25 Best Health and Fitness Apps You Need In Your Life
Whether you are looking for the best way to lose weight, bulk-up, eat better or simply, keep you motivated, there are a ton of great app options out there. However, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. That's why we have rounded up the 25 best health and fitness apps in every category, so you can focus on smashing your goals!
Running Apps
Strava
Wildly popular among cyclists and runners, Strava is a great choice for both casual runners and pros. It offers in-depth tracking, works with a variety of GPS devices, and tracks all kinds of metrics. It’s also known for its popular segments feature, which shows how you stack up against other runners on the same route. Premium users also get access to a safety option that allows three designated contacts to monitor your location while you’re out running.
MapMyRun
Not sure where to run? Choose from one of more than 70 million routes on MapMyRun, Under Armour’s comprehensive tracker that records distance, pace, elevation, calories burned, and more. It integrates with a variety of major wearable trackers, as well as the My Fitness Pal app, so you can sync your diet and exercise info together for a clearer picture of your health.
Nike Run Club
Engineered specifically for runners, this app goes beyond basic tracking with many motivation and coaching features, such as end-of-run cheers from top athletes, built-in photo sharing that overlays your run stats with a photo from your route, and audio-based workouts from top Nike coaches to help guide you along the way. Plus, the audio-coached runs feature a Spotify integration so you can lay the coach’s cues over your favourite music tracks.
Charity Miles
It sounds too good to be true, but you can earn money for charity simply by running. When you create a profile, you’ll choose a charity you’d like to support. The app tracks your runs, and each mile earns money from Charity Miles’s corporate sponsorship pool. You won’t get a lot of run data, since the app doesn’t save workouts and relies on a pedometer-style tracking method, but you’ll feel extra good about getting that extra run in.
RunBet
RunBet is the perfect app for anyone who needs an extra push to start or stick to a running routine. You bet on yourself to achieve your running goals and if you do, you cash out. You don’t have to run faster or longer than the other players to win, just achieve your goals. Whether you want to start a running habit, lose weight, train for a 5K, or just hold yourself accountable to run more, this app will help keep you motivated.
Available: IOS | ANDROID
Bodybuilding apps
AtletIQ
This app offers a variety of workout exercises depending on your fitness level and activity. The best thing about this app is that it helps you connect to a community of almost 50 thousand people who are working hard to achieve a strong body. This bodybuilding app works as your virtual trainer and comes with more than 600 weight loss and weight gain exercises. It provides guided workout videos and images which are divided into 3 different groups; beginners, advanced and professional.
JEFIT
Jefit is one of the best workout planners and fitness trackers app for bodybuilding. It helps you track your daily activities such as cycling, walking, jogging and running. It offers more than 1,300 exercises in their workout database. This app can be used to monitor your gym workout activities even without a notebook or a pen. The free version of this app provides cross-platform support, training log, exercise database and body stat tracking. Premium subscribers can add better stat reporting, deeper training analytics and advanced workout routines designed by experts.
FITNESS BUDDY
This fitness app is your virtual personal trainer and a nutritionist combined into one. It consists of a pretty comprehensive exercise database with thousands of progressive workout plans and training videos. It’s like a library full of over 2,400 unique exercises which are categorised by the muscle group you want to target. The cool thing about this app is the instructional videos that provide an animation showing you exactly how a workout can be done. This app will also help you become more conscious of what you eat with their personalised meal plans and recipes.
Freeletics
This app is built to help you achieve specific fitness needs with its personalised guided workouts. This app has a “Quick Adapt” feature which means your trainer will be able to generate a new workout routine that adapts to your fitness level. If your focus is on bodybuilding, you can indicate to your ‘trainer’ during the assessment period and it will give you programs that centre more on increasing strength and muscle building.
Fitness Coach FitProSport
This app is designed for bodybuilders looking for an intense workout. It is known for its simple and user-friendly interface. This app doesn’t ask for any personal data and it provides more than 150 effective exercises both for men and women. One of its coolest features is the calendar workout that will help you keep up with your exercise routine.
WORKOUT Apps
Centr
If you’re an avid fan of Chris Hemsworth, this health and fitness app is designed for you. The Centr app comprises three parts: Train, Eat and Live. These three important elements work together to provide users with personalised workout plans, meal ideas, meditations, and insightful podcasts. Each program is completely customisable so you can set your workout to Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced intensity. You can choose to get fit and toned, lose weight, or build muscle. The core feature of this app is the weekly planner that allows users to tick off activities once complete.
FitOn
A Netflix-style fitness app with a wide array of video exercise classes from personal & celebrity trainers. The nice thing about this app is that video workouts come with voice and visual instructions and allow users to turn their smartphone, tablet or laptop into a training guide.
