Part I: Top 5 Mobile Fitness Apps

With the boost in mobile phone usage and technology over the past decade, there is an endless supply of health and fitness information conveniently in your pocket. Mobile fitness apps make it easier to be aware of your daily activity, help you reach your health goals, and keep your daily workouts challenging and exciting. Here is a breakdown of the five best free health and fitness apps for smartphones.

5 Best Free Fitness Apps

1.       My Fitness Pal: This app is available for iPhone and Android with iOS 3.0 or later. It tracks calorie intake and expenditure with the largest food database of any app. It records the major nutrients you consume, remembers your favorite foods and recipes, and includes a recipe calculator and free barcode scanner. It has over 350 cardio and strength exercises to log, plus the ability to customize exercises for your personal workouts. The app also allows you to connect with friends and share your routines and achievements.

2.       Lose It!: This app is available for iPhone and Android with iOS 3.0 or later. It is also synched with loseit.com. This calorie and exercise tracker lets you create a plan, set goals, and log food and exercise through a searchable database. It remembers food, meals, and recipes previously logged for easy entry. Progress is tracked by day and week, including nutrient intake. Users can connect with friends through a friend list and follow each others’ activity. According to loseit.com, more than 85% of active users have lost weight, with an average loss of more than 12 pounds.

3.       iMapMyFITNESS: Available for iPhone with iOS 4.0 or later. This fitness app tracks all outdoor workouts and allows you to enter your indoor workouts. It records pace