Workout Apps

So, I know in my last blog post I mentioned that life was a hectic mess and that my posts might be less frequent for a while or, you know, not at all. So, yes, I am like two months nearly (minus a couple of days) from a blog post. I really do suck, but it's also hard for me to just jump straight back into the habit after I've stopped doing something routinely for a while. Plus, after the wedding things were still kind of crazy and life's kind of changed which makes it a great new adventure, but also kind of scary at the same time.

Anyway, I've been on the lookout for something to spark the writing fire within me, but I find that hard to do when I do the same thing all the time -------> which is nothing. However, I have been working out a great deal, but I've stopped running because it's hot and just no. So, I had to find new ways to work out and stay active and I was getting bored and frankly unmotivated to workout just using my pins on Pinterest and spending a great deal of time home by myself so I downloaded some new apps that I thought would be interesting and oh were they.

1. Freeletics.

My brother actually introduced me to this app. It's pretty sweet and probably my favorite. So, to start off you make a little profile. It asks you some standard questions like what's your height, age, and weight. Then it asks you what you actually want to do like do you want to tone muscle, burn fat, or just work on your cardio. Then after you punch all this in, you have to do a mini-workout session where it tests where to put you. Are you already pretty fit or are you a little weak shrimp, basically. The cool part is that it gives you these really awesome names for the workouts: Zeus, Ares, Persephone, Morpheus, Aphrodite, Prometheus, etc. So after you do complete one of these freaking intense workouts, you can brag about how you conquered Zeus. A warning though, Zeus, isn't even like the hardest level. And boy do the workouts get hard. So, the app is free which is great and you can pretty much do everything you want with the free version, but there is a coach option you can get, but you have to pay for it of course. I can't remember the price exactly, but I don't think it's that much and the coach actually recommends workouts to you based on how you are doing so far and again what type of workouts you are interested in, but the free version serves my purposes just fine because you can still pick whichever workout you want to do. You can even go into training mode and specifically work on sit-ups, push-ups, squats, etc. Another really great thing I like about this app is that there's a video for every exercise so you can learn the proper way to do it and once you download that video and watch it, you never have to wait for that video to load again. Of course, this puts a small amount of memory on your phone, but that's a price I'm willing to pay.

2. Burn Your Fat With Me.

So before you judge me because we all know you want to and I don't blame you for it. I'd judge me too. I was looking in my play store for workout apps and this was like the second or third app recommended to me so I just kept thinking, "Okay, this has to be pretty fantastic." And it was free so I downloaded it. And my weird husband, of course, had to check it out and make sure there wasn't another version with girls and there is, but it's $2 so sorry about that if you're interested in the version with girls. So do I like the app? Yes, and no. Sure it's nice that the cute animated men talk to you and they do kind of motivate you to workout, but the exercises themselves are simple and repetitive. I've also come to notice that although the version with men is free to install, you really don't have a lot of the features you need to keep the app interesting. For instance, after the second or third episode you stop hearing any voices and you certainly don't get any of the voices from the other men. So that in itself is a trap to get you to buy more features and stuff. The story line itself is very meh and pretty much centers on you being a slightly larger woman and the men bossing you around and making you exercise so if you're into that sort of thing then this app is perfect for you. Like I said, this app is good at motivating you because it times you and you have someone shouting inspirational phrases into your ear, but I also don't think it's worth it if you want a lot of variety and if you are not willing to pay for the extra stuff.

3.Pedometer and FitNotes.

I included these two together because I use these apps to basically keep up with what I do. Pedometer is really nice and for a simple app, it's very handy. From what I can tell it does a good job keeping up with my steps even when I run and it tells me basic information like my speed, how many miles I went and around how many calories I burned (or at least a general average). I use this app whenever I know I'm going to be walking around a lot or when I was running, I always used it. I understand a Fitbit would probably do the job of this app ten times better if I could find it in my power to buy one, but today is not that day. FitNotes is an incredibly simple app that basically just lets you hit whatever exercise(s) you did for the day and you can also tell it how many reps. The only problem I have with this app is it doesn't have a lot of the basic exercises and you have to manually put them in, but that's not really a big problem. And from what I can gather the app is mainly used for gym weight lift stuff so that's to be expected. It just takes up some time. Like I said though, it's real real real simple and it does help me keep track of what I've been doing since I'm one of those people that gets bored and I like to change it up a lot.