Are you looking for a way to train from home? Your smartphone can come to your rescue, thanks to many useful and well-made apps to suggest exercises even without tools , and give you the right pace to not overdo it, whether you are already well trained or not. After all, training at home is not a very common practice, and it is therefore good to do it in the right way. It would be the limit to get hurt trying to stay in shape, right? Especially in this period.
So let’s see 21 different fitness apps to try to satisfy every need. The applications are all free of charge and therefore can be used by anyone, but many of these require a form of subscription to unlock all the features.
What are the best fitness apps of 2021?
If you are already drawing up the list of your good intentions for the costume fitting, a fitness app could be the help you were looking for to train at home and outdoors in complete autonomy.
The long closure of the gyms imposed by the anti-COVID-19 measures has made the boom of apps for training grow: from running to the mobile personal trainer to bodyweight workouts and Yoga exercises.
The online training programs via the app are a valid support for not indulging in laziness, with consistency I can offer an excellent alternative to the normal gym. The trick to using them to the fullest? Consistency and setting your goals.
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Best Fitness Apps For Your Fitness Goals
Get ready to download one or more home workout apps directly to your mobile. This is, in fact, the best guarantee of a professional training , which allows you to sculpt your body without running the risk of injuries or sweating a lot by completely wrong movements.
Here at Gurulex, then, are 21 of the best apps for training at home.
1. Nike Training Club
A selection of over 185 free workouts by the well-known sportswear brand. You can choose between strength and resistance exercises, without forgetting yoga and mobility sessions, all with the support of qualified experts (Nike Master Trainers). It is interesting to be able to customize your training program according to your goal, starting level, lifestyle, etc.
2. SWEAT: Kayla Itsines Fitness
Dedicated to women, it is the largest female fitness community in the world. At the helm is the internationally renowned personal trainer Kayla Itsines who, together with other PTs, offers cardio and toning circuits. Not only that: in addition to the workouts, the app offers nutritional guides to support. Free for the first week.
3 Pocket Yoga
2019 is also the year of slow training, which doesn’t necessarily make you sweat. This app is therefore to be downloaded immediately, which shows the yoga positionson the smartphone screen (plus it has an attractive animated graphic!). Are you at your debut in the world of Asanas? Don’t panic: an accurate little dictionary is available that explains each movement very clearly.
4. Push Ups Pro
If your goal is to strengthen your biceps, here is the home workout app for you. What it does is count the lifts and pushups and calculate the calorie consumption from time to time. Not only that: you can set your body building goals and get a customized training regimen. The promise: tone your arm muscles (user reviews are rave!).
5. Keep, the home trainer
In the database over 400 exercises, to be chosen from cardio and HIIT training, others for toning, others for strength, others for slimming. What unites the various workouts is that they do not require equipment: just use your own body weight to perform the various exercises. And so you save more money, in addition to the gym and personal trainer.
6. 30-Day Fitness Challenge
For bodyweight training, here is an app that encourages you to improve your fitness in a month of training aimed at strengthening thighs, arms, buttocks or abs, but also shedding unwanted pounds. Created by professional coaches, it spreads the program over 30 days, also in this case by embracing the philosophy of personalization.
7. Virtuoso
An application that encourages and rewards people who choose to follow a healthy lifestyle. The concept is simple, but brilliant: the more you try, the more you earn. The possibility to challenge colleagues is also fun, as well as pluses such as sleep analysis and guided meditation path.
8. Sworkit: Personal Trainer
If you have unlikely schedules or very tight deadlines, Sworkit is the app that could be for you. It offers a series of videos with exercises suitable for all levels of experience and with many different disciplines, from yoga to stretching, from aerobics to weightlifting.
The app is free for seven days, then offers two different subscription options ( monthly for 9.99 euros and annual for 59.99 euros). You can select workouts for any duration between 5 and 60 minutes with videos and trainers explaining exactly what to do. The workouts are all bodyweight and do not include tools. It is possible to train different parts of the body such as the upper, lower, trunk, abdominals, buttocks, back and legs focusing on cardio, strengthening, yoga, stretching, pilates exercises.
Best Home Workout Apps (Free)
9. Exercise at home – Without equipment
If you are looking for ” exercises at home ” on the Play Store, this is probably the first app that will suggest you, and in fact the name fits perfectly. Graphically we are faced with a very well done job, with exercises divided into various categories: beginner, intermediate and advanced, with further modalities such as challenge, stretching and focus on specific parts of the body.
The various exercises are accompanied by a small animation that illustrates them, but if you want there is often also a dedicated video. The most positive thing is that the use of tools is not mandatory , not even simple barbells. These are series that you can do at home, perhaps with the help of a mat for some exercises, but nothing more. The main flaw is that it is certainly not all free, quite the contrary.
