Nike Training Club
Nike offers a variety of fitness and health apps, but Training Club is its most enticing. Having this app on your phone is like carrying around your own personal trainer. Nike Training Club has an audio instructor and video demonstrations that ensure you are working out properly and keeping up with the timed circuit. The app includes 85 customizable workouts that vary from strength, core, cardio and interval training. The best part? It’s free.
Charity Miles
What could be more motivating than exercising for a great cause? As you bike, run or walk, you will earn money for the charity of your choice. The breakdown is 10 cents per mile for bikers and 25 cents per mile for walkers and runners. You can earn up to $1 million. Charity Miles is free and a great way to become more involved in a cause or discover a new purpose for exercising. The app encourages you to get your friends involved, so rally your roommates and start a workout group that benefits you and a charity of your choice.
Zombies, Run!
This fitness app may be strange, but it is sure to get you running. Nothing helps keep you motivated like a hoard of bloodthirsty zombies just around the corner. This app is interactive and features the groans and deep breaths of the walking dead, which will make you feel as if they are all around you. As you run, you advance to new levels that feature missions and storylines. For $7.99, workouts not only become appealing but they feel like an adventure.
Yoga In Bed
Yoga is a great way to eliminate stress in your life, but it can be hard to find time to go to yoga class. For $1.99, Yoga In Bed makes yoga accessible for everyone. This app has a yoga alarm clock that wakes you to soothing music and a narrator who encourages you to practice yoga. The poses can be done in bed if getting to a yoga mat is a hassle. There is even a narration of positive affirmations that are surely welcome after a long day of work or school.
Lose It!
This free app allows users to monitor the amount of calories they consume and how many are burned by exercise. Users log their food consumption and the app counts the calories — it even recognizes some brand-name products. Lose It! is ideal for those who are serious about weight loss. If users are willing to diligently add their information, the payoff can be huge.
A version of this article appeared in the Monday, Oct. 1 print edition. Keerthi Harishankar is a contributing writer. Email her at [email protected].