Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Stick to Your Fitness Resolution with BodBot


I'm no athlete, so most fitness apps tend to let me down. I don't want to track all of the food I eat down to the calorie, and I don't want to orchestrate a complicated workout regime that pretty much requires a gym membership. I just want to get a little healthier this year. Where is the average Joe (or Adam) supposed to turn for some no-nonsense fitness guidance?

Considering I'm a month into the new year, and I'm still working out and making progress, the answer for me has been BodBot, a free app that plans simple and effective workouts for you. It's still in its alpha stage, but considering how awesome it is already, I think that's pretty promising. All you have to do is register with an email address, enter basic info like your age, gender and fitness goals, and then it plans a workout calendar for you. My favorite feature is that you can specify that you'll be working out at home instead of at a gym, and it will create your entire plan with workout adaptations you can do with basic pieces of furniture instead of machines.

You can check in daily on your Android or iOS device (I have a Windows phone, so I check in on the web), and click "Did it!" or "Missed Workout." If you miss, it restructures your entire calendar. It's the most automated, user-friendly fitness app I've ever used - great for the layman who just wants to get a bit more fit, although it would certainly work well for the seasoned gym rat, too. Its strength is in saving you time in creating a customized workout plan, but if tracking your progress with precision is important to you (which, for me, it isn't) then you might not find the minimalism of this app as appealing as I do. In that case, you might want to check out some of the other Fitness Apps in Car-Tel's App-lipedia.