You don’t necessarily need the help of a wearable
or a smartwatch to help track your steps and monitor your activity—most
modern-day smartphones have all the sensors and hardware you need to
keep an eye on how much (or little) exercise you’re getting. Here are 9
apps up to the task of improving your fitness, no extra devices
required.
1. Human
Human is an activity monitor and calorie counter built around the
idea of doing 30 minutes of exercise a day. It automatically picks up
your walks, runs, and bicycle rides without you having to do anything.
What’s more, adding friends or colleagues and getting active as a team
is very simple and well integrated. One of Apple’s ‘best of App Store’
picks for last year. [Free on
iOS]
2. Moves
Moves promises to keep a watch on your exertions from your pocket or
even your bag, so you can track your activities without having to think
about it. Again the three main options are covering—walking, running,
and biking—and the app also scores points for its clean and clear
interface. It’s possible to review your routes on a map as well. [Free
on
Android and
iOS]
3. Map My Fitness Workout Trainer
There are a bunch of Map My Fitness apps, tracking runs, hikes, bike
rides, even dog walks, but we’re using this one as an example. It logs
all the major activity types, using the sensors in your smartphone, and
keeps tabs on everything from your speed to the number of calories
you’ve burned. The data analysis and community tools are very good, too.
[Free on
Android and
iOS]
4. Strava
Strava is one of the most popular apps for runners and cyclists, and
it’s not difficult to see why: comprehensive tracking of your routes,
speeds and distances, as well as a pile of social features so you can
test yourself against friends, relatives, or coworkers. The app can even
show you routes that are popular with other users. [Free on
Android and
iOS]
5. Runtastic
The recently revamped Runtastic can cope with all kinds of sports and
fitness activities, with running, jogging, walking and cycling
automatically logged from your smartphone. It’s one of the better
options for letting you log and analyze your performance over a long
period of time, and like Strava there’s a strong community behind the
app, too. [Free on
Android and
iOS]
6. Endomondo
One of the most well-established and best-loved fitness tracking apps
out there, Endomondo again focuses on the three main activity types:
walking, running, and riding your bike. Altitude, speed, duration,
calories, heart rate and more can all be piped into the Endomondo
system, and there’s the option to manually log your workouts. [Free on
Android and
iOS]
7. RunKeeper
Particularly strong on social and history features, RunKeeper
combines a slick and simple interface with automatic monitoring of your
runs, walks and bike rides. A bunch of training plans are included, so
it’s easy to set goals—though sticking to them is up to you. RunKeeper
also syncs neatly with plenty of other apps and services. [Free on
Android and
iOS]
8. Google Fit
Don’t forget that both Google and Apple offer free apps for
monitoring your activity built right into Android and iOS. Google Fit is
the more spartan of the two but it does have some advantages—such as a
web interface. Walking, biking, and running is monitored automatically
and you can add a host of other activity types manually as and when
required. [Free on
Android]
9. Apple Health
Apple Health is certainly a comprehensive tracking app: It’s
difficult to think of anything the integrated iOS app can’t keep tabs on
if you want it to, and it syncs with a bunch of third-party programs
and devices too. It’s perhaps lacking in flexibility and (of course)
cross-platform compatibility, but many iPhone owners won’t need to
install anything else besides this. [Free on
iOS]
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