6 Apps to Improve Your Physical Fitness in a Few Minutes a Day

Daily life is busy enough without having to constantly worry about exercising, eating right, so on and so on...

But you know what? It’s important. If you want to live long enough and stay sharp and healthy enough to enjoy your life and pursue your goals into the future, you need to take care of yourself. And not next year – you need to stop putting it off and do it now. And that includes physical fitness.

But we’ve all got so many responsibilities already and are busy enough working towards our goals and dreams. Where on Earth are we supposed to find the time to take care of ourselves? Luckily, staying physically fit is easier than ever through the use of technology, especially smartphone apps.

That's why we’ve gathered some of the best apps out there for improving your physical fitness and doing so more easily (and in less time than ever before.) So, sit back and... actually, you might want to stop sitting down so much...

Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live.

– Jim Rohn

1. Aaptiv: The digital trainer

Pushing yourself to work out can be really tough. I trained in mixed martial arts for years and know what it’s like to push yourself up early in the morning, try to get yourself excited, and get a productive workout in.

“Digital trainer” app Aaptiv has helped solve that problem by allowing you to conveniently tap into a wide variety of audio lessons from professional fitness trainers from your smartphone.

Now, no matter where you choose to work out, you can have the voice of a high-intensity personal trainer there to push you. Personally, I love the idea because I know how effective audio can trigger us emotionally (like music). Try it out and see if it’s a fit for you.

Get Aaptiv

2. C25K: The goal-oriented fitness sensation

The likelihood is, out of all the apps on this list, you’ve probably heard of C25K before – or something like it – even if you haven’t tried it yet. That’s because celebrities like Jimmy Fallon have been talking about this kind of app for a while now. There are a ton of “Couch to 5K” apps just like this, but C25K is free -- on top of being the best rated one.

If you’re looking to improve your physical fitness and want to start with something effective and goal-oriented (the app promises to get you ready for your first 5K run in just eight weeks), this line of fitness apps have definitely proven to be one of the most effective at encouraging and maintaining physical fitness.

Get C25K

3. RiseToday: A new way to explore fitness

RiseToday is seeking to reinvent the way fitness apps work. Subscription-free and easy to use (with no cap on the number of classes you can try), RiseToday caters to the adventurer in you by giving you the ability to search for fitness classes and various other fitness services in your area with ease. Which is great, because a big part of making exercise a habit is in finding something you actually enjoy doing.

Try out everything from HIIT to Crossfit and various forms of Yoga to find what works best for you – for free – all discoverable from the convenience of a single smartphone app.

Get RiseToday

4. Full Fitness: The complete workout compendium

If you work out, an app like Full Fitness is extremely helpful. With Full Fitness, you can search for exercises specific to what body part you want to build muscle in and what equipment you have.

You can also save your own custom workouts. Just make sure to mix it up over time, something Full Fitness’ compendium of exercises is also great for.

Sure, you might want to do the same types of exercises repeatedly every single day, but the body won’t play along with your clever plan. Your muscles have their own kind of memory, and the more you do one type of exercise, the more your body grows accustomed to it – and the less effective it becomes for you because your body is acclimating to the stress your body is under in order to reduce the strain on your body. So, do yourself a favor and get an app like Full Fitness to make the work of mixing up your workouts an easy task.

Get Full Fitness

And for Android users: Total Fitness (Full Fitness not currently available on the Google Play Store) – Google Play Store

5. WaterMinder: Make drinking water a habit

Drinking enough water each day is critical for your physical health. However, like any other habit, it can be hard to stick to it. WaterMinder seeks to change that.

With WaterMinder, you can set reminders, track your progress, and monitor the beverages you drink to make sure you’re getting enough hydration.

Tip: Buy a reusable water bottle. Buying a bottle specifically for the purpose of drinking water and carrying it everywhere you go is one of the best ways to develop the habit.

Get WaterMinder

6. Lifesum: The all-in-one mobile fitness hub

For those looking to implement a more all-inclusive health plan, Lifesum is a great all-in-one app that helps you discover recipes, drink more water, track your progress at the gym, and more all in a single app.

If you’re really serious about transforming your health and don’t want to use multiple different apps/courses/etc. to do it, Lifesum could be just what you need.

Get Lifesum

No matter what app or method you choose to improve your physical fitness, the most important thing is just to get started. Pick something, start exercising regularly, and adjust as you go to find what works best for you.