Tag: Workout »

Many of us live in increasingly busy times that mean we don't always have as much free time as we'd like, especially when it comes to finding that spare hour in the day to exercise. Dog owners also need to find the time to take care of their beloved pooch and ensure they're well cared for and well trained. Why am I reminding you of all these responsibilities? Because, fortunately, there's an app that combines the two!

It's called Thank Dog! and it comes from the people behind Thank Dog! Bootcamp, an exercise bootcamp that also ensures your dog is well trained.

The bootcamp routine is the brainchild of Jill and Jamie Bowers. Jill Bowers explained it better than us when we asked her how it all came about: "I’ve been a dog trainer for 11 years and during that time, I became 40 pounds overweight. I have a Doberman who loves to exercise and when I decided to finally lose the weight, I joined a bootcamp. I got so into the bootcamp style workout, got trained for a fitness dvd due to my success story of losing 40 pounds. My poor pup didn’t get the exercise she needed (she got a little hefty after a while too, ha!) because my dedication to my own fitness regime made me too tired. So, long story short, I needed to change that and created the nation’s first obedience and fitness bootcamp for dogs and owners."

The bootcamp has been a great success with Jill taking personal training certification and working with a bootcamp instructor to ensure the class was perfect for both dog and owner alike. As Jill knows, "dogs learn faster with repetition and consistency" as well as while having fun so classes were "made up of 10 min intervals and it’s a total of 30 minutes of cardio and 30 min of strength training". Jill's own dog, Quinn, is now "the most exercised dog on the planet", thanks to this, as you can see from the photo.

The next logical step after setting up the bootcamp was to create an app in the form of Thank Dog! Mobile.

Currently available for free, with additional content unlockable for $2.99, the app combines cardio training, strength training and the all important dog training. It's all exactly how things would be if you attended the Thank Dog! urban bootcamp.

Users are taught through 20 1 hour routines to exercise at the same time as training their dog important obedience commands, while still having fun, of course. A resistance band is required alongside the app but that's all that's needed to get fitter. Exercises include things such as doing shoulder presses while commanding your dog to stay or jogging while ensuring your lovably mutt is staying near your heel.

It all sounds like a fantastic idea to me and Dog Whisperer himself Cesar Milan has also backed the program. Why not give it a go for yourself? Let us know how you - and your doggie - get on!

New Balance has just released a sort of workout-based social game. Make Your Move allows friends to compete with each other to complete physical challenges while earning points and medals.

Make Your Move tracks users' performance for their challenges with the phones sensors like the GPS and accelerometer. Friends challenge other Facebook friends and can make new friends to challenge as well. Players will choose their physical challenges and complete them for points. The harder the task, the more points the player will earn. The app also encourages friends working together to complete challenges - team challenges are worth more points than solo ones. The players will be expected to complete the challenges in a certain time frame. And players will be able to play multiple challenges with multiple friends at a time.

The game is free. So head on over to the App Store, pick it up, and start challenging your Facebook friends to some heated physical challenges.

Was your New Year’s resolution to get back in shape? The iPad and iPhone can be great workout companions, especially with apps like iMuscle from 3D4Medical.com.

iMuscle is a workout aid that can be used to find exercises that coincide with specific muscles in the body. The muscles are displayed in a visually appealing 3-D view that the user can rotate 360 degrees. Users can create custom workouts and receive hints and tips for specific exercises. The exercises are even performed by a 3-D model.

iMuscle has added some features in its 2.4 update. Users can now share workouts between the iPhone and iPad apps. The overall experience of the app has been improved with larger buttons, the workout creation process made easier, the ability to edit an exercise within a workout, and more flexibility in moving between exercises within a workout.

iMuscle won Apple’s best iPad app in the Medical category in 2011 and was listed as one of TechCrunch’s top 20 apps of 2011. iMuscle is available as both an iPad and iPhone app.

[gallery:"thumbnail"]

App developer, Abvio, has a robust offering of workout apps tailored specifically for the iPhone user. These apps, including Runmeter, Cyclemeter and Walkmeter which respectively track running, cycling, and walking workouts. Each of these apps track and store workout data on the iPhone itself so there is no need for users to connect to any online database to upload or download their data. This can save precious KB for the more data conscious users out there. Users can also post their workout activity to Facebook, Twitter, or dailymile.com and when friends reply to these posts, the apps will report those responses to the user in real time using text-to-speech technology. One voice is included free and other voices are available via in-app purchase for $0.99 each.

As an added bonus, Abvio has recently announced that their apps now support many of the Wahoo Fitness products. Using these monitoring device with their devices, users can track detailed stats on their heart rate and calories burned during their workouts.

Whether your New Year's resolution is to lose weight, have more energy, or just take better care of yourself, the iOS App Store has lots of fitness and health apps to help. We've taken a closer look at the best from Apple's own New Year, New You list to help you pick the ones right for you.

P90X - By Beachbody, LLC
The P90X can be a punishing workout. Use this app to keep on track and keep the muscles burning with a schedule, track and sync progression with the P90X website, and purchase P90X workout bundles with video and audio guides.

Gorilla Workout : Athletic Fitness Training on a Budget - By Heckr LLC
Working out is great, but unless a substantial in-home gym is available, it usually requires a trip to the gym. However, this app will instruct users on tons of different workouts at 4 different levels that require no equipment at all. A great way to get fit on a budget.

Pocket Yoga - By Rainfrog, LLC
Yoga is a great way to workout out at home, but unless a trained yoga instructor is handy it can be hard to do it right. This app will guide users through various yoga workouts with voice instructions and illustrated instructions. Airplay can also be used to play on a larger screen.

There are even more fitness apps, after the break.

We all need some motivation when it comes to exercising. While I love the gym, there are still those days where I'd really rather not bother. While Fleetly won't drag me to the gym, it will give me some much needed motivation.

Kind of like website Fitocracy, Fleetly makes a game out of exercising. Users enter how many repetitions they've performed or how far they've walked, run or swam and then Fleetly gives it a numerical value in terms of experience points to level up. Users can then compare with other users of the app or their friends via Facebook connectivity. There's even challenge groups to join to encourage friendly competition.

It doesn't stop there however. Fleetly also instructs users how to perform relevant exercises from squats to more complex manoevres. It all ensures that the user learns how best to perform an exercise without overexerting themselves. Plus it makes for a very neat package.

Even better, Fleetly costs precisely nothing which means those in need of that extra nudge might as well give it a shot.

It's out now.

The folks behind iMapMyFITNESS seem intent on offering the full package when it comes to fitness based apps. While they've got a little work to conquer the behemoth RunKeeper in terms of market share, they've got some neat tricks up their sleeves.

One of the latest features is the ability to track the amount of calories burnt off during exercise. It's a feature that many an exercising app promises but there's a difference. iMapMyFITNESS tracks the exact workout data rather than sticking to a generic average total that many other similar apps use instead. It means that no corners are cut and users always know exactly what they've achieved.

As well as the calorie checking facility, iMapMyFITNESS is also offering live tracking functionality. This means that friends or family can always keep track of where the user is, potentially a very useful security feature for the concerned jogger or runner. Everything is protected also so that the user can define who can and can't see such information.

While this might sound familiar to RunKeeper users, it's the interface that makes iMapMyFITNESS stand out more so. The website also offers a fairly different experience which may well appeal to those users looking for a change of exercise tracking app.

With new updates, this is an ideal time to give iMapMyFITNESS a shot.