Health and Fitness Apps: Help or Hindrance?

By Vivian El-Salawy on May 29, 2016

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), mobile health applications are “medical devices that are mobile apps, meet the definition of a medical device, and are an accessory to a regulated medical device or transform a mobile platform into a regulated medical device.”  These applications often monitor our weight, diets, exercise, blood pressure, heart rate, and sleep quality.  While many of these applications help users strive above and beyond their expectations, many others hinder their health.  Here’s a list of five applications that will either help or hinder a successful summer bod:

Nike+ Training Club

Image via AKQA

Help:  This application is rated a 4.5/5 stars and is currently an “Editor’s Choice”.  It provides guidance through every workout, has an extensive variety of workouts, and most importantly – it is free.  The moves and plyometrics hit a range of different muscle groups and the application is engineered to allow you to control your workout, allowing users to customize and play whichever combination of workouts.  The different workouts include walking lunges, squats, opposite skips, walk outs, hip circles, and even provide periods for recovery.

Hindrance:  While this app is seemingly effective, it is designed for a quick and useful workout at home.  Having said that, this is a great alternative to other forms of exercise outside of those at the gym or perhaps something outdoors.  This can be considered a hindrance if you begin to cut off other forms of exercise and use this as a replacement rather than an accessory to other fitness routines.

Nike+ Running

Image via Nike

Help:  Ranked at a 4.5/5 stars, this application helps users track their runs and reach their goals.  Nike+ Running collects data on total runs, average pace, personal records, and helps users compare their data with other friends and users on a weekly, monthly, and annual basis.  Nike+ Running also synchronizes with both Spotify and iTunes music to help boost your workout potential.  The “Pace Stations” offered by Spotify allow you to steady a custom playlist that is curated to your music taste and target pace to ensure an effective fitness routine.  Boost your motivation and share your run on social media so your closest friends and family can become your fans!  This application also allows you to receive an applause that play into your headphones while you run as a form of positive reinforcement every time your friends on social media like your activity on Nike.

Hindrance:  While this highly motivating and encouraging application allows you to both keep track of your fitness and share your experience with other runners, the comparative nature behind the application does create a competitive environment.  Although a little bit of fun competition does no harm, it does have the potential to stray the user from their own personal limits or recommended fitness routine.  In addition, this application drains battery life and as a result, limits its ability to track long distance runs that last hours.

Lose It!

Image via Apple

Help:  Rated 4/5 stars, this application creates a program that allows users to track their weight, exercise, and nutritional data in order to stay motivated and make smarter choices.  Most importantly, this app synchronizes with both Apple Watches and Fitbits.  This application allows the user to set an appropriate calorie budget, tracks progress in weight gain/loss, track nutritional information, and join a variety of challenges with all kinds of users!  A user is also able to  invite their friends and share progress with them as well.  Perhaps one of the stronger features of this app is the fact that when it allows you to track your consumed food, not only does it provide nutritional information for store bought items, but it provides restaurant foods as well, along with allowing users to add their own food items.  On top of that, it cites the calorie budget, food calories, exercise calories, and net calories towards the top of the log, allowing you to maintain the most crucial aspect to weight loss: greater calorie loss via exercise and lesser calorie intake via food.

Hindrance:  While this application recommends a specific calorie budget, the user is able to customize the calorie budget to their own personal preference, however often times this may be an unhealthy limit (whether too large or too little).  Additionally, the calorie budget tends to shrink with the weight loss at a subliminal rate to where most users often do not notice.  The biggest problem with applications that calorie-count is that the users tend to overlook the fact that the weight loss and motivation comes from internal mentality and not this piece of technology.  This technology serves the purpose of tracking progress that then intrinsically motivates the user rather than guiding them through the process.

7 Minute Workout

Image via Wahoo Fitness

Help:  Wahoo Fitness developed this 4.5/5 star application in order to provide users with their own personal trainer to lose weight and get fit fast with simple daily workouts.  The 7 Minute Workout is composed of twelve high intensity body-weight exercises that are thirty seconds each and allow ten seconds of rest between each exercise.  It also provides a brief notification of the approaching exercise to allow the user to prepare for what they need to do next between jumping jacks, wall sits, push-ups, crunches, step-ups, planks, and so on.  This is a great routine for those who do not have any fitness equipment or access to a gym.

Hindrance:  In order to truly be effective, studies show that this workout routine must be repeated in at least two to three sets – so in actuality it may be a twenty-one minute workout.  Similarly to other fitness applications, this may prevent users from using the gym or attending fitness classes.  Once again, this must be used as an accessory to an individual’s workout and should not necessarily be used as a replacement.

Daily Yoga

Image via Trend Hunter

Help:  Wowza – this application ranks a whopping 5/5 stars on their current upgraded version.  Daily Yoga is the most advanced mobile yoga studio worldwide, providing 50+ HD unique yoga and meditation exercises and the largest database of 500 yoga poses.  This application allows users to start their program on a specific day or skip days to better arrange their practice and track their progress as well.  The application also provides different plans by various professional instructors including but not limited to the following: “5×5 Abs Training Plan”, “10-Day Beginner Tour”, and “Slim Chance with Hatha”.  This caters well to users of any to no level of experience in yoga and creates a comfortable, yet effective mobile environment.

Hindrance:  There are honestly no pounding cons to this application, as it motivates and encourages users to create a healthy lifestyle both physically and mentally.

All in all, it is important for users to realize that it is not these applications that drive success, but rather the mentality and strength of the users themselves.  These applications are simply mobile tools and devices to help users reach their goals, however at times can distract them from reaching their fullest potential.  Each individual has their own personal, suitable lifestyle and it is important for them to fulfill their optimal health goals in whichever manner is most comfortable for them.

 

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Get Top Stories Delivered Weekly

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format