This semester marked OUR Wellness’ first Activity Challenge.Together we racked up:
Just because the challenge is over doesn’t mean our fit lifestyle has to take a backseat. In fact, technology makes it easier than ever to track our nutrition and exercise, connect with others on a fitness journey, keep us and each other accountable, and set goals (and then crush them!). OUR Wellness interns did a little “beta testing” of some popular apps that you probably already have (or can download pretty easily) on your smartphone.
Here are their reviews:
Samsung Health App
by Danny Gatica
The Samsung health app is great for all different health/fitness level users. It’s a good app to track your steps, heart rate and stress level, as well as your water and caffeine intake. This will help keep you motivated if used correctly because you are able to look at your running chart to see if you have been progressing or slacking off. What’s very interesting about this app is that it has 10 different levels of walking/running coaches that talk to you during your work out to help keep you motivated. It is also linked with your GPS so it can track your distance and pace. Another good thing about this app is that you can add friends and family to compete with or keep an eye on. This app also lets you create challenges and goals for yourself or a group of people. This app doesn’t just track your fitness but it also informs you about ways to stay and eat healthy, as well as gives you information about studies done on health and fitness.
My Fitness Pal
by Nazeli Hovasapian
My Fitness Pal is a great app that helps you with keeping track of your diet and fitness. The app features cool daily articles and blogs on the home page that are related to health and fitness. The app links to your health app on your iPhone and calculates the steps that you take daily. When first joining, the user must input their height, weight, age and weight loss/weight gain goals. The system then makes a plan that lets the user know how many calories they should eat each day to reach those goals. To calculate those calories, we can scan the barcodes of the food we are eating, put in home recipes, or do a “quick add.” We can also add how much water we drink and any exercises we do. This app is a great and accurate way to track your health and fitness journey.
Fitbit App
by Bianca Santiago-Hernandez
The Fitbit company produces activity tracking devices that measure data related to fitness. The device that I am most familiar with is the Fitbit Blaze watch. Along with purchasing the watch I downloaded the compatible Fitbit application on my phone. When first using the app, a series of questions relating to basic, personal statistics are required to properly track a person’s data. The five main goals that the watch keeps track of are displayed on the app’s dashboard. These include: the number of steps walked, the number of steps climbed, minutes active, the distance in miles done in a day, and the number of calories burned. For each of the goals there is a recommended goal, or a personal goal can be customized. For example, the recommended number of steps a day is 10,000 but the user can set a goal of fewer or more steps, according to their lifestyle. The app also tracks heart rate, exercise, and quality of sleep. These goals are tracked by the watch and are synced to the application every time the app is opened, and the phone is connected to Bluetooth. The app also allows the user to manually log and create goals for the intake of water per day, diet, which includes the availability of a scan barcode, and weight management.
The app has a community section where the user can update their daily status and make friends or workout groups based on similar fitness interests. There are challenges, based on data collected through other Fitbit users, that the individual can participate in. There are also solo adventures that can be done as a way of setting a different goal each day. The app also provides a Fitbit coach. These exercises are recommendations of possible workouts. The workouts can be accessed by downloading the second app by the name of Fitbit Coach.
There are six different Fitbit fitness wristbands/watches. The first being the Fitbit Zip and the newest being the Fitbit Ionic. All the devices have the same five basic goals but there are a few improvements from the first watch to the newest watch. If someone is contemplating purchasing a Fitbit device and is unsure of which one to buy, the Fitbit website offers a quiz that helps customers determine which activity tracker is best suited for that person.
MYZONE
by Erin Calderone
MYZONE is the free app that interfaces with your MYZONE heart rate monitor (for sale to staff and faculty at a discount here through OUR Wellness program – get the order form here: www.glendale.edu/wellness under Fitness and Heart Rate Zones). The MYZONE chest strap is more accurate than taking pulse on your wrist or using the sensors on the cardio equipment, and the app gives you real time stats right on your phone including: heart rate (bpm), heart rate zones, calories burned and MYZONE Effort Points. Essentially, this is one of the simplest types of biofeedback; gathering quantifiable data in real-time that can inform your workout. If you see that you’re dipping down into the blue or gray zone you can kick it up a notch, or if you’re doing intervals into the red you know when it’s time to recover. The MYZONE Effort Points, or MEPs are awarded based on the time and intensity of your exercise, and since your heart rate zones are individually calculated for you, it’s a great way to see how hard your workouts are day-to-day. You can earn MEPs to achieve a specific goal – the recommended amount is at least 300/week or 1300/month – and even connect with and challenge your friends on the app. I personally like this app because it adjusts to your individual cardiovascular fitness and will continue to adjust with you as you improve your fitness.
iPhone Health App
by Genesis Urquilla
In today’s world, almost everybody has an electronic device that can download applications from either the “Google Play store” or Apple’s “app store.” Specifically, there are many applications that can help a person keep track of their health movements every day. Although there are many applications to choose from, I will be reviewing “Health,” the application that comes installed with all iPhones.
As soon the app it is opened it tells you your total amount of walking and running distance in miles. Below that it tells you your total number of steps you’ve taken today. If you go back in the calendar, it will tell you how many steps you have taken every day for the past time you’ve had that iPhone. It is an excellent way of keeping track since most people always have their phones on them and it does not require an extra application to be open; therefore, it doesn’t drain battery. It works on its own, and it will sink up to an “iWatch” if users own one.
If needed, the application contains many other features that require users to input their data so that it could help keep track of a healthy movement. It gives you an option to input your body measurements, health record, heart rate, nutrition, and even sleep hours. If users have an “iWatch” it automatically can record your average heart rate and store it in the app. For users that like to keep track of their food intake, there is a part of the app called Nutrition, where you can input your food as well as any vitamin supplements you’ve taken that day.
All in all, “Health” is a very easy and simple application that can be used day to day to keep track of your lifestyle. It contains basic, as well as more complex usage that can be inputted by users. If needed, “Health” can be used as an all-around application for everyday use.
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