So I like running. I don’t “like it” like it, but because of scheduling issues, I can’t go to the gym anymore. In either case, I go jogging in the morning to keep myself healthy. For a few years, I used a specific app to track my exercise progress/how many times I’d worked out or jogged that week, etc. etc. Over the past couple of months, I found more and more that the app wasn’t working right. I’m not going to tell you which app it is, cause I like not being sued….but suffice it to say that even when I uninstalled and reinstalled it, the app would not work for me.
Not being able to use my old workout app was an odd dilemma for me. I had worked with this app for a while at the time. I was worried about losing my records, worried about having to learn a new way of doing things, concerned that I wouldn’t like the new app. This debate I was having with myself, I have to admit, lasted for a couple of months. Once the old app decided not to record my workout correctly, but then record “a four-hour workout” when I was sitting at my desk working, and I was officially done. I thought about it, and instead of going through a few different apps I went and checked out the native “workout” app that Apple offers, mildly skeptical that it would work like my previous app. Once I did make the switch, I found out some interesting things.
Change isn’t as hard as you think – I have to say that the workout app is excellent. As someone who promotes technological change for a living (and on this blog) you would think that it would be easy for me to swap over, but being human there was still the back of my brain which didn’t want to change. Yes, even I experience the need for familiarity. My faith in the need for change in the face of things that don’t work right was justified because the new app has been working out great.
It’s simple to use – Whenever you try something new; there is usually a period where you have to learn how to use the new thing, figure it out, and make sure that you’re using it right. Not so with the Apple Workout app. I like the fact that it’s simple to operate, you touch what type of workout you’re planning on doing, and it just works. I have used a couple of different apps where you have to tell the app what kind of workout you’re doing, what exercises and how many reps you plan on doing for it to spit out any information. Luckily with the native apple workout app, it’s a case of touching the workout you want and going and getting it done.
It adapts to your workouts – If the exercise you want to do isn’t there, don’t fret. I went to the gym, and there was no “gym workout” on my app, so I selected “Open workout” and when I was done the app not only identified it as a “gym workout” but also saved the settings for the next time that I went back. It also keeps the workouts that you did most recently at the top. I say “workouts” with the “s” because I’m assuming you’re fitter than I am and you do more than one thing.
I was successful in my swap of workout apps. If you’re finding that you are using an app that isn’t working for you, then my recommendation would be to change. I get that there are difficulties in making changes but it can (and usually does) workout in the end.
Do you use a workout app? Which one?
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