10. 30 Day Fitness Challenge – Home Workout
In shape in 30 days (this is the name of the app once installed) is by the same developers as the previous one, but it is more geared towards newbies, although it remains very complete. In fact, we have not only customized programs (for a fee, with the same formula already seen) but also a section entirely dedicated to diet.
The most interesting part is that of the challenges , which consists of workouts for the whole body or for specific areas, in turn divided into basic, intermediate and advanced. Each exercise is well explained, with cards in Italian and a small animation, and if that weren’t enough, there is also a video. Also in this case you will not need any particular tool, if not a lot of dedication.
11. Freeletics Personal Trainer – Training at home
Freeletics is a very complete app for training from home , with not only many different exercises, but also with a broader overview of the world of fitness. There is even a news section where users can post their workouts and share them with others. In spite of the name, the app is also useful outside the quarantine, with an entire section dedicated to sprints and races , and one dedicated to finding places to train close to you. There is also a coach for mental wellbeing, which in this period never hurts, with tips to sleep better, concentrate, find inspiration or even just train intelligently (this part is, however, with videos in English, although the rest of the app is all localized in Italian ).
Here too we have an entire paid part, the “ coach ” section, with various subscription formulas, but there are still many workouts, classified by duration, difficulty, level of experience and part of the body to train.
¨If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.¨ – Hippocrates – MORE QUOTES
12. Fitbit Coach
Don’t be fooled by the fact that it’s a Fitbit app – you won’t need it to work out. The app welcomes you with the ” Fit Test “, which will act as a warmup. Everything is guided by a voice in English (like the rest of the app) complete with a full-screen video that illustrates the various exercises, with timer, number of repetitions and other information on the screen, while in the meantime the voice of your coach (or coach) will continue to guide you. This part is very well done, as well as all the graphics of the app (one of the best ever) and it is a shame that it is all in English, because for some it could represent a bit of a barrier.
Another flaw of the app: the paid contents are the majority, at a now almost standard price, of about € 40 a year. Positive side: the Fitbit radio , which will accompany you with the right tone throughout your workout. You can also download the various sessions locally, so that they work even without a connection. We remind you, however, that the premium version is free for 90 days for new users, precisely to meet the particular current needs.
13. Tabata – Interval training at home
Tabata is a very basic app, which is why we really enjoyed it (fitness apps tend to have far too many sections). Abs, legs and buttocks, lower body, upper body, fat burner and ideal body . These are the 6 sections from which it is composed, each of which includes workouts of only 4 minutes at a time. As the Play Store explains, Tabata is a form of high-intensity interval training: intense workout for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, all for 8 reps.
The graphics of the app are quite simple compared to those seen so far, and the animations of the exercises in particular could be more accurate. The peculiarity of the 4 minutes, however, goes very well even with those who have little time (insert it well between one tomato and another ), moreover the full version costs only € 9.99 (forever).
14. Pilates exercises at home for beginners － Fitness
Let’s continue with the exercises at home, from a Pilates perspective this time, with an app intended for those who want to stay fit and maybe even keep their weight under control. Pilates Exercises has various pre-packaged plans, many of which are free; in any case, the full version costs only € 3.89, one of the lowest figures in this review. The cards include a simple animation to make you understand the exercise and a fairly detailed explanation, including the calories burned, also they can easily be changed by number of repetitions (but if you really want to change exercises you need the premium version).
There is also a section dedicated to selfies , which means you can take pictures of yourself and observe the improvements over time. In addition, there are various tips on breathing, and if you are not satisfied with the pre-packaged programs and would like to create your own, you can do it easily by choosing from the numerous exercises proposed, all easily performed without special tools.
15. Home Exercises – Diet and Personal Trainer
Workout at Home is one of the most comprehensive apps of its kind, and it even integrates a meal plan to help you get the right nutrition (including a vegetarian diet), as well as detailed graphs that track your progress.
There are various challenges , with varying length and difficulty, and various exercises, from strengthening to toning, and the cards of the individual exercises are quite well done, complete with links to videos on YouTube that illustrate the various exercises. The advertising sometimes it puts a little ‘in the middle, but the rest of the app is completely free, which, as you may have seen, is a rarity. If you don’t know where to start, Home Exercises can be a great starting point, and then if you are passionate about it you can always switch to more complete solutions.
16. Yoga for Beginners | Down Dog
Yoga is an excellent form of training, among other things one of those that can easily be practiced at home , and therefore we also want to offer you a couple of alternatives in this regard. As you can see, the term “Yoga for Beginners” is very popular. In this case it is the basic version of the more complete Down Dog app.
