February is Fitness Month at iMore and Mobile Nations, and that means our whole community is involved -- readers, listeners, viewers, and most of all, forum members. I wrote my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu routine up a couple of days ago, but all week you've been sharing how you use your iPhone and iPad to stay in shape, and the apps and accessories you use along with it. Sure, we sweetened the deal by putting a $100 iTunes gift card up for grabs -- and we'll do it again next week -- but you guys brought serious game.
So what did you tell us?
Our winner, msiry, had this to say:
I use My iPhone to help me stay in shape. Below are the Apps and Accessories I use:
- Lose It: I use this app every single day to help me track how much I eat. Its very useful as I try to keep my carb intake at a minimum of 18% daily. I believe it is free in the AppStore as well, and very simple to use. Just recently it has added an extra bonus for users with the Nike FuelBand, which leads to me my next section.
- Nike+ FuelBand: Best thing to ever happen to me to keep going at the gym, and stay active. It's worn on the wrist, and actually has taken place of my watch. So, each day you set a goal for yourself and how many FuelPoints(its a measurement of how active you are) you think you will achieve. I started out low around 1500 FuelPoints for my first week, but when I was destroying those goals, I decided to up it up 2000 for my second week. I am now consistently at around 3200-3800 after a month of use. To reach my goals, I do what I have to stay active, as I no longer take escalators and take the stairs when available to me. I try to walk everywhere, and my dog loves it, as she gets extra long walk walks now. A friend of mine actually got one as well, and we have a daily competition of who is where, and what they set their goal too for the day, if it's too low, we talk trash to each other about it. Also, the FuelBand keeps track of Calories burned, Steps taken, and has a pretty nice watch on it as well. The one downfall of the FuelBand is the price tag, as it retails around $150 dollars. Luckily, I found a good deal on Ebay and was able to score one for $100 dollars after shipping and handling. Nike has a wide range of products to track your daily activities, so If you're interested, I would visit your local sports store, nike store, or google, and do as much research as possible before getting any product.
- [Nike FuelBand App](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nike?at=10l3Vy&ct=UUimUdUnU17376 -fuelband/id493325070?mt=8&at=10l3Vy&ct=d_im): My FuelBand goes hand in hand with the Nike FuelBand App for the iPhone. It syncs via BlueTooth, and keeps track of all your goals, how far you've traveled that day, how many calories you've burned, and it has fun little animations when reaching certain goals. The App is Free in the App Store.
- Evernote: I use this app to track my workouts, and setup new workouts for myself. I basically follow a Circuit training workout I found online, that I feel has been very beneficial for me, I do that every other day, and the other days are just cardio/core exercises.
Overall these are the 4 main apps I use on a daily basis, and since January 1st, I am currently down 11 pounds to 200lbs, my goal is to be at 175 by May 30th. I am a competitive baseball player, as well as a casual golfer & surfer, and I have been out of shape for way too long. I feel great, I've received many compliments that It shows that I've lost weight, and a lot of my clothes that didn't fit me this time last year, I am now able to wear them, or the're too big on me.
Thanks msiry! We also had great tips from many of the other entrants.
Darthgreg, among other things, bought his analog fitness content with him to iOS:
- AirVideo: The DVD workout system p90x was what really got me started taking fitness seriously. Since I finished it, I've expanded my workout regime quite a bit into other workout videos as well as some self designed stuff. Consistently, however, I want easy access to p90x or another workout video, and since I've ripped them all to a computer, AirVideo gives me access to them no matter where I am or who is using the main tv. AirVideo streams all of my workout movies to my iPhone or iPad whether at home or abroad. I don't always use it, but I can always turn it it if I need it. It is very, very handy.
Daspoo has been using, among other things, the new incarnation of iFitness Pro for recording and storing routine stats
- Full Fitness : Exercise Workout Trainer: The app allows for entry of weight, reps per set, and set counts per exercise, lets you save routines for repeated use, and even allows for backup/restores of data in case something ever happens to your phone; not to mention it shows vids explaining how to perform many exercises. It's a fantastic tool for tracking your steady improvements and also for remembering baselines for starting exercises during workouts. There was drama in the past with the older version of the app (something about the dev creating false 5-star reviews, or something to that effect), but it really is a handy thing to have at the gym when you want to graduate from the notebook of set/reps info. Highly recommended!
Gregory Schneider, among other things, used Zombies 5K to get to the point where he could run a full 5K. But he also used the more general version:
- Zombies, Run!: Zombies 5k helped me get to the point where running more than 100m wasn't a struggle but Zombies Run! keeps me motivated not just on runs, but on walks with my dog too. I still use runtastic in the background as I prefer it's stat tracking over that of zombies run but the story pieces and voice acting in zombies run keep me thoroughly entertained while I'm out and about.
TheBiggMann, who works as a personal trainer, has even incorporated the cloud into his regime:
- Dropbox: This app saves my life on a regular basis. I upload all my clients workouts to my Dropbox because it seems like every week I need a new log or to change something on someone's workout. Having all my files at my fingertips allows me to do just that, all from the comfort of our training studio.
We had a lot of other great posts as well, and a lot of great recommendations, so make sure you check them all out, and if you haven't already, please add yours to the thread!
