Work (out) from home with these fitness apps

If you are like any working professional in Singapore, chances are you are either neck-deep in social obligations or constantly stuck at your office desk - or working at home amid Covid-19.

Thankfully, shelling out cash to sign up for a gym package or hiring a personal trainer is not always necessary when everything is available on your smartphone.

Here are some of the best fitness apps to help you work out in the comfort of your home.

CARROT FIT

This app acts as your sassy workout partner, implemented with motivational commentary of humour and snark.

Such seven-minute workouts include Celebrity Face Punching and Dragon Mating Dances. It also comes with an Apple Watch app and a body mass index calculator.

VIRTUAL RUNNER

If you are tired of the mundane treadmill workout, try this to create a fun simulative environment. Look to high definition videos of famous race courses and exotic locations so it feels like you are running in that virtual situation.

In-app purchases will open up to famous spots such as New York Central Park and a 5km run at Niagara Falls.

NIKE TRAINING CLUB

This highly raved-about app is great if you want to experience an intense sweat session across strength, endurance and mobility.

From body-weight workouts to full-equipment exercises across different intensity levels, there is bound to be a workout most suitable for you. You can also choose from drills and audio guides from professional Nike trainers or even celebrity athletes such as Serena Williams.

C25K

This app has a universal, built-in programme that aims to train a running novice - with the goal to get you to complete a distance of 5km in just nine weeks.

Before you shake your head and think that is impossible, the app starts with a mix of running and walking, gradually building up your strength and stamina.

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7 MINUTE WORKOUT CHALLENGE

The workout consists of 12 high-intensity exercises that you can complete in just seven minutes.

Bonus: It uses only your body weight as resistance and is an efficient way to burn calories and improve cardiovascular and muscular fitness. Studies have shown that if you keep to the exercises, it is the equivalent of working out for over an hour.

DAILY YOGA

This app offers personalised coaching and more than 500 poses for you to choose from. Boasting over 200 guided yoga, pilates and meditation classes, the classes are also sorted by parts of the body, so it is more convenient if you just want to tackle that leg or neck cramp.

Not only will the app help you be more flexible with your yoga poses and tone your muscles, it also calms your mind.

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SECONDS

This has been touted as one of the best interval time apps for circuit training, high-intensity interval training and CrossFit-type workouts.

The app comes with templates for common interval programming to build advanced timers. There is also a voice prompter at the end of each workout that prevents you from lying on the floor after each interval.

This article was first published in The Singapore Women's Weekly.