With Intro to Yoga (name with which it will appear on your phone) you will have three types to choose from: Vinyasa, Hatha and Regenerating . They are in order of difficulty, if you can say so, from the most demanding (Suderai! – the app threatens you), to simple relaxation / stretching. Once you have chosen the type of training that suits you, you can set a background melody and at that point all you have to do is carve out some time (about 10-20 minutes) for your Yoga session. You will have a full screen video in Italian all the time with an instructor who will guide you in all the poses, accompanied by a thick background music, ideal to see for example on TV.
17. Yoga for Beginners – Yoga Pose for Beginners
Unlike the previous one, this Yoga for beginners is very complete, and graphically very well done. The app is basically divided into two sections: focus , to focus on a specific part of the body, and explore , which contains more complete exercises. Regardless of what you choose, only the exercises for beginners are free, for everything else you will have to subscribe.
Each card, very detailed, presents the number of exercises, the time for each and the calories burned. Once you have started an exercise, a slightly metallic voice in English will guide you accompanying an animation that will illustrate the various poses. However, there are no writings to describe the exercise, which therefore may not be easily understood by those who do not chew English well.
Several features, such as the ability to create a custom plan, are paid , and what a fee! 115 € (50% discount) for the full version, or via monthly / annual subscription of 4.3 / 26 euros.
18. Senior Fitness
We wanted to close this review with an app dedicated to exercises for older people , who might find those proposed so far a bit excessive. Doing a search on the Play Store doesn’t find much, and Senior Fitness, although in English, seemed like the best solution.
The app is really very simple and straightforward : you basically just have to press to go on and you will be offered the exercises of the day, complete with a YouTube video (integrated into the app) to explain them in the best possible way. So you don’t need to know English well , just watch the animation and you should get away with it. And of course the exercises are all tailor-made for those who are no longer in their prime.
19. Imuscle2
Each muscle has its own exercise. The principle on which this app is based is simple: just click on any muscle of the virtual anatomical model, to find out which are the main exercises to train it, the secondary ones and even the stretching ones, all explained through small video tutorials. There is a wide choice, which includes exercises to be done in the gym with strength machines and others that can be practiced at home, even without tools. The only flaw: the explanation of the exercises is in English (but nothing impossible, ed).
20. Sweatcoin
If you are one of those who always need a small incentive, this is the fitness app for you: every 1,000 steps, counted using the GPS of your mobile phone, you get a sweatcoin, a virtual currency that can be spent in the app’s online store, where you can find a bit of everything: gadgets, clothing, air miles, even some latest generation hi-tech products. It goes without saying that the most precious prizes cost thousands of Sweatcoins, but a few are enough to earn upgrades of the same app, which – money aside – basically by pushing us to take 4 steps does us a big favor: when we walk, the blood flow increases, bringing oxygen and nutrients to the leg muscles and also to the brain. Result: we feel more energetic and with a more reactive mind.
21. Thenx
If calisthenics inspires you, it is the app for you: it offers a series of programs tested and developed over the years by professional instructors and athletes, in a progression suitable for any age and level of experience. Of course, becoming like Juri Chechi takes a lot: but Thenx is a good starting point, since it also offers video-tutorials that explain step by step, what to do to reach the more complex forms of this fascinating discipline, whose origins date back to ancient Greece.
22. Fitbod
It is a sort of personal trainer at the fingertips: from touch to touch we can choose which muscles to train, with which tools, for how long and if there are exercises that we want to exclude: few but precious information on which the Fitbod algorithm builds a personalized workout, complete with videos that show us how to do the exercises . A good reason to include it in the list of the best fitness apps of 2021 , even if it has a small flaw: it is suitable for those who already have some experience with workouts. But it doesn’t take much to learn.
Get the most out of your workout
Advice for everyone once you have downloaded your favorite app, here are some tips for the pre and post training phase.
- Warm-up
Never skip the warm-up: it helps avoid the risk of injury by preparing muscles for the next job and improving overall flexibility.
- Snacks, before and after
It would be advisable to have a snack an hour or two before sport, perhaps choosing a balanced bar to ensure the correct nutrients. The consumption of food during the half hour after training is also very important to start muscle recovery.
- Water, water, water
Never forget hydration, before and after sports. Natural water or, if necessary, hypotonic, isotonic and hypertonic drinks, enriched with sugars or salts. Remember that athletic performance suffers when you are under-hydrated.
- Supplements
Depending on the sport you practice, it may be appropriate to help yourself with tailor-made supplements. As the naturopath and nutritionist Laura Quinti explains, «it is always necessary to differentiate according to the discipline practiced, intensity and frequency. If yours is resistance training, carnitine optimizes fat metabolism, while BCAAs (branched amino acids) are useful after 40/50 minutes of prolonged physical activity to rebalance energy, promote protein synthesis and decrease catabolic phenomena “.
