If you feel like going to a gym is an unsafe risk during the pandemic or if you are too self-conscious to begin a health journey in front of other people, there are many workout-from-home apps.
FitOn, a social media/health hybrid app, may offer enough incentive for you to start.
When you open FitOn for the first time and create an account, it asks you to fill out your age, height, weight and gender.
Then you are asked to choose your main goal—ranging from being more active, losing weight, building muscle, reducing stress and staying toned. There are also options for prenatal and postnatal fitness. Choosing “Lose Weight” will prompt you to input your goal weight.
It will ask you to choose how many days a week you prefer to work out, how many minutes and how many weeks you want your first workout plan to be, from one-to-three months or ongoing. Your goals can be changed in the settings, but will reset your current plan progress.
Your workout program is presented in an easy to follow scroll down timeline and there’s a progress tracker on the top. Videos are broken down by each week and one video represents your workout for the day. You can choose which one you want to do as long as you stick to the current week.
Most of the workouts require only your body, but there are some that allow the use of free weights and resistance bands. Each video has the option to use subtitles. At the end of each workout, you can upload a post workout selfie to share your journey.
The bubbly personalities of the instructors are too distracting if you are the type who simply wants to see the exercises and then execute them, or if you are a nihilist.
The best part of the app is blocked by a paywall, the nutrition and meal plans. While you are able to see what you should eat each day, tapping on any recipe prompts for a payment. If dieting is your biggest struggle with being healthy, the meal plans are worth more than the price of admission.
Under the ‘Advice’ tab at the bottom of the screen, you will find fitness, wellness and nutrition articles to help guide you, such as “How Many Meals Should You Really Eat Per Day?” and “How To Set Fitness Goals That Stick.” The information in all of the articles can be useful and will help motivate you.
But what is possibly the biggest motivation tool is the social aspect of the app. You can add friends like you would on Facebook and share photos, status updates and your workout progress.
The ability to enjoy –or suffer, depending on your outlook– exercising together with friends will help keep you on your health and fitness journey.
The personalized workout plans and articles are free, but for a $99.99 yearly fee you will also access the ability to cast your workout to your TV, a nutrition and meal plan and the ability to use the app offline.
FitOn is available for download on Android and iOS devices.
