Three Apps that Pump You Up and Motivate You to Workout 

A study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine found that people who exercise in their home gym are 12 percent more likely to quit their workout regimen than those with corporate gym memberships. Although you are more likely to start working out when you have your own gym, your motivation to exercise drastically decreases.

This is because accountability is a strong factor for motivation and when your gym is in your own basement you have absolutely no one to be accountable to. However, lucky for you, technology has created many innovative apps that can help supplement your workout and keep you motivated enough to reach your fitness goals. Check out some of these mobile apps if you feel your inspiration dwindling.

Stay Fit Socially with BodySpace

Researchers found that people were more likely to stick with a fitness plan if they have a workout buddy. People with exercise companions were also exercising longer and harder than those that didn’t. Having a friend workout with you gives you a sense of accountability to someone other than yourself. However, when you workout at home, you may not have a buddy to hit the gym with. Therefore, BodySpace has created a group of virtual buddies for you to workout with. Once you’re in the app, you can create a profile, add your friends, set your goals, and upload your progress reports. These are shared with your community and will help you comment, like, and support your friends’ workouts.

Keep Track of Your Calorie Intake with MyFitnessApp

Keeping track of your calorie intake and the number of calories you burn during your exercises can increase your ability to lose weight and stay fit. With MyFitnessApp, you can input your weight and your fitness goals. Then the app determines how many calories you need to take in so that you can achieve the body of your dreams. Throughout the day, you will enter how many calories you digested for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This gives you a sense of accountability to the app so that you are more motivated to reach your goal. It will also help you maintain the most appropriate diet by giving you advice on what you should eat and giving you notifications when you’re not sticking to your fitness plans.

Workout to Your Music with RockMyRun

Science has proven that the type of music you listen to can motivate you to do certain activities. It can distract you from discomfort and change your mindset to continue a tough workout. Therefore, RockMyRun has incorporated science with exercise to provide you with the perfect fitness motivation app. RockMyRun’s DJs mix tempos to help maintain your endurance. It can match your music to your movement to provide the perfect workout soundtrack. The app also pays attention to your movement and stride and then uses this information to play the perfect song to motivate you when you’re slowing down. If you’re not accountable to anyone in your home gym, why not be accountable to your music?

It can be hard to stay motivated when your gym is literally down a flight of stairs. However, with these apps, you can add some accountability to your workout and stick to your fitness goals.

The interest in health and fitness is increasing in the USA with statistics indicating that fitness centers across the USA had a total membership of 57.25 million in 2016. The USA fitness center market consists of approximately 36,000 member-based exercise facilities operating as either part of multi-site franchises or as single-location entities. Apart from the large number of individuals who frequent gyms, an equally impressive number choose to exercise in the comfort of their own homes.

Gyms, whether professional or home, offer many terrific options as far as equipment are concerned.  Whether you are aiming to lose weight, build muscle or both, exercising your lower body, and especially often-disregarded body parts like the hip flexors, are of extreme importance as it comprises one of your largest muscle systems. A good understanding of the muscles responsible for moving your lower body will enable you to identify the best gym equipment for an effective lower-body workout.

The hips

Apart from helping the quads, the muscles in your hips work whenever you pull your legs in towards each other.  This motion is known as adduction and the best machine to use for replication purposes is the seated hip adduction machine which requires you to sit with your legs spread, pressing them together to pull a weight toward your midriff.  In some instances, the functionality of this machine can be incorporated into the hip abduction machine (which is the complete opposite of the adduction, pushing your legs apart) with a simple flip of a lever allowing the machine to switch between the two movements.  In many gyms the two machines will remain separate but will be placed next to each other so that the exercises can be done in quick succession.

The buttocks

If you are looking to work your gluteus, the muscles in your butt, the hip extension machine is a good choice.  You can work your gluteus by standing in the hip extension machine and push the weight behind you using a straight leg. By doing this you will significantly strengthen and tone your butt as the muscle is responsible for accelerating the movement of your leg behind your body.  Strengthening this area of your body is vital because you constantly use it, whether standing or walking. This motion also counters a position many people spend a lot of time in when seated at work known as hip flexion.

The back of the thigh

When it comes to working your hamstring the lying or seated leg curl machine is the best. The purpose of the hamstring is to bend or flex your knees and this piece of gym equipment will exercise these muscles as it requires bending the knees to pull a weight towards your butt. Strong hamstrings are important for not only flexibility but improved performance in other movements like squatting as well.

The front of the thigh

The quadriceps muscles are situated in the front of your upper legs. The best machine to isolate these muscles is the seated leg extension machine. Your quads work to extend your legs and unbend your knees and this machine mimics that motion by necessitating you to move your legs from a bent to a straight position.  It is important to develop your quads as they are used every time you stand up from a chair or bed as well as when you bend over or lift your thigh up towards your chest like when you climb stairs.

If you are for an exercise to work as much of your thighs, hips and butt at the same time perform some squats. As far as equipment is concerned the hip sled or hack-squat machine will both do a good job.  Engaging in a balanced lifestyle that consists of a healthy diet and regular exercise is the most effective and most sustainable way to ensure you can sport your dream physique while improving your overall well-being.

The number of Americans with a gym membership has increased steadily since the turn of the millennium, with 57.25 million memberships at US gyms in 2016. However, have you ever considered whether there is a way of keeping fit and staying healthy without having to be cooped up in a stuffy gym? One option is to purchase high quality cardio equipment for use in the comfort of your own home.

Incorporating a home gym with an organic and natural fitness routine is a great way to reap the benefits of different types of exercise and will ensure that your regime stays fresh and exciting.

Keeping it Organic

Over recent years there has been a great emphasis on living an organic lifestyle. From choosing organic foods which contain no pesticides, to ditching chemically induced beauty products and opting for organic and natural products, all of which are better for our skin and bodies. The best sulfate free shampoos are a prime example of the benefits going natural and using chemical free products on your hair, but what if you could keep your fitness regime natural too?

Organic Exercise

The idea behind organic exercise is to work out like a hunter-gatherer. This theory stems from a 2011 article ‘Exercise like a hunter-gatherer: a prescription for organic physical fitness’. The reason for working out like a hunter-gatherer is because hunter-gatherers exerted five times more energy than the current average adult and as obesity rates are rising in America and across the globe the need to burn off more calories whilst exercising is highly recommended. Organic hunter-gatherer type exercises can be demanding on the body and include regular high intensity workouts, circuit training and power and strength training.

Natural Exercise

A natural fitness regime goes hand in hand with an organic one, but is somewhat less strenuous. Going for a natural workout allows you to organically strengthen the muscles in the body and use the body the way nature intended. Natural exercises include normal day to day activities that should be performed regularly such as walking the dog, doing the housework and ditching the car and walking to pick the kids up from school. Alongside naturally strengthening the muscles, strength equipment for home use can be used to further enhance the muscles.

There are some great reasons to opt for an organic and natural exercise routine. The key is to enjoy the fitness regime you follow and by mixing up your routine and alternating between different forms of exercise you can be sure you’re entire body is benefiting from the forms of exercising you participate in.