Jack LaLanne opened the first fitness club in the United States in 1936. The place was Oakland, CA, and the concept of the health club was entirely absurd. Doctors warned their patients to stay away from the gym, alleging that spending time on fitness in a club was not necessary for optimal health. Says LeLanne of the rumors at the time, “People thought I was a charlatan and a nut. The doctors were against me -- they said that working out with weights would give people heart attacks and they would lose their sex drive.” Regardless, the accusations never stopped LaLanne from becoming the first notable personal trainer and becoming dubbed the godfather of health club fitness. Now nearly 80 years later, there are health clubs of every variety on nearly any given block in the country. Large catch-all gyms like 24-Hour Fitness offer memberships for as low as $30/month, making the fitness club an accessible option for the masses. Boutique gyms like yoga studios, pilates studios, or crossfit warehouses are taking the country by storm as Americans find new and different ways to get their sweat on. Within these different fitness centers are coaches and trainers whose sole role is to motivate, educate and teach clients how to properly exercise to attain results while avoiding injury. Enter the next wave of fitness industry development: fitness apps. The applications have similarly swept American attention, as there are apps for nearly every type of fitness tracking and motivation a person looking to exercise could need -- heart rate tracking, pace setting, caloric intake tracking, goal setting, you name it. These apps provide many of the functions a fitness complex is built for, which leads to the natural question: Do fitness apps threaten the booming personal trainer industry? Possibly - and here’s why. Convenience The average American commutes 51 minutes a day, effectively reducing a 24 hour day of activity to 23. Factor in actually working a job, eating some meals, and sleeping in some cases, and our collective American schedules are pretty packed. This leaves room for the desire to find ways to make extra time where possible, especially off the road given commuting woes. Fitness Buddy is an app complete with a variety of exercises to meet just about any fitness need, anywhere a user may be. Workouts are offered to target specific muscle groups and goals, and include a touted 17,000+ exercises with step-by-step instructions, animations and videos. So, if a workout can be performed in a backyard or living room, why not spare that commute time and get it done on site? Fitness apps are the answer for this possibility - and people are loving it. Cost Effective Gym memberships range, providing options for just about everyone. There are the aforementioned $30/month memberships, as well as places like the YMCA that offer financial assistance or memberships on a sliding scale -- but there are pricey gyms out there as well. The popular club Corepower Yoga, founded in Colorado and now in states across the country, offers memberships starting at $135/month. Pilates and crossfit studios also run along the same lines, which can prove a high bar to scale for persons who enjoy these activities but can’t afford to make it happen. FitStar, for example, is a free app that offers fitness videos hosted by former NFL player Tony Gonzalez to provide a robust collection of workouts for the typical gym user. Yet the company created a secondary app for exercisers who specifically enjoy yoga, FitStar Yoga, which is alsao free to download. Fitness apps for these types of exercises are now rampant, inexpensive, and again - convenient. Accountability One of the biggest arguments for personal trainers, besides of course their experience tailoring exercises to a specific person, is their championship at motivation. Having an appointment with another human often forces us as a species to consider meeting obligations, and the personal trainer is a perfect example of that. Yet with fitness apps living in phones near their users at all times, push notifications ping dieters and weight losers to stay on track and get in shape, even letting users know when other people are working out. For example, MapMyRun is an app built for tracking distance, but paired with social features to sync with user’s Facebook accounts and connect with friends who also use the app. When push notifications are enabled, couch potatoes can see when friends go on a run, guilting the user’s competitive spirit with tacit encouragement to hit the pavement. There are also apps like Kiqplan, which works as an overall plan to hold the user accountable over a 12-week period. Among the plans offered are Slim and Trim and Beer Belly Blaster, while the app as a whole is marketed as “your own digital coach.” Users are rewarded with milestones and reminders, replacing some of the core functions of a live personal trainer.   The benefits around fitness apps could possibly outnumber those of personal trainers. Yet will they necessarily replace the trainer altogether? Only time will really tell, as more and more fitness apps hit the market and answer the demand of app users across the country. Do you think fitness apps will replace trainers? Let us know in the comments below.

