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Smart phones have changed the way we live. From how we communicate to how we shop and play games. They’ve revolutionised modern life in endless ways, making things more convenient and accessible than ever before. But one of the aspects of daily life they’ve changed the most is how we exercise.
With a smart phone in our pocket, we can track our activities in more detail than ever before. This is especially true of running. And whether you’re a complete beginner, a seasoned marathon runner, or a casual jogger, there’s an app out there to suit your needs and goals and push you the extra mile.
In this post we’ve rounded up 9 great running apps, covering every skill level and exercise goal.
For the beginner
Designed for the absolute beginner, Couch To 5k is a 9-week programme designed to get you (as you might have guessed) from the sitting on the couch to running a 5k. The programme consists of 3 runs per week, with the difficulty increasing each successive week. The added bonus? You can choose from a selection of celebrity voice coaches to guide you along as you go.
For the socialite
This is one for the lonely runners out there.
Struggling to drag your friends and family out for a Sunday morning jog? Runmates has you covered. It’s an app that lets people meet fellow runners and coaches in their local area, arrange and join runs, and build a community of like-minded individuals. Runmates is all about the community.
Available for Android and IOS.
Social media-meets-running. Endomondo is an incredibly social app, complete with its own news feed so you can follow friends and spur them on. It also allows you to send and receive pep talks, join and set-up challenges, and discover and create routes in your local area which people can compete to become the “champion” of.
Available for Android and IOS.
For the easily bored
Over 1 million runners have played Zombies, Run!, which tells you something about this unique and immersive story-focussed running app.
In Zombies, Run! You take on the role of a zombie apocalypse survivor, Runner 5, and have to run to gather supplies, rescue survivors, and defend your home, all whilst being chased by the undead hoard. For those who are interested in combining their workouts with some top quality immersive storytelling, this is a great choice.
Available for Android and IOS.
Run An Empire offers an interesting and unique gaming/fitness crossover experience. It’s essentially an empire-building game crossed with a running app. The premise is simple enough: you run to collect coins, and you spend those coins to upgrade, evolve, and expand your civilisation. Sounds addictive enough to keep you running.
Available for Android and IOS.
For the fundraiser
Raising money for charity on your morning run? That’s two helpings of feel good and some extra motivation to boot. Here’s how it works: you download the app, choose your charity, and run. Simple. And for every mile you move, Charity Miles will donate money to your chosen cause. Get fit and do good, all with one app!
For the traveller
Runnin’ City offers 450 “running tours” in 150 cities across the world, divided into 5, 10 and 15km routes. It even features an audio guide, and gives you a 30 second factual tidbit when you pass a point of interest. A great choice for travelling runners. And don’t worry, it still measures all the basic metrics. So not only are you getting a local history lesson, but you’ll know how far you’ve run, how fast, and how many calories you’ve burned.
Available for Android and IOS.
For the no nonsense runner
A very popular and widely endorsed fitness app, Strava is a feature-heavy all-rounder. It measures your progress, connects you to other runners around the world, and even features a tracking option that allows your family to see where you are whilst out running. It comes highly rated, and is a good option for anyone who wants to simply track and share their progress.
Available for Android and IOS.
Another all-rounder that features coaching, workouts, progress tracking, and achievement unlocks. Like Strava, this is currently (at the time of writing) an Editors’ Choice on the App Store. And, as it’s a Nike product, it’s likely a safe choice for anyone new to the fitness app world who’s looking for a quality experience.
Available for Android and IOS.
For more on running, take a look at our post: 4 Great Benefits Of Running.
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One of the most popular reasons for exercising is to burn fat. Whether you’re trying to lose weight, get lean, or just stay generally fit and healthy, burning excess fat is at the heart of many long-term fitness plans.
And one of the most effective method for burning fat is, of course, cardio. But cardiovascular exercise is something of a blanket term, covering a myriad of different sports and activities. It’s defined as “anything exercise that raises your heart rate.” That covers a lot. From walking and running to tennis and football. But what are some of the most effective cardio exercises? And which ones could stand to help you burn the most fat in the most time effective manner?
Here’s our list of some of the most common and effective fat burning cardio exercises. . .
Indoor rowing
Both an incredible cardio exercise and a full body workout. Rowing targets a lot of body parts (lower and middle back, hamstrings, calves, glutes, and biceps). So whatever area you’re looking at working, chances are that a rowing machine will cover it.
This great all-rounder is a low-impact, high-reward exercise. It will improve muscle and joint mobility, reduce stress, and melts away fat whilst building up muscle.
Calories burned: 200 – 400 in 30 minutes.
Skipping
A classic, and the boxer’s staple. The humble skipping ropes have remained quietly popular in the face of modern cardio machines and fitness fads for good reason: they work.
