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A few months in how many of us are still actively fighting the flab after the new years rush of enthusiasm?

I’m happy to say that this year I’m one of them, and Ive clocked up a lot of miles both on foot and on my mountain bike and it feels great. With this in mind I decided to revisit the fitness topic and highlight a few more fitness apps for the iPhone I have come across which will help you keep trim!

Interval Trainer – £1.19

First up is interval trainer from Concited Software.  The app itself is quite simple and operates a stopwatch but will also notify you when to change you exercise intensity from warm up, high-intensity low intensity and back to cool-down periods. It has programs for beginner intermediate and advanced and allows you to choose what intervals you would like to use depending on your fitness level.

The program can be used with most cardiovascular exercises (e.g. jogging, cross trainer, cycling) and its said that interval training helps you burn more fat and you even continue to burn calories after your workout!.

Overall its a nice little app but seems a bit overpriced to me for what is a very simple app, I would like to see some kind of customizability in the future so you can set your workout length and how many intervals you want to do.

[iTunes Link]

GymFu – (PushFu, CrunchFu, SquaFu & PullupFu) – £0.59p ea (on sale!)

The GymFu suite of apps mixes exercise with a friendly dose of competition and adds a sprinkling of social networking

The basic idea behind the suite of apps is to build up your reps at the four disciplines available. Using the iPhone and its built in accelerometer strapped to your body (you can find straps here, or read the GymFu forum for other methods) the app counts up your reps with voice feedback and instruction and suggests a gradual program for building up the number of reps you can achieve in a workout and each app has an ultimate target for you to achieve.

Each rep earns you points which are synchronised back to your account on the gymfu servers and will give you a standing in the league tables.  You can also challenge friends to a battle to see who is the fittest and this is where the social networking aspect comes as you challenge your friends via Twitter or Facebook. If you run a blog they even have a snippet of code so post your GymFu stats on your homepage.

I’ve been using the suite (with the exception of PullupFU) for about a week now and can already feel a difference in my muscles and being a techie, the graphing and challenge abilities are right up my alley and help motivate me to keep going!

[iTunes Link] – Link loads to show all GymFu apps

Weightbot – £1.19

This app has been out quite a while but its a great little app for keeping tabs on your fitness and diet efforts.

Through a pleasant and intuitive interface you log your weight when you open the app. Straight away you’ll be told your BMI (I’m told this only applies to the ladies?) and you can scroll back in time and check your previous figures.

Turn the phone to the right side and you’ll get a line graph of your weight loss over time, either month by month or for the whole year. Turn the phone the other way and you’ll see your current stats against your predefined goals which are setup in the settings screen.

If you are sensitive about your weight you can lock the app with a pin code to keep out prying eyes and if you are lucky enough to have some of the wifi Withings bathroom scales you can even have the app sync with your online account to download your progress

I’ve been using the app actively for he last few months and it really helps to visualize how you are doing.

[iTunes Link]

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I hope these apps will help you out like they have me in trying to keep in shape! If you have any other recommendations or questions please leave a comment below.

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