Technology has made certain things in life just a little bit easier, and that’s not a bad thing. Customized health and fitness is possible thanks to mobile technology advancements such as apps! The Journal of Medical Internet Research recently reported that people who use fitness apps spend more leisure time in active pursuits — and are more motivated to reach fitness goals. Here’s a look at some of the best health and wellness apps to download for your own health: Zombies, Run! If you’re looking for something to get you moving, Zombies, Run! is just the app. You’ll never find yourself bored because instead of just running, you are going on missions to build up a safe home base to protect against the zombie apocalypse. While on your missions, your distance and pace are tracked and recorded. The app is free for Android and iOS and offers in-app purchases. Spotify Running Music and movement go together and the popular music streaming app Spotify pairs them well. The app doesn’t just play songs you like, it picks a playlist based on your pace and running rhythm. It’s a great tool for keeping up your desired pace and rocking out while you sweat. Spotify apps are free on iOS and Android, with paid upgrades that are ad-free. ShopWell This nutrition app makes other calorie counters look basic. By customizing your meal plans, it helps you stay on track based on your goals, height, weight, and food sensitivities. ShopWell gives your food choices a score (the closer you get to 100, the better) and makes suggestions for healthier alternatives. You can use it for meal planning or keeping track of what you eat during a normal day (and make adjustments for the future). It’s like a dietician in your pocket — and it’s free for Android and iOS. Rise If an electronic nutritionist isn’t enough to keep you honest on your eating, try the Rise app instead. For $14.99 per week, you have a real nutritionist to consult. Simply take photos of your meals and snacks and send them to your personal coach. Based on what you provide, the expert will give you tweaks to eat healthier. Weight loss isn’t the only goal, either. If you are looking for more energy, training for an athletic event, or want to build more muscle, your Rise consultant will keep you on track. So far, it’s only available on iOS devices. Happify Keep your emotional health on track with this free app for Android and iOS. When you first download it, you fill out a profile that delves into the mental health goals you desire — from lowering stress to working through resentment or grief. The app comes loaded with daily activities to keep your emotional health in check. Remember that issues like depression may need more than just an electronic component, and to seek out an in-person professional if you are struggling. Sleep Cycle Are you getting enough sleep? If you wake up feeling groggy every day, you probably need more shut-eye. But how much do you need, and how do you know if you reach that goal? The Sleep Cycle app takes the guesswork out by tracking your resting and waking patterns. It then sets an alarm within a half hour of your best window for waking. The basic app is free for iOS and offers in-app purchases, but costs .99 cents on Android devices. Consider mobile health and wellness apps as motivational tools to keep you on track. Customize your own health plan based on these and the thousands of other options out there for an even healthier you.

We spend significant time on our mobile devices for a wide range of reasons. Much of it is for social engagement, some of it is for managing schedules, other times it’s playing games to get through that meeting in which Jerry just won’t stop talking. Yet one thing we can overlook is how our brain can get atrophied from lack of, shall we say, exercise. Some app developers refuse to stand for that, and get to work building mobile and web applications that not only train your brain, but are fun to use too. Let’s take a look at the best ones they’ve come up with so far.   Elevate A creation brought to life by the collaboration of developers, neuroscientists and cognitive learning experts, Elevate is an overall brain training app. Complete with games of varying kinds that include cartoonish characters like dolls, birds, spaceships, Elevate works to sharpen how you speak, listen, write, and read. The goal is to improve your overall communication skills, which directly translates to real life as you can process information better and socialize with others more eloquently. The use of vibrant cartoons makes it easy to get addicted, as it feels more like a game than an educational tool.   Luminosity Similar to Elevate, Luminosity is also an overall brain training app. The focus of Luminosity however is to strengthen “core” cognitive abilities such as memory, attention span, problem solving, and pattern recognition. By working on these abilities the user will be more equipped for performing real life tasks like decision making and remembering names. Perhaps you’ll finally be able to remember the people you meet at networking events, and the business cards you go home with will actually mean something. With muted down colors and pattern recognition strategies, the games improve brain skills in a subtle and memorable manner.   Duolingo Learning a second, third, or fifteenth language is excellent for the brain. It improves memory retention, slows the onset of Alzheimer’s for older learners, improves test scores for younger learners, and bilinguals have denser grey matter than people who only speak one language. Yet blocking out time to learn a language can be a challenge, a common problem that Duolingo aims to solve. The free language learning app provides an excellent way for the busy person to learn and practice their new language literally anywhere they are. To start, the app requires that you set a goal for how much time you want to spend on the app, e.g. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc. each day. From there the app takes you through a series of games, lessons and exercises to train your brain how to navigate through the new language. Gamification is infused every step of the way, as the learner earns hearts for doing well, but loses them when answers are wrong. Run out of hearts - game over and start the game again. While you naturally learn commonly used phrases, every now and then the app throws a teaser such as, "I have a snake in my boot." Who doesn't love a random Toy Story reference?   Personal Zen Carving out time to meditate or simply chill out can be impossible. Enter Personal Zen, the app designed to help users focus more on the positive and less on the negative for the purposes of reducing anxiety and stress. Users follow two characters through their adventures, one a positive, calm and friendly avatar, the other an angry, hostile figure. The easy-to-play game is set on a grass field and players swipe the ruffled grass until you've swiped over all of it. The trick is to swipe as quickly and accurately as you can. As the game progresses, users are conditioned to choose positive options and thinking over negative. Dr. Shannon M. Bennett, Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College endorsed the app saying, “Personal Zen brings cutting-edge research and well-established strategies for reducing anxiety and stress into the palm of your hand.”   Happify The benefits of being happy absolutely apply to the brain. Happify is the gaming app intended to do just that by recommending activities daily to help you reach goals such as feeling peace of mind, more engaged, gratefulness, feeling more motivated or excited about the future. The user can also select games they feel like playing that day to focus on a particular aspect of happiness like boosting self esteem or appreciating the little things. With statistics showing that 86% of frequent users report improvements in their happiness in just 2 months of use, it’s worth the free download. Want to develop the next app to improve brains across the world? Ping us and let’s see what we can do.