Skipping is good for the heart, tones muscles in both the upper and lower body, and is incredibly effective for weight loss. What’s more? You can pick up a skipping rope for next to nothing, and the exercise itself requires barely any space to perform. So they’re an excellent choice for small budgets and smaller spaces.
Calories burned: 300 – 500 in 30 mins.
Running
The top dog of cardio. Running is one of the most popular forms of exercise around. Spend ten minutes driving through any town in the UK, on any given day, and you’ll probably spot at least one runner. And it’s not just because it’s free that people enjoy it.
Running is a mood-enhancing, fat-burning, addictive form of exercise. Known for its positive effects on mental health (), running gets you out in the fresh air, builds stamina and confidence, and requires nothing but a good pair of shoes and some comfortable clothing.
Calories burned: 300 in 30 mins (based on a rough weight of 10 stone).
Swimming
We’ve discussed some of the many health benefits of swimming previously on the blog. As a brief refresher, they include: lowered risk of diabetes, improved heart health, and greater longevity (among many more).
The beauty of swimming is its low impact nature, which means that anyone, no matter their level of fitness or age, can jump right in (pun intended) and start reaping the rewards of this fantastic water-based exercise immediately.
Calories burned: 400 in 30 mins.
Cycling
Many people are filled with dread at the mere thought of cycling through the streets of England, with its potholes, hills, and general scarcity of cycle paths. But the stationary bicycle is an altogether different beast. These can be found scattered around most gyms, and offer a stress- (and traffic-) free alternative to an otherwise wonderfully healthy activity.
Depending on how hard you pedal, cycling can be an intense fat burning activity. Another low-impact exercise, it’s great for older people or those starting out with a lower level of fitness. And not only will cycling obliterate fat, it will also do a nice job of toning up your legs, glutes, and abs.
Calories burned: 250 – 500 in 30 mins (depending on intensity and resistance).
Calculate your calories
The figures provided above are just rough estimates of the amount of calories you can expect to burn from 30 minutes of each exercise. But they are by no means completely accurate, as there are a number of factors, unique to you, that they fail to take into account.
If you’d like a more accurate projection of how many calories you can burn from the various activities, here’s a much more comprehensive calculator. It allows you to input your gender, age, height, and weight, then gives you an enormous list of activities to choose from (which even includes brushing your teeth, ironing, and gardening), before giving you estimate of how many calories you could expect to burn from each.
What’s your favourite?
As with many things in life, sticking to a cardio regime is all about motivation and enthusiasm. And those two things can only come from enjoyment, so it’s important to find an exercise that suits you. If you’d like to try out a variety of different cardio exercises, why not visit our gym, where you’ll find all manner of cardio machines to have a go at!
One of the most popular reasons for exercising is to burn fat. Whether you’re trying to lose weight, get lean, or just stay generally fit and healthy, burning excess fat is at the heart of many long-term fitness plans.
And one of the most effective method for burning fat is, of course, cardio. But cardiovascular exercise is something of a blanket term, covering a myriad of different sports and activities. It’s defined as “anything exercise that raises your heart rate.” That covers a lot. From walking and running to tennis and football. But what are some of the most effective cardio exercises? And which ones could stand to help you burn the most fat in the most time effective manner?
Here’s our list of some of the most common and effective fat burning cardio exercises. . .
Indoor rowing
Both an incredible cardio exercise and a full body workout. Rowing targets a lot of body parts (lower and middle back, hamstrings, calves, glutes, and biceps). So whatever area you’re looking at working, chances are that a rowing machine will cover it.
This great all-rounder is a low-impact, high-reward exercise. It will improve muscle and joint mobility, reduce stress, and melts away fat whilst building up muscle.
Calories burned: 200 – 400 in 30 minutes.
Skipping
A classic, and the boxer’s staple. The humble skipping ropes have remained quietly popular in the face of modern cardio machines and fitness fads for good reason: they work.
Skipping is good for the heart, tones muscles in both the upper and lower body, and is incredibly effective for weight loss. What’s more? You can pick up a skipping rope for next to nothing, and the exercise itself requires barely any space to perform. So they’re an excellent choice for small budgets and smaller spaces.
Calories burned: 300 – 500 in 30 mins.
Running
The top dog of cardio. Running is one of the most popular forms of exercise around. Spend ten minutes driving through any town in the UK, on any given day, and you’ll probably spot at least one runner. And it’s not just because it’s free that people enjoy it.
Running is a mood-enhancing, fat-burning, addictive form of exercise. Known for its positive effects on mental health (), running gets you out in the fresh air, builds stamina and confidence, and requires nothing but a good pair of shoes and some comfortable clothing.
Calories burned: 300 in 30 mins (based on a rough weight of 10 stone).
