Want to lose weight? Monitor your heart rate? Count the number of your steps you walk? Your smartphone helps you do all of these things. With various apps and advances, smartphones remove the guesswork and create fitness tools to help you take your health seriously. Over half of adult smartphone owners use them for medical and health information, according to Who Is Hosting This, which shows that tracking fitness is more than a trend. Now are you curious about what features will put the zing in your next routine? Take a look to see how you can use your smartphone to take your fitness to the next level.
Run Trackers
Are you unsure about the route you are running and how many miles it covers? Are you running in a new destination? Take the guesswork of how many miles you run and at what pace with apps designed to track your route. The \”Map My Run\” app tracks your route with your phone\’s internal GPS and calculates how much mileage you are logging. It also pulls up previous routes you\’ve run and keeps a history of your time and pace. It eliminates the need of driving your car in a new neighborhood to determine how far it is from point A to B. Other run tracking apps like RunKeeper, Strava and Nike+ offer similar features with additional bells and whistles.
Step Counters
According to Mobi Health News smartphone apps count steps more accurately than other pieces of wearable tech. This means you don\’t need to buy additional gear when apps like Fitbit, Withings and Moves count your steps for you. Plus, you are more likely to forget a wearable device when you\’re running out the door than your smartphone, making it much more convenient. These apps also enable you to log your steps, workouts and meals, so you can monitor your entire fitness plan and see where you need to make adjustments.
Health Plans
A Nielsen study reports that health and fitness apps are incredibly popular with consumers. For example, \”My Fitness Pal\” has 8.7 million users. This app tracks how much you exercise, how many calories you have eaten and what the nutritional value of your food is. Another great example is \”Apple Health,\” which is a built-in feature on the iPhone 6. This app monitors your steps, walking and running distance, and flights of stairs you climb each day. In addition, it displays your name, known allergies, emergency contact information and blood type even when your screen is locked. This new feature helps first responders know critical information in case of an accident or unexpected medical situation.
Meditation Apps
Meditation is an important part of overall wellness. With your smartphone, you can meditate anywhere you go, meaning you no longer need to go to a yoga studio or break your routine when traveling. Apps like \”Calm\” enable you to set a preset time to meditate with the sounds of the ocean, birds or white noise whenever and wherever you choose.
