Kindred Gifts' Blog

By Pete Bennett (who is longing for a trip to the snow!)

I hate February! It's always soooo hot and humid. In my opinion, the best place to be in February is snowboarding somewhere in America, Canada or Europe. I'm not fussy where!

It's hard to keep up the popular New Year's resolution of getting fit through February too. The excitement, enthusiasm and motivation has deteriorated significantly by now and the weather makes it harder to keep going.

So, here's my tip. Make sure that the time you spend exercising is effective enough so you don't need to put up with the heat, the thirst and the sweat any more than you have to. I have compiled a list below of apps for your iPhone (and some are available on other devices) to get you through February and keep you motivated. Give one or two a go, they work well for me.

1. Measure your heart rate and stay within your correct training zone with the instant heart rate app for iphone 4.

2. Cyclemeter uses the GPS in your phone to calculate speed, distance, average speed and set your course(s). It is also a stopwatch and records each session to see how much you are improving by each time you use it. Not just for cycling but can also be used for just about anything; walking, jogging, kayaking, swimming etc.

3. Don't forget, you won't get too far towards your goal without balancing your workouts. Avoid injury by pounding the pavement one day and work on another core component of fitness - flexibility the next with this great  Yoga App. Poses for the beginner, intermediate or advanced user and lots of screen shots and video (via internet) to instruct you on how to achieve each pose and understand why you are doing it. Awesome to take with you travelling and only $2.49AUD, it would perfectly compliment these.

4. I haven't used this app myself as I've always been a bit of a runner and I don't listen to music whilst running but this looks like a good app to get you on your way to being a runner. It's called Couch to 5K and is designed around a 3 day per week training program of 30-40 minute duration over 9 weeks. Essentially, it incrementally builds you up to running 5k by  mixing up how much running and walking you do within each session. Lots of other nice features in this app.  

5. Bootcamp will get you looking good in no time. It's from the same developer as the Couch to 5k app and looks and works in a similar fashion. This could replace your personal trainer if you don't need someone yelling at you to do more push ups and ab crunches! Both are very good apps to have.

Good luck! I'd love to know any of your experiences good or bad of any of these suggested apps. Maybe you might have come across a better one? Let me know.

Cheers,

Pete