Swimming
We’ve discussed some of the many health benefits of swimming previously on the blog. As a brief refresher, they include: lowered risk of diabetes, improved heart health, and greater longevity (among many more).
The beauty of swimming is its low impact nature, which means that anyone, no matter their level of fitness or age, can jump right in (pun intended) and start reaping the rewards of this fantastic water-based exercise immediately.
Calories burned: 400 in 30 mins.
Cycling
Many people are filled with dread at the mere thought of cycling through the streets of England, with its potholes, hills, and general scarcity of cycle paths. But the stationary bicycle is an altogether different beast. These can be found scattered around most gyms, and offer a stress- (and traffic-) free alternative to an otherwise wonderfully healthy activity.
Depending on how hard you pedal, cycling can be an intense fat burning activity. Another low-impact exercise, it’s great for older people or those starting out with a lower level of fitness. And not only will cycling obliterate fat, it will also do a nice job of toning up your legs, glutes, and abs.
Calories burned: 250 – 500 in 30 mins (depending on intensity and resistance).
Calculate your calories
The figures provided above are just rough estimates of the amount of calories you can expect to burn from 30 minutes of each exercise. But they are by no means completely accurate, as there are a number of factors, unique to you, that they fail to take into account.
If you’d like a more accurate projection of how many calories you can burn from the various activities, here’s a much more comprehensive calculator. It allows you to input your gender, age, height, and weight, then gives you an enormous list of activities to choose from (which even includes brushing your teeth, ironing, and gardening), before giving you estimate of how many calories you could expect to burn from each.
What’s your favourite?
As with many things in life, sticking to a cardio regime is all about motivation and enthusiasm. And those two things can only come from enjoyment, so it’s important to find an exercise that suits you. If you’d like to try out a variety of different cardio exercises, why not visit our gym, where you’ll find all manner of cardio machines to have a go at!
Photo by bruce mars from Pexels
Zumba is an exciting workout involving dance and aerobic movements. It’s based on salsa and other Latin dance styles, and offers a lively, fun, and energetic fitness class for everyone. But for those who’ve never tried it before, you may be a little reluctant to get involved before learning more.
So let’s take a look at what makes Zumba a great workout, and how you can use it to dance your way to fitness!
The general health benefits of Zumba
As always, first things first. What are the health benefits of Zumba? Well, one study found that, after one hour of Zumba, participants had burned an average of 817 calories. That’s more than cycling and running. So as far as fat burning is concerned, we could all do much worse than a weekly Zumba session.
Also, because it involves dancing, Zumba will increase your coordination. This isn’t necessarily a direct health benefit, but indirectly it means you’re less likely to fall over and injure yourself. This can be especially beneficial for the elderly.
Zumba is also a great full-body cardiovascular workout. Because you’re dancing, you’re using your entire body. And because of the fast-paced nature, and sustained duration, of dancing, it elevates your heart rate.
It’s fun
One thing that’s undeniable: Zumba is fun. Unlike many other workouts, it’s not just about reps and sets. It’s about dancing. In this way, Zumba doesn’t feel like an ordinary workout. It’s more lively and, in some respects, more enjoyable. In other words, you’ll never dread leaving the house to go to a Zumba class.
Also, if you’re the kind of person who is easily bored by a regular gym routine, Zumba could be perfect for you.
This brings us to the social side of things. Zumba is a fitness class. But at its heart it’s really a dance class. And dancing is naturally social. When people dance, they usually dance together. It’s natural. So Zumba feels comfortable, and there’s always a strong group dynamic. And because of this, you don’t have to worry about feeling self-conscious.
It’s good for routine
A huge advantage of participating in Zumba is that you can find classes everywhere. There are 15 million people currently taking part in Zumba, in over 200,000 locations in 180 countries around the world. This means that no matter where you are, you can probably find a Zumba class nearby.
And even if there aren’t any classes around, there are plenty of DVDs and online videos to keep you going. So even if it’s snowing and you’re stuck at home, your Zumba routine doesn’t have to suffer for it.
It’s for anyone
Some people are put off by the idea of dancing, believing that it requires too much technical skill and flexibility. But Zumba, though a dance-based workout, definitely wasn’t made only for those who know their salsa from their rumba. Zumba was designed to suit anyone. It’s supposed to suit both beginner and advanced participants alike. In fact, it’s even been referred to as “exercise in disguise.” So don’t be put off if you’ve never danced before!
Really, it’s not about how fit you are. It’s about having fun, letting go, getting healthy, and working out in the most feel-good way possible.
Zumba time?
Want to get your dancing shoes on? If the answer is yes, then why not come along to one of our Zumba classes at Jesmond Pool and Gym? Classes run weekly on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. For more information on times and prices, visit our Zumba class page.
