The Best Fitness Apps to Enhance your Workout…
Fitness apps are by no means a new concept when it comes to exercise, however navigating the sea of fitness apps now avaliable to you can be somewhat confusing, so we have narrowed down popular fitness apps which can help track, train, and enhance your workout.
Running App
NIKE + RUN
The Nike run app is fantastic for cardio and has established itself in the running industry, with great personalised training plan tailored to meet your goals and fitness level. Whilst reminding you daily of your run schedule and showcasing fitness milestones along the way.
Free, App Store and Google Play, nike.com/plus
Running App Tracker
Map My Run
Map My Run uses your phone’s GPS to track exactly where you’ve run, how far, how fast and stores it all up and presents it to you in an easy-to-understand way. What more could you want?
Free, App Store and Google Play, mapmyrun.com/
Cycle App
Strava
One of the most popular GPS cycling apps on the market, functions include being able to keep track your ride stats such as speed, distance and time. Whilst showing you exactly where you have been, you can share this information with a huge community of users, congratulate others on their efforts, and ask for advice.
Free, pro £5.99 monthly, App Store and Google Play, strava.com
Counting Calorie App
MyFitnessPal
There is very little room for cheating with My Fitness pal with the comprehensive database of food avaliable to log, it has never been so easy to calculate a meal. Making it the simple to keep track of calories and macros throughout your day.
Free, pro £7.99 monthly, App Store and Google Play, myfitnesspal.com
Strength Training App
Stronglifts 5×5
Stronglift is wonderful in its simplicity to help build strength and muscle. It breaks down exactly what exercises to do, including the amount of reps, sets and weight, and makes it easy to measure your progress over time. BOOM!
Free, £9.99 for Power Pack, App Store and Google Play, stronglifts.com
Comprehensive Strength Training
Gymaholic
For those committed to the weights room Gymaholic offers a more comprehensive in depth plan for your workout. Allowing you to browse their library of exercises and build a custom routine.
Free, pro £4.99, App Store, gymaholic.me
Swimming App
SwimIO
SwimIO is perfect for passionate swimmers allowing you to set goals whilst the app helps you achieve them. You can find local swimming pools in your area and join challenges to compete with others who are as passionate about swimming. As well as the being able to track and analyse your progress to help keep you reaching your milestones.
Free, App Store, helloswimio.com/
Fitness Apps allow us to face facts and in doing so you can keep up-to-date with where you are excelling and where improvements can be made on your fitness journey. We hope you find some of these apps helpful within your training.
P.S If you are interested in finding out about personal training at PT Workspace you can contact [email protected]. In addition why not take a look at some of the personal trainers who already work with us https://www.ptworkspace.co.uk/trainers/.
Are You Losing Clients?
Its is a simple enough questions and one which could leave you feeling deflated when you are still giving 100%. Every personal trainer goes through the motions of losing clients, certain times of year can be more prone to seeing a drop off in clientele than other months. Such as summer when many clients go away on holiday or during the winter months when clients can lose motivation. PT Workspace studio manager Nathan has some tips to help build your clientele back up again, so you can restore some of that confidence in the job you love.
P.S If you are interested in finding out about personal training at PT Workspace you can contact [email protected]. In addition why not take a look at some of the personal trainers who already work with us & utilise our marketing support https://www.ptworkspace.co.uk/trainers/.
In our first blog called ‘On Your Bike’ we explored the break down of the ‘Power phase’ which is the first half of the motion of pedalling which utilizes the hip extensors (gluteus maximus muscle). This post will be focusing on the second phase called ‘Recovery’ which focuses on the Ankle Dorsiflexors, Knee flexors and Hip flexors. In doing so we have put together a workout video which maximises the ‘Recovery phase’ to go alongside the ‘Power phase’ in last weeks blog post.
The Recovery phase workout is broken down into 3 key exercises.
Front Squat
Deadlift Trap Bar
Hamstring Curl Swiss Ball
To find out how to implement this workout into your routine, watch our short video below.
P.S If you are interested in finding out about personal training at PT Workspace you can contact [email protected]. In addition why not take a look at some of the personal trainers who already work with us https://www.ptworkspace.co.uk/trainers/.
On Your Bike!..
Summer is here and so is the lycra! London is a city of passionate cyclists and after this year’s successful Tour de France, we thought what better time to give you some top tips for training those legs to help reach your cycling goals. Whether it is to make your journey to work more pleasant on your body, or you have a big challenge you are working towards, then have a quick look at our short videos broken up into two posts to make sure you are developing the right muscles to help build strength and stamina like an athlete.
To start you need to understand a little anatomy (don’t worry we will keep it simple) of the muscles which are worked when you cycle. The motion of pedaling can be broken up into two sections, the Power Phase and the Recovery Phase. The Power Phase is where you pedal down towards the ground with the leg almost full extended (12-6 O’clock) and the Recovery Phase is lifting back up towards the bike again (6-12 O’clock) diagram below alongside a more in-depth explanation.
- From the top of the pedal stroke, a cyclist utilizes their hip extensors (gluteus maximus muscle) which initiates the Power Phase of the pedal stroke until point at 3 on a clock face
- From the point of 3 to 5 on the clock face the knee extensors activate: vastus lateralis and vastus medialis. Many cyclists associate this point with generating the most force for their pedal stroke; this is particularly prominent while climbing out of the saddle on steep gradients.
- From positions 5 to 6, plantar flexion occurs, thanks to the gastrocnemius which causes the toes to point outwards.
Diagram and bullet points via https://skyaboveus.com/cycling/Muscles-groups-used-while-cycling. Author Liam Hallan
In the video below we are helping to target Hip Extensors, Knee Extensors & Ankle plantar Flexors (Power Phase)
In the next video we will be exploring exercises which can improve the Recover Phase. Combine both workouts to receive maximum results from exercises.
P.S If you are interested in finding out about personal training at PT Workspace you can contact [email protected]. In addition why not take a look at some of the personal trainers who already work with us https://www.ptworkspace.co.uk/trainers/.