Your phone can help you lead a healthier, happier life. You just need to know the right apps to download. Whether you’re trying to mix up your workout routine, fit more steps into your day, or make time for a seven-minute morning workout in your living room, mobile phone fitness apps can help.
Before you fall down the rabbit hole that is the app store, check out our list of favorite fitness apps, which all happen to be free!
1. Couch to 5K – If you’ve always wanted to try running but didn’t known where to start, this is the app for you. The free eight-week program gives users three workouts per week, which will get you ready for your local Turkey Trot or Fourth of July road race.
2. Sworkit – Tell Sworkit the type of workout you’re looking for (strength, cardio, yoga, or stretching) and the amount of time you’ve got (anywhere from five minutes to an hour), and the app delivers the moves to follow during your sweat session.
3. Yonder – This is the perfect app for the outdoor enthusiast. Enter your location and find dozens of suggestions for hiking, biking, kayaking, and skiing with reviews and tips from fellow outdoorsmen and women.
4. Nike+ Training – Sometimes, we all need a fitness pro in the palm of our hands to push us through those tough workouts, and this app is the perfect motivator. It will help guide you through beginner, intermediate and advanced exercises focusing on drills such as HIIT, yoga and Pilates, with workouts designed by professional trainers and athletes, customizable fitness programs, and sharing capabilities to compare your progress with others.
5. Endomondo – Cardio can quickly get boring and repetitive. That’s why this app is so great. Set a goal for your run, walk, or bike ride, and the app’s virtual trainer lets you know if you’re on track to meet it or if you need to speed up. It’s great to compete against yourself (and your goals), but it’s even better when you can use the app to challenge or cheer on friends.
6. Freeletics – Looking for bodyweight workouts? Freeletics has more than 900 that last anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. Whether you choose to workout in the kitchen, in a park, or in your office, you can rely on this app to deliver a great workout for your fitness level.
7. Daily Yoga – Change up your yoga routine with more than 50 classes shot in HD video. Each sequence has a specific focus from increasing flexibility to strengthening your core. Plus, there’s a library with detailed videos of more than 500 poses.
8. Charity Miles – This app lets you earn money for causes you believe in simply by tracking your bikes, walks or runs. Each mile you complete will be even more rewarding because you’ll know you’re helping support organizations that are making the world a better place.
9. Fitbit – Wearable devices like Fitbits provide immediate feedback, making us more aware of our fitness activity and motivating us to achieve our fitness goals. The Fitbit app is primarily designed to work with the Fitbit wearable activity tracker, but it’s also turned into a solid standalone fitness tracker app. In addition to syncing with Fitbit’s line of exercise trackers, the app can also use your smartphone’s sensors as a pedometer to record your daily steps, and you can use GPS to track walking and running routes.
10. Seven – This app challenges you to seven minutes of fitness a day for seven months using no more than a chair, wall and your own body weight. The app guides you through the workouts with illustrations, visual timers, spoken instructions and feedback to let you know when to switch between exercise and rest, plus you’ll be able to track your progress on graphs and calendars, as well as earn rewards and unlock achievements.
11. Strava – This app can track distance, speed, elevation, calories burned, heart rate, power and cadence. But if you want to map and time your runs or your cycling and would also like to add a competitive element, you can compete with other users around the world.
12. Fitnet – Featuring an abundance of five- and seven-minute targeted workouts this is the workout app for people who can’t carve out time to go to the gym. Plus, the app uses your phone’s camera for a whole new kind of selfie – this one measures how closely you follow the moves shown on the screen.
13. Zombies, Run! – That’s right… the zombie craze has even reached the fitness arena. Running becomes way more fun when each step gets you closer to carrying out your mission, collecting materials for your base camp, and keeping humans safe from the zombie apocalypse. Walk, run or jog, while you hear your mission and music through your headphones. If you’re chased by zombies, you have to speed up and you’ll automatically collect supplies to build up your base.
14. Spotify Running – Spotify Running – part of the Spotify app (and let’s be honest, you probably already have that on your phone) – measures your pace and picks a song with the beats per minute to match it. It’s about time your music matches your stride instead of the other way around.
15. Blogilates – Certified fitness trainer Cassey Ho is peppy, perky and colorful, which keeps this workout experience fun! She’s always chatting, which helps when you need a little extra motivation. Plus, her monthly calendars tell you when to do different activities, which makes sticking to a workout program easy.
