For some time now, we practically cannot live without our mobile. It is the essential companion that accompanies us everywhere and at all times, at home, at work, resting … or playing sports . Thanks to the great technological advancement of mobile telephony in recent years (the rise of smartphones ), together with the GPS service that they have incorporated, mobile applications that allow us to monitor our physical activity are currently very fashionable .
Our smartphone has become the best tool to quantify our daily exercise. Thanks to some very complete sports applications that we will now discuss, we can easily know our heart rate, the kilometers we have run, the calories we have burned in the gym, etc. Playing sports is fashionable; We must take advantage of the fact that, today, our mobile devices allow us to monitor our progress.
We are going to review 3 of the best applications available.
Runtastic
It is the most popular, the one with the most users. It is in Spanish and is especially useful for those who practice running , that is, who go out for a run. It has already, according to sources from the company itself, over 8 million downloads . With Runtastic we can see our progress (time, speed, distance, pace, calories burned …), in addition to reviewing the route we have made on the map with the data obtained by GPS. The mobile application is available for both Android and iOS .
Once downloaded to our terminal, we find three different screens: the Main , the History of our departures and the Map of our location . In the Main we can indicate which fields we want to see during our exercise (heart rate, altitude, calories …), what sport we will practice and what type of training we will do (basic, by objective, on a specific route …). In the History we will see all our training already carried out, with their respective information and complementary statistics, while in the Map we will be able to see our geographical situation.
Runtastic offers voice feedback during training, that is, a real-time monitoring where the program itself will give us indications about our exercise.
As we have mentioned, Runtastic is ideal for people who run, but there are also other applications from the same brand focused on other sports. Above all, the two geared for cyclists stand out , both those specialized in road ( Runtastic Road Bike , on Android and iOS ), and those in the mountains ( Runtastic Mountain Bike , also on Android and iOS ).
Sports Tracker
It is another of the reference applications, both on Android and iOS , to regularly monitor our exercises and progress, and is in Spanish. The first thing to do in Sports Tracker is to choose the sport, since it offers a wide range: running , cycling, skating, mountaineering … The application will record our exercise and allow us to consult all the training data (times, distance, calories, etc.), through tables and graphs, in addition to being able to see the route we have taken on the map.
In the submenu called Explore we will be able to access all the routes, the photos we take during the sports routine (and share them on social networks), and the sessions we have taken near the current location. In addition, we will be able to see the routes that other people have done near where we are, in order to discover new ways to train.
Like Runtastic, it has an audio trainer that gives you indications of the exercise and all kinds of adjustments. One of the most outstanding is the one that allows you to keep the screen on during activity, very useful for sports such as cycling, in which we can follow the route with the mobile phone built into the handlebar. Of course, the battery cost will be considerable.
Endomondo
It has a lot of circulation in our country, but also throughout the world. Endomondo is one of the most famous applications, and also one of the first to appear to record our physical activity, both on Android and iOS . The range of sports that it contemplates is very extensive, since we will be able to choose between more than 50 different activities .
On the main Endomondo page we can start the activity and see the usual indicators to record and assess our exercises. We can customize the different fields and see our route and our current situation on the map. The application has other sections, such as News , History and Friends where, apart from ours, we can see the activities and progress of our friends and make comments.
Endomondo has several services for its users, such as Auto-Pause , so that the activity stops when we stop, or the Audio Trainer , a voice that informs us of how we are doing. In addition, for a few months the application has been available for tablets, releasing on this type of device a new main screen that shows us a calendar and a list with the latest news about us and our friends.
The 3 applications mentioned also have their own web page. Both on the Runtastic website , on the Sports Tracker website and on the Endomondo website, we can access a copy of all our workouts, with detailed maps and multiple data and graphs to analyze our exercises, as well as friend workouts and their corresponding profiles .
In short, many options to choose from, but all with a common denominator and a clear objective: to help us stay in shape and encourage ourselves to play sports, which is very beneficial for our health.
