No doubt, going to the gym is one of the best ways to keep fit; however the membership fee can be pocket draining at times. Also getting to the gym on super-busy days or when you are traveling can be damn impossible. Sometimes even fitting a sweat session into your regular work day can pose a challenge. And if you are someone like me that is notorious for practically “donating” my money to the gym without ever making use of that membership, I bet you won’t mind having free workout apps as an alternative for getting fit.
I recently posted on how to workout without going to the gym, but let’s take it a step further. By using the right apps on your smartphones, you can exercise regularly without spending a dime. And the interesting thing is that there are lots of free workout apps out there that will fit your workout style, preferences, and goals. Also the beauty of using these free workout apps is that you can track your progress, help you identify when you are training too hard or not training hard enough, or not hitting the ideal heart rate long enough for significant calorie burn.
However in order to see result, you have to be consistent and spend some time each week reviewing your data and progress. BEBE AFRIKANA presents to you 20 free workout apps you can download right away and have your phone double as your personal trainer.
KEEP FIT WITH THESE FREE WORKOUT APPS
PERFECT WORKOUT
This is one of the most fantastic free workout apps you can have on your smart phone. This app gives you a full-body workout with 12 exercises for free. The app also allows you to earn free rubies for different activities such as opening the app daily, inviting friends to do workouts, completing a workout daily, watching a video ad and sharing the app exercises. These rubies can then be used to buy different types of workouts.
Perfect Workout shows cartoon animations of each exercise so you can follow along, and there are audio instructions and prompts too. You can also set a reminder so you don’t miss your exercise, and the app automatically tracks statistics of all your calorie-burning activities.
MAP MY FITNESS
This is one of the best mobile fitness tracking experience, backed by the world’s largest digital health and fitness community. Map My Fitness saves data on pace, distance, and calories burned for GPS-based workouts; you can use this data to set new personal goals. Under Armour’s Map My Fitness logs more than 600 different fitness activities and syncs with more than 400 devices to give users a complete picture of their athletic performance. Through the Map My Fitness community, users can join challenges as well as motivate friends. Users can also search for nearby running routes or share their favorite routes. The latest versions of May My Fitness are compatible with both Android Wear devices and Apple Watch.
MAPMYRUN
apMyRun is an android running application that uses your android GPS to live track your running data including duration, run distance, speed, elevation and more. You will get training plans, routes and workouts with MapMyRun and this makes it easy to stay on course.
The app has tons of challenges every month, like committing to a certain number of miles in a week, or month, or a specific number of days. The app might even encourage you to go for a hike. So if you are someone who loves competition, this app might be your top choice.
WORKOUT TRAINER
This app offers its users thousands of free workouts complete with timed step-by-step audio and video instructions to help you get into shape. In addition to the built-in workouts, users can access the app’s library to build their own custom routines and share them online, as well as try out routines shared by the community. So whether you want six-pack abs or are simply aiming improve your conditioning for that next race, Workout Trainer has a routine to suit you perfectly.
PLANK TIMER
Doing planks is the new trend among the no-equipment exercise crowd. It’s also actually one of the easiest workouts to start for anyone who is out of shape and wants to get fit again. Planks exercise your core strength by making you hold a position similar to doing push-ups. Start with a small number (30 seconds) and gradually move up to longer durations of planks (3-5 minutes).
On Android, Plank Timer is a fantastic app to start doing planks, and then add its variations. Go with the simple plank first, as the app counts down the seconds of a full minute. Feel free to pause at any point, or finish too. The 5-minute plank exercise offers variations like leg lifts, which you will move up to.
On iPhones, Plank is a more detailed app that explains all the different types of planks and even includes short video demonstrations. The app breaks down your plank workouts into weeks so that you know how to slowly upgrade your planking abilities.
NIKE+ TRAINING CLUB
Whether you want a strength-focused workout or a cardio-focused interval set, the Nike training app has you covered. The app has workouts for all durations ranging from short and quick to long durations. The most interesting thing about this app is that it has warm-ups for all the workouts. Workouts focus on strength, endurance, or mobility and offer three levels of difficulty. The app features workouts designed by professional athletes and celebrities. Nike+ Training Club can be streamed onto a television using Apple TV, Chromecast, or an HDMI cable. After completing a workout, users can share customized photos or posters with the Nike+ community. The app’s audio cues let you focus on the workout instead of the screen. The app also syncs with Nike+ Run Club to keep track of your runs; you can also manually enter activities such as basketball, gym training, or tennis.
