Are fitness apps worthwhile?

When it comes to free iPhone fitness apps, most of the popular ones are in need of a boot camp to bulk up their utility—at least according to a new study out of the University of Florida.

The researchers examined the top 100 free health and fitness applications on iTunes in order to see how many met the recommended guidelines for physical activity. 70 apps were eliminated, because an App had to be exercise-based in order to qualify for the study.

The recommended exercise guidelines come from the American College of Sports Medicine, which according to the review is the leading organization working on creating and modifying exercise programs. The ASCM requires three elements of a successful exercise prescription program: aerobic exercise, strength and resistance exercise, and flexibility.

The ASCM also recommends how much time should be given to each of the three areas within a standard exercise program, which was used in determining how apps were rated. Also included in scoring were parameters for safety, warm-ups, cool-downs, stretching, intensity, frequency, and progression.

How many are worth your time?

More than half the apps included some of the recommendations for aerobic exercise and around 90% met the criteria for strength and resistance. Flexibility, however, was a problem area: two-thirds of the apps did not meet any of the criteria.

“Several of the apps contained high-quality content in one of the three categories, but almost none of them had high-quality content in all of them, especially flexibility,” said Heather Vincent, co-author of the paper, in a press release. “This is a problem because flexibility is important for good exercise form, relaxation, and cool-down.”

The top-scoring app was Sworkit Lite Personal Workout Trainer App, which garnered 9.01 out of 14 points, meaning it met over half the criteria. Two other apps met over half as well: the C25K—5K Trainer Free app and Running for Weight Loss.

Besides falling generally short on ASCM standards, 23 out of the 30 apps provided no sort of training plan, did not explain how to choose a workout, or did not explain how to organize workouts across a week—which makes it hard for beginners to follow a safe and productive regimen.

“While apps have great potential to give more people access to workouts that could help them achieve a healthy weight and fitness level, we found that the vast majority of apps are not as safe as they could be and do not give users the type of well-rounded workouts known to be most effective,” said François Modave, associate professor of health outcomes and co-author of the review.

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