Jacob Lund/Shutterstock
x
Most $4.
Less than a quarter of adults aged 18 to 64 met the government's recommended $4 between 2010 and 2015. Those guidelines call for healthy adults to do a minimum of two and half hours of moderate intensity activity - or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity - plus at least two muscle-strengthening days a week.
Exercise is essentially the $4 - something that can extend life, boost mood and improve mental health, fight disease, and just make you feel better as you live your day-to-day life.
But once you decide it's time to get fit, it can be hard to know where to start. Fitness apps can help.
No app is a solution on its own, but there's more and more evidence that whether your goals are to $4 or $4, apps that can guide workouts can help.
One of the top apps for getting in shape is the free version of the Sworkit app, which functions as a sort of playlist for exercise, whether you want to do bodyweight strength exercises, stretches, cardio, or yoga. The company behind the app$4 from Mark Cuban after appearing on "Shark Tank," and there's scientific evidence backing the use of Sworkit for training, too.
In 2015, a team of sports scientists $4 and found that Sworkit was the most closely aligned with the American College of Sports Medicine's (ACSM) $4.
Those guidelines say a workout should include aerobic, strength, resistance, and flexibility components; it should follow evidence-based guidelines for frequency, intensity, and types of workouts; and it should include safety measures to help make sure beginners start at a safe point.
No app was perfect, the analysis found (and most were terrible). The biggest concern that researchers had is that by getting a workout from an app instead of a trainer, a person might try to do more than they should and injure themselves.
But overall, that analysis found that Sworkit provided useful guidelines for strength training, cardio, and flexibility exercise, and I personally have found it a fun and effective way to fit in a workout on busy days.
(It is worth noting that $4 had many of of the same concerns about injuries, and that analysis didn't rank Sworkit as highly as several other popular apps worth trying, including Nike+ and the top choice in that analysis, the $4, highly recommended by my colleague Erin Brodwin.)
But if you're interested in a playlist of exercises that can be done without equipment and for a variable duration of time, we'd recommend giving Sworkit a try. Here's how it works.