10 Features That Define The Best Workout App

There’s no shortage of daily fitness workout apps on the market these days. Each one makes big promises, but how do you know which is best? Here’s a checklist of 10 items we think the best workout apps should do. If your pocket coach doesn’t measure up, maybe it’s time to make the switch?

1.Personalize Your Training Program

Fitness isn’t one-size-fits-all. Each of us starts with differing levels of wellness and mobility, and we each have different goals. The best workout app should let you choose your focus and your preferred level of intensity.

You may want to lose weight, gain strength, increase your flexibility, improve your mental wellness, or all of the above. A daily fitness workout app that understands this, and can meet you where you are, is an asset.

2.Teach You New Things

If you want to gain strength, but you’re not already a weight-lifter, your workout app needs to teach you how. The same goes for building flexibility or high-intensity training. If we could do the same things we’ve always done and be successful, we wouldn’t need the app.

Does your daily workout app cue you on proper form and teach you new things about nutrition? The real gains happen when we learn new things, and incorporate these new habits into daily life.

3.Make Your Workouts More Effective

Your workouts are more effective when you do the movements correctly. A daily workout app that can coach you in real-time and offer cues to improve your form is priceless. It’s like having a personal trainer with you at home.

Efficiency of movement builds confidence and increases one’s sense of self-control and self-worth. With cues from a coach, you can train harder and move quicker. You’ll accomplish more in less time.

4.Keep You Injury-Free

Of course, efficient movement also keeps you safe. Correct alignment in yoga and proper form during your HIIT sessions reduces the risk of injury. When you can’t have a live coach with you, an AI-based personal trainer is the next best thing.

The best fitness apps prevent injury by teaching you proper form, correcting your mistakes, and by personalizing your workouts. Does your daily workout app know how to push you without going overboard?

5.Motivate You to Move Daily

There’s a perfect balance to be struck between motivation that challenges, and challenges that are so hard they de-motivate. The best workout apps understand how to strike this balance. It will offer the style of motivation that works for you.

You may be motivated by numbers, such as steps taken, miles run, time spent in different heart-rate zones, but not everyone is. For some, motivation comes in the form of gamification, positive feedback, or social interaction. Does your fitness app offer the variety you need?

6.Provide You with Data

Data is not only a great motivator but can help you understand what’s working for you best. Tracking the milestones that will help you achieve your goals can show you where your time’s best spent.

A daily fitness workout app that measures both movement and meals will let you see what’s working in your favor. Most importantly, watching your improvement over time creates a positive feedback loop that will keep you on track.

7.Adapt to Your Success

When you do improve, your fitness app should know it and know exactly when it’s time to push you harder. AI programming that learns from you won’t let you plateau and instead will keep you progressing.

Adaptive coaching adjusts your workouts based on your past performance and knows what to recommend next to keep you advancing. Does your daily fitness app just give you random workouts, or is it listening to what’s appropriate for you each day?

8.Offer Nutrition Advice

Moving daily is great, but as the famous saying goes, nobody can out-exercise a bad diet. Nutrition is important. The best daily workout apps understand results come from the triad of exercise, wellbeing, and diet.

The best nutrition plans are personalized for you, just as the best workouts are. The smartest apps understand your goals and where you’re starting from. They provide you with the nutrition plan that best bridges the gap between the two.

9.Provide a Sense of Community

Outside of eating well and moving daily, your mental wellbeing is key to success. The opportunity to join live workouts and groups of like-minded others is not only motivating but directly contributes to results.

If your fitness isn’t fun, you’ll have a hard time sustaining your daily workout plan. Community helps us feel better about ourselves by involving us in motivating others, through collaboration or competition.

10.Be Easy to Use

If your daily fitness app has so far checked the box on each of these must-haves, are the features easy to access and use? Most of us have experience with that one device with thousands of features, none of which we know how to access.

Don’t let your workout app fall into this category. It won’t work for you at all if you don’t use it!

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