5 Useful Smartphone Apps to Improve Wellness
Technology has turned people into sedentary creatures and led them to make bad and unhealthy choices day in and day out. And because of this, an increasing interest in healthcare boomed and the subject was turned into an important matter for many people across the globe. Families suddenly started to spend a fraction of their earnings on health plans. Select groups all of a sudden embarked on devoting their time in educating people to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Companies and corporations have now made it a point to encourage employees to take care of health.
As such, fitness and wellness applications that aim to engage users have also become increasingly popular among health aficionados. After all, people nowadays are smartphone-obsessed and they’d pretty much take every chance they get to improve wellness while maximizing mobility.
Take a look at these five smartphone apps that can be of great help when you want to stay fit and healthy:
Endomondo
The Endomondo Sports Tracker app is one of the most downloaded fitness and wellness apps out there. Basically, it records data from almost any type of physical activity and provides useful info like the number of calories burned and the recommended level of rehydration you should get after exercise. What makes it stand out from other apps is that it incorporates a social networking aspect for users to be able to connect with like-minded individuals. This allows them to compete and participate in challenges, exchange real-time messages, and the like with fellow users. The app is reportedly being used by companies like Harley Davidson, Kimberly-Clark, and The Coca-Cola Company so perhaps it’s ideal for employees of any sized business who need to stay fit.
Nexercise
People who are too lazy to exercise will greatly benefit from this app designed to reward users or give incentives to those who are diligent enough to break a sweat. Nexercise promises to inspire users by giving them free stuff in exchange for doing specified physical activity. For example, exercising for a minimum of 15 minutes with the app open on your phone gives you points that you can accrue to get discounts on chewy exercise bars. It sort of turns the usually boring process of exercising into a more fun and purposeful activity, pretty much like a game – complete with a prizing platform.
Digifit
This app specially made for the iPhone gives you hardcore stats about your workouts and then helps you make sense of the data you got. The Digifit iCardio Multi-Sport Heart Rate Monitor Training, or Digifit for short, allows you to track your runs, bike rides, and other workouts when your phone’s basic GPS and accelerometer functions are not up to snuff. At the end of your activities, information such as distance, time, and pace are provided so that you’ll get a clue about your progress or accomplishments. What’s amazing about this app is that you can even connect it to a heart rate sensor to get more in-depth info. Be prepared, however, to shell out a few more bucks for the add-ons that will make all these interesting components work.
MyFitnessPal
MyFitnessPal is basically a calorie counter and exercise tracker for iOS users. Its foremost function is to help you figure out how many calories you’ve been taking in and using up (burning). It has a diary-like function that lets you log everything you eat and drink, together with all the exercises you complete. Although it’s quite extensive like most popular fitness apps, it wouldn’t work correctly if you don’t input a lot of info about yourself including your age, height, gender, weight, and general level of activity. For the “activity” part, the app provides you with several options and helps you point out to a specific one. For instance, someone who’s in a RingCentral virtual office setup should select the “sedentary” option, basically because such a setup is akin to having a desk job that doesn’t require a lot of strenuous movements.
Medscape
Ever stumbled upon that popular site called WebMD that turned the world of pharmaceuticals into a less confusing, less convoluted place? It’s also available to phones now through the Medscape app. As of this writing, it’s being used by over two million users, composed mostly of physicians, medical students, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. Medscape primarily takes you to an enormous database of drug information including brand names and generic versions of these medical products. This app can also be valuable to those who need to check the medications they’re taking but don’t have extensive knowledge or resources to do so.
If you want to stay fit or become fit, take advantage of these widely available smartphone applications. Who knows, you might get the six-pack abs you’ve been fantasizing about using these tools.
Tags: Apps, fitness apps, health, lifestyle, Mobile, tech, wellness