Alice Mungyu ’19Assistant Features Editor
Summer is fast approaching and you know what that means — it’s time for the beach! Staying in shape this past semester was probably not your top priority, but one of the biggest keys to success is starting early! We all have excuses — “I don’t have time for the gym,” “how am I supposed to eat healthy when all the dining hall serves is garlic bread and unlimited ice cream,” or “I can’t afford fitness gadgets” — but you actually don’t need something super expensive like the Apple Watch or a FitBit in order to get into shape. Fitness apps are ideal assistants for health and weight-loss resolutions because they are almost always with you, and most importantly, some of them are free! There are a number of health and fitness apps on the market, but here are some of the best mobile apps to help inspire your workouts and motivate you to eat healthily.
MyFitnessPal: There are plenty of apps available to track your diet, but my personal favorite is MyFitnessPal. This free app counts your calorie intake and tallies up the calories you expend every day. Along with helping you become more aware of your eating habits, it also tracks how much exercise it takes to burn off the food you eat. MyFitnessPal has a large database of food items that have been added to by its users over the years and works on a variety of cuisines. So whether you’re dining at Outback Steakhouse or Chipotle, there is a good chance that MyFitness has the food listed. The app even comes with a barcode scanner, so if you’re too lazy to type, this will do the trick.
Blogilates: With three million subscribers on YouTube, Cassey is the one of the most popular certified fitness instructors online and offline. Now, with her app Blogilates, you can take her videos anywhere you go, cook healthy Blogilates recipes, talk to other POPsters in the forum, and follow the monthly workout calendar with ease. What I really like about the Blogilates app is that there’s a strong community of people connecting and sharing their fitness journeys. Along with the support, if you pay 99 cents a month, you will get calendars with planned workouts for the day as well as an exclusive Secret Video each month. Blogilates is the perfect choice to help you stay fit, improve overall performance and provide motivation at the same time.
7 Minutes: This app is especially helpful for busy college students who don’t have much time to workout, but still want to incorporate some sort of exercise in their daily rituals. In just seven minutes, you will be taken through twelve high-intensity bodyweight exercises. Each exercise is 30 seconds so this is great for those who get bored easily. Although it’s a seven-minute exercise, you can also adjust the length of your intervals, create a customized cycle and add alerts so it can tell you when you’ve completed an interval.
Whether you are just starting or are a pro in the market for new fitness apps, these programs are the perfect way to help jumpstart your fitness goals.