Aaptiv
This audio fitness app provides trailer-led audio workouts with good music playlists. Users can choose from more than 2,500 workouts in various categories like running, elliptical, race training, rowing, strength training, yoga and more. This app adds 30 new classes each week designed for your fitness level. Personal trainers help you perform high-intensity interval training, 5k or 10k training programs and a half or a full marathon.
Personal Fitness Coach
PFC is a pretty decent personal trainer app. It provides more personalised coaching from top trainers. You can choose from PEAR’s set of professional trainers consisting of Olympians and World Champions. This app integrates with many wireless headphones so you can enjoy your workout anytime you want to. If you own an Apple watch, you can get it directly from your gear. You will be able to download your favourite PEAR workout, track distance, calories burned, and heart rate all from your wrist. It gives you the freedom to work out with or without your phone.
Available: IOS | ANDROID
Sworkit Fitness
Wildly popular as one of the top fitness apps, Sworkit has a wide range of almost 100 million workout exercises. Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate or advanced, this app will guide you through each of your workout sessions. It is divided into three categories which are strength, cardio and yoga. This app is ideal for people who are new to the fitness industry and want to supplement their current fitness habits.
WELLNESS APPS
Health Mate
Your total health tracking app. It gives you a complete history of your health data, tracks your activity sleep, heart rate and weight. This amazing tool records multiple pieces of data from different apps like Apple Health, Nike, RunKeeper & MyFitnessPal. One of the unique features of Health Mate is the heart rate tracker that allows you to monitor and improve strength with no extra device required.
Headspace
Headspace is one of the most popular meditation apps today. It has a hundred guided meditation exercises that help users manage stress, sleep anxiety, productivity and overall physical health. If you want to focus on managing your mental health, this app is definitely worth checking. It provides a whopping 40 courses tailored for a specific need.
MyPossibleSelf
This app brands itself as a mental health app that uses clinically proven content. It provides modules with psychological methods and clinically proven research from world-leading mental health experts. This app is designed to help users manage their fear, anxiety, stress and mid-moderate depression. Once you get inside the app, an on-boarding questionnaire will be provided to assess areas of your life you may need some help with. It also uses a mood tracker that identifies people and places that influence your mood.
Sleep Cycle
A good night’s rest is very important for your overall health. Have you thought of having an alarm clock that tracks your sleep trends? Sleep cycle does that. There are three things that you will love about this app. It understands your sleeping pattern with detailed analysis, gently wakes you up whilst you are in light sleep, and no need to put smartphones under your pillow. This app tracks sleep by placing your device on the nightstand or close by on the floor. Premium subscribers can get access to sleep aid, sleep notes and snore trends.
Streaks
One of the best habit tracking apps is Streaks. This app is designed to help users create a good and healthy habit whilst breaking the bad ones. Repetitive tasks or habits (good or bad) will be added to your list, and with each task completed, your streak is extended. Your goal here is to create a streak of consecutive days and avoid breaking the chain. If you’re up for a 30-day habit-challenge, this app is perfect for you.
DIET & NUTRITION APPS
Lifesum
If you need a personalised diet plan, calorie database and a health tracker in one app, Lifesum can be your go-to-application. The main dashboard allows users to choose some healthy recipes and exercise options and add it to a daily diary. You can also track your water intake simply by clicking one of the drinking glass icons. One of its unique features is the assessment test that helps users gauge their health status to achieve a healthier lifestyle.
MyFitnessPal
Another popular nutrition database and diet tracker app is the MyFitnessPal. Once you’ve set up your account, MyFitnessPal will automatically set a diet profile for you with a personalised fitness goal depending on your height, weight, gender and activity level. The food-logging option is very simple allowing users to easily add meals and snacks whilst providing nutritional breakdown using charts and graphs.
PlateJoy
PlateJoy is another free app that delivers a range of healthy meal options and provides nutritious grocery lists tailored to your needs. It gives you a complete assessment of your fitness goals, dietary requirements and creates a personalised meal plan. It has 50 different data points that will let you create an ultra-personalised menu and custom meal plan option. Whether it be gluten-free, paleo diet, vegetarian, or high-protein food, PlateJoy got you covered.
My Macros+
Made by a professional bodybuilder, this app is built for people who are extremely dedicated to living a healthy lifestyle. It provides bodyweight tracking and a database with a massive amount of healthy meal plans. It contains a massive database of more than 5 million food items. It has an option to set your own nutrition goal to make sure you stay on track. One good thing about this app is the content which is stored locally so there’s no need for an internet connection. This is the most sensible way of keeping track of your daily food assumption.
Fooducate
Fooducate does more than just tracking calories. This is the ultimate app that grades foods based on their ingredients and analyses information in the product nutrition panels. This app has a visual scanner that allows you to scan food barcodes right off the shelf. This way you can gather nutritional data and upload it to your library. It features a comprehensive food library, diary and calorie tracker.