Fitness Friday - Runkeeper App Mini-Review

My lack of progress on the weight loss front notwithstanding, my quantity and quality of exercise has been on the upswing over the last few months.

As I mentioned yesterday, I am a former jogger trying to get back in the habit. A friend introduced me to Runkeeper, an exercise tracking app that (Unlike Nike+) works on Droid phones.

First off, the app interface is about as simple to use as it can be. It gives you lots of options for type of activity (walk, run, cycle, hike ... ), you hit start and it tracks where you go and approximates your calories burned. Geek cool, it also records your route so you can look on a map and look at where you went.

Also interesting is the elevation tracker, so you can see the ups and downs of the exercise. If you go multiple laps around a trail, you can see each lap by the elevation record.

There is also a section for notes about the exercise, but I'm usually not in the mood to type on the phone after running/walking.

Finally, at the end of your exercise you just hit stop and save... it's all good.

The Runkeeper setup automatically emails you when you set new personal records, which is kind of annoying and fun at the same time.... your call on that.

Their are other tracking and social network functions with a paid version of the app, but what they give for free is impressive, simple and useful.

Most importantly, it hasn't crashed during an exercise, even when receiving calls etc.

If you like to get outdoors for your exercise, this is a very useful and motivational tool. You can also manually enter exercises if you run on a treadmill etc.

Personally, my diet needs a lot of work, but so far getting back into a pattern of regular exercise has been very good for both body and mental health.

I would say "Highly Recommended" on the Runkeeper app.

Don J.