FITBIT COACH
This is also another app that should be added to the list of your free workout apps. Fitbit Coach personalized training app helps you stay motivated to reach your health & fitness goals, from getting stronger to losing a few pounds, with expert-designed dynamic bodyweight, run, and walk workouts that continually adjust to your feedback, goals, and capabilities; just like a personal trainer! Workouts are carefully calibrated to be challenging, without being too difficult; and you can also track your daily activities with the fitness tracker.
The app provides guided video workouts, with varied routines, step-by-step guidance, and accompanying workout playlists to provide music that complements your workout.
So whether you’re home, on the road, or can’t make it to the gym, you can be guaranteed a great workout anytime, anywhere with the Fitbit Coach.
FITNOTES
FitNotes is a workout tracker with a focus on simplicity and clean design. It is a nice ad-free Android workout tracker that focuses on a no-frills, distraction-free design. Instead, the app sports a utilitarian interface for logging in all the details of your workout routines, from exercise types, muscle groups exercised, weights, reps, distance run, and more. The app comes with a number of exercise templates that you can use to help plan your routines, and there’s a searchable log and calendar of your exercise history. FitNotes may not offer tutorials, workout music, and other exercise extras, but it’s still a great free workout logging app.
With this app, you can view and navigate daily workout logs quickly by swiping between them, navigate to a specific day using the inbuilt calendar, add an exercise to the workout log and record sets of weight and reps or distance and time, swipe across when recording sets to view your workout history with the exercise, attach comments/notes to sets, rest timer with sound and vibration options and re-order exercises you’ve added to a workout log.
FIT RADIO
Are you thinking of a fitness app to choose from our list of free workout apps? Fit Radio is the fitness app you need in your life. The right music can be a powerful motivator to an energetic workout, and Fit Radio delivers a wide variety of exercise-oriented music mixes, audio-coached workouts, and running playlists designed to help set and keep your pace throughout. Users can set their target heart rate and choose from a number of audio-coached workouts or go freestyle with a number of activity-oriented or genre based playlists. Users also can set intervals, track their distance run, and save and share their favorite playlists and DJs.
FITOCRACY
The social network for exercise junkies, Fitocracy uses a combination of gamification and peer pressure to encourage your exercise habits. Users can look up exercise routines and then log them in to score points, level up and gain achievements, all of which is displayed in a social media stream that other Fitocrats can view, comment on and share and otherwise encourage. Signing up at the Fitocracy website also provides data syncing between the Web app and mobile, as well as the option to automatically post your updates to Twitter or Facebook.
JEFIT
JEFIT offers an amazing platform for users who want to be involved in strength training and bodybuilding. It is embedded with an exercise database of thousands of routines sorted by targeted body part; the app comes complete with detailed instructions, a workout planner, exercise log, progress tracker, numerous timers and options and synchronization with your JEFIT profile. The free version is ad-supported, while a pro version offers more features and removes advertising.
FREELETICS BODY WEIGHT
If you want to fit in a quick sweat, Freeletics BodyWeight is an amazing app to choose from our list of free workout apps. This app offers bodyweight workouts from 5-30 minutes and the workouts are perfect with no equipment and no access to a gym.
It provides you with hundreds of workout routines covering a variety of muscle groups and fitness levels, all designed to use only your body weight as your exercise equipment. Audio and video guides provide step-by-step sequences for your workouts. Premium subscribers get access to further training plans, performance analysis, workout goals, and a “2×2” training mode that requires only a tiny amount of workout space.
JOHNSON & JOHNSON OFFICIAL 7 MINUTE WORKOUT APP
Beginners and veterans alike will appreciate the Johnson & Johnson Official 7 Minute Workout App. The app guides users through the original 7 minute workout, as well as more advanced routines of varying duration and intensity, complete with short videos. A Smart Workout feature can function as your personal trainer. One of the most interesting things about this app is that users can create their own custom workout routines.
KEELO
Keelo’s exercises run the gamut from bodyweight-only drills to basic gym weights and equipment, and are suitable for beginners or experts. Keelo focuses on high intensity interval training (HIIT) for short, incredibly intense workouts that won’t burn up your time but will burn up those calories. Regardless of which specific workout you’ve got scheduled, it’ll only take 7 to 20 minutes. Video instructions keep things clear and simple, and Apple Health integration lets you share data with other fitness apps.
SWORKIT
Want to sculpt your shoulders? Target your tush? Work on that six-pack? Simply Work It (SworkIt) offers body part-specific workouts that’ll help you do just that. It has users create targeted workout routines. Each workout is different, making sure that you stay alert and are never bored. So all you have to do is to pick your goal (leaner, fitter, stronger), and Sworkit builds you a routine of randomized exercises that fit your exercise goals. . A few examples: five-minute abs, yoga for runners, a daily stretch, and “Rump Roaster,” a.k.a. building that booty.
A premium version unlocks more features such as exercise variations, a workout history and the ability to save custom workouts for a fully customizable experience.
STRAVA RUNNING & CYCLING
This is one of the top-notch free workout apps. So many runners and bicyclists use Strava; and that’s likely because it’s so big on community. You can follow friends, see their routes, share photos, and compete in challenges. This allows you to stay connected with your fit friends, which is a great way to hold each other accountable .The app records your running speed, distance traveled, time and course taken, but also combines it with leader boards, achievements and challenges. It also adds some pretty neat competitive and gamified features to the usual run-tracking recipe.
Strava supports a variety of running trackers, in addition to Android Wear and Apple Watch. A premium subscription improves on the formula with filtered leader boards, the ability to create exercise goals and view more detailed analytics and more.
The best part: You can easily find places to run if you’re in a new city, thanks to the local feature that shows popular routes in major cities.
PEAR
This strength, cardio, and yoga workout app features tons of different fitness partnerships from TRX (for core strength and stability) to TriggerPoint (foam rolling). That means you’ll find any type of workout you could possibly feel like doing, whether intense or for recovery.
BEYOND THE WHITEBOARD
CrossFitters, this tracker is for you. It makes tallying your gains and setbacks super simple, plus it offers full workouts you can do, too. The bonus here is how it keeps you connected with your community at the gym or amongst your squad worldwide, showing the same workout performance on a leader board. It also points out strength and weaknesses, and your fitness level.
COUCH TO 5K
Couch to 5K is designed to get you off the couch and running 5km in just nine weeks. The plan involves three runs a week with a rest day in between and a different running schedule each week. Produced with the BBC, the app builds you up gradually with a mix of running and walking. Couch to 5K is suitable for people new to running, people who want to get back into running or people who simply want to be more active.
The plan is laid out so it’s super-easy to follow and requires just 20- to 30-minute runs three days a week. It also has an audio coach to talk to you through each workout. Choose your favorite voice among four. It displays a countdown timer so you can see how long you’ve got left of each run. You can track your progress over the nine week programme and rate your runs. The app gives tips and advice for new runners, as well real life success stories.
APPLE HEALTH
Apple Health is a health and fitness tracking app included on Apple devices. It gives you a single repository for all your fitness and medical data. The Health app for iPhone lets you compile data from many of your most-used health apps so that you have a single view all of your health info, be it miles cycled, hours slept, or flights of stairs climbed.
It automatically tracks your step count and links with tons of third-party apps to feed data on your workout habits. No need to download, it comes right on your phone. But make sure you check out your stats.
SAMSUNG HEALTH APP
Samsung Health is a free application developed by Samsung that serves to track various aspects of daily life contributing to well being such as physical activity, diet, and sleep. Samsung Health provides core features to keep up your body fit and healthy. It will record and analyze your daily activities and habits to help maintain successful diet and lead healthy lifestyle.
Whether you walk or run, hike or bike, play indoor or outdoor sports, you can add and track the various physical exercises and activities in a single step using the various built-in trackers. It also helps to create a balanced lifestyle pattern by recording a variety of information like your food, caffeine and water intake details. Provide your daily snacks, food, water and caffeine intake and track your diet and weight on the go while staying comfortable using the sleep & stress tracker.
Trackers enable user to easily and quickly check meaningful data based on user preferences. The intuitive charts, helpful tips and physical exercise programs guide you to achieve your fitness and diet goals.
You can also manage your fitness activities, track your weight and monitor your diet using Samsung Galaxy and Gear devices. Exercise programs such as Baby steps to 5K, Run 5K and so on are available to take your running to the next level and you will be guided via voice prompts during workout.