Deja Goode
Staff Writer
While social distancing and shelter-in-place orders have kept us indoors, those of us who work out regularly have had to adapt.
Thankfully there are numerous free fitness apps, from intense cardio to laid back nighttime yoga.
After breaking a sweat with a number of them, I created a list of six of the best I could find – based on effectiveness, challenge, and overall experience.
Daily Yoga is the perfect app for people with no experience with yoga. The app has a seven-day program that teaches the basic stretches for strength, spinal flow, flexibility, neck pain and balance. The difficulty gradually increases as the week goes by. The workouts are no longer than 15 minutes, left me feeling energized and encouraged me to be productive. The guide was easy to follow, talking throughout the duration of the workout, and helped me monitor my breathing while explaining the motions of the exercise and what it was supposed to be targeting. As someone who has a very busy schedule and hardly finds time to workout, this app is perfect.
Yoga for Beginners by Fast Builder Limited is another strong contender for beginners because it has more to work with. The levels of difficulty range from beginner, to intermediate, and advanced. These 15 minute workouts pushed my limits in the best way because I was able to target my core and burn fat without feeling tired. The core workouts were the best because they were the perfect difficulty based on each level.
For quick workouts when I had a burst of energy, 7M Workout was the app of choice. Each workout is seven minutes and burns 26 calories. My favorite workout was the seven minute abs workout because I convinced my brother and sister to do it with me. The coaches in the app’s pre-recorded videos were extremely comedic and motivating. The fun atmosphere created made it easy to continue and complete the high intensity workouts. For people who haven’t been very active during quarantine, it gave the motivation to want to work out everyday.
GetFit is an app that relies on consistency to see real results. This app is programmed to send daily notifications to remind me to get up and do my scheduled workout. This programming works in bursts and will do a series of random workouts based on what you want to change. For instance, I set the programming to work on my stomach and my back, and in 30 minutes I did exercises that targeted these specific things based on my preference. This app focuses more on intermediate fitness and is a lot easier to follow if one already has prior workout experience.
Down Dog is the perfect yoga app, running in sequences that are easy to follow such as basic yoga, core yoga, and fat burning yoga. Before engaging in the workout, the app let me set preferences for the duration of my workout, the intensity and whether I wanted music during it. The personalization made the workout a lot better because it went at my pace and was further enhanced with music and perfect descriptions of the poses and how I should be breathing while doing them. I placed the settings at beginner level for 30 minutes and I was able to learn some of the advanced yoga poses such as the lotus pose that tested my flexibility and the side reclining leg lift. It instantly became one of the best workouts I have done in a long time.
If you’re like me, focused on weight loss when it comes to any workout routine, and impatient to see results, OrganicFit creates a body specific program based on your height, weight, and fitness goals in minutes. The daily workouts do not exceed 10 minutes, but are very high in intensity to assure results as long as the commitment is there. It also tracks weight loss for you. After inputting my weight and my target weight goal, it set milestones to track my progress and goes by the pace that I choose. The app is fun to use and creates an exciting experience for my fitness journey. Out of all of the fitness apps I tried, this was my favorite one to use.
Similar to OrganicFit is 30 Day Workout Challenge. This app motivates by setting the ultimate goal which is working out consistently for 30 days. The types of workouts included are arms, legs, butt, abs, or all of the above with a full body workout. For experience, I completed the full body workout which had exercises for abs, upper body, legs, back, and my core. By the time I was done, I was dripping in sweat. The intensity was moderate, but a lot of fun to complete. I felt accomplished and impressed because it made me tired. My personal goal is to complete the full 30 day workout plan to say I achieved something during this quarantine.
All of these apps can be found at the app stores for iPhone and Android users, and have special free deals going on due to the limitations brought by COVID-19.
Deja Goode can be reached at deja.goode@laverne.edu.
