitted by Eugene Rudenko. Eugene Rudenko is a tech writer for IT company Intellectsoft. Apart from that, he does some part time blogging about mobile technologies, tips and tricks.
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