Sports, a must for some, a necessary evil for others. Yet it is well known that it is good for you to exercise regularly. Your smartphone can help you with this. We do not discuss specific apps, but we do give you useful tips so that you can use your smartphone and associated apps more efficiently when exercising.
01 Put goals in Android
Whether you have an iPhone or an Android device, both systems have a health app as standard. In Android this is called Google Fit, it not only measures your steps, but also shows how many minutes of movement and heart points you have achieved per day. You get heart points as soon as you run a little faster, double heart points you get when you run or do some other intensive activity. You can adjust what your goals are and force yourself to walk a little further, cycle or do a different form of exercise every day.
02 Targets with the Apple Watch
On the iPhone you will find the Health app, here you can see many things. See how far you have walked or run which day. If you have an Apple Watch on your wrist, you can also see how high your heart rate is or when you experience too much stress. You can also set movement goals from the Activity app with the Apple Watch. You can then see on your smartwatch or in the app on your iPhone whether you are achieving your goals that day. Of course you keep track of your workouts on the Apple Watch and you can view your complete activity history there.
03 Mindful with Google Fit
Maybe you don’t always use your smartphone or, for example, you want to be able to import your mindfulness sessions into Google Fit. Then see if the app you use for your workout or session supports Google Fit. If this is the case, go to the settings in the app. For example, in Headspace you go to your profile to link the app to Google Fit, after which you can also view the Headspace sessions in the Fit app on your Android smartphone. iOS apps often offer the same functionality in terms of synchronization with the Health app.
04 Cycling with your smartphone
You can also use your smartphone to keep track of your cycling activity. If you want to know more than how fast you go and how many kilometers you have traveled, you can apply a so-called power meter to your pedals. This communicates via bluetooth with your smartphone to provide you data about your cadence, your acceleration and speed directly on your smartphone. Power meters come in different price categories, but for a professional power meter you can quickly put down a few hundred euros.
05 Buy a bicycle holder
If you keep track of your cycling performance with your smartphone, you obviously do not want it to get wet if your smartphone is not waterproof. You can of course just put the smartphone in your jacket pocket, but it is smarter to buy a bicycle holder, so that you can also see all the relevant information during your ride. Please note that some bicycle holders are only suitable for certain types of smartphones. And make sure that it is completely waterproof, the holder has a value of IPX6, which means that you can also use your smartphone in a heavy rain shower.
06 Watch your calories
You can use your smartphone not only during exercise, but also if you want to pay more attention to your diet. MyFitnessPal’s Calorie Counter app is one of the most useful. You specify every food that you consume in the app. This can of course be done manually, but also via the camera by scanning the barcode of the product. The database has millions of items and knows the number of calories of all products. At the end of the day you can see exactly what you have consumed in calories. The app is available for Android and iOS, in the App Store it is just called MyFitnessPal.
07 Exercise with music
Are you also such a type who can only run or exercise with music? Then invest in a set of good earplugs. Of course it is smart to buy wireless headphones, because then there is no cable in the way during exercise. The standard earbuds that come with your smartphone probably aren’t that useful, you better have special earbuds that you can hang over your ear with a bracket. Make sure that the earplugs are water resistant and that they do not fall out during intensive movement.
08 Hide your smartphone
If you take the necessary attributes with you when you exercise, you will soon end up with a lightweight backpack. However, there are also handy straps that you can tie around your pants and where you can put your smartphone, wallet, keys and ID card. You put everything behind the gauze of the belt and then turn the belt over so that the inside is on the outside. The FlipBelt costs a few tens and can accommodate many things.
09 Yoga on your TV
If you practice yoga or fitness with the help of an app, you will know how difficult it is sometimes to be able to follow everything properly on that small screen. Many smart televisions today have Chromecast functionality built in. If your TV does not have this, you can buy a Chromecast for a few tens. You can easily stream the content of the app to your television from your Android smartphone. You can also stream to an Chromecast from an iPhone with the Google Home app. Of course you can also stream content from an iPhone to an Apple TV.
10 From 0 to 10
Do you want to get fitter, but don’t know how? Then consider a special training program for a 5- or 10-kilometer run. There are a lot of running apps that offer a program, but the app 10K Trainer from C25K (Couch to 10K Running Trainer, Android) is one of the most useful. In fourteen weeks you will be prepared to run the full ten kilometers. A version is also available to prepare you for a five-kilometer run, which takes eight weeks to complete.
11 Viewing notifications
If you are not a sporty person by nature, it can be difficult to stick to a sports schedule. It can then be essential to turn on the notifications from a sports app. Some apps, such as Seven – 7 Minute Workout, notify you at a set time every day that you need to take action. It works like a snooze function of your alarm clock: as long as you don’t open the app, the app will remind you of your workout. You can choose at what time you want to receive the notification, choose a time that suits your rhythm and at which the chances are the least likely to push you away.
12 Using the social component
Peer pressure works, especially with sports. That is why it is smart not to enter a new training regime alone. Almost all sports and exercise apps have a social component where you can invite friends to follow the same program or share your results on social networks. In Adidas Running (formerly Runtastic) you can even create run groups by tapping your profile and signing up friends. You can also join local race groups in the city where you are and compete with others in your city.
13 Track weight
Did you know that you can also track your weight in Google Fit? You do this by simply entering your weight manually every week. In a table you see the progress of your weight during the year and can compare this with the activities that Google Fit has registered. This way you can find out whether your efforts actually translate to a lower weight. You can also register your heart rate in the app, but you need a suitable accessory for this, such as a smartwatch or a heart rate monitor.
14 Analyzing sleep
Part of a healthy lifestyle is also that you sleep well. If you have a smartwatch or motion tracker connected to your smartphone, you can register your sleep at night. In combination with your heart rate, the app on your mobile knows what sleep phase you are in. You do not need a separate app for both iOS and Android, it is standard built-in in the apps Health and Google Fit. In the app, you have to pair your tracker or smartwatch with the settings, so that all data can be synced with your smartphone.
15 Take a break!
Do you often spend a whole day at your desk? Then you benefit from an app that lets you know every now and then that you have to do something else. This technique is called Pomodoro and there are some good apps that offer a variant of this system, known options PomoDoneApp and Focus To-Do. By default, the app sets a timer of 25 minutes, you start the timer as soon as you start working. After 25 minutes, the timer goes off and you need to take a five-minute break, then the next 25 minutes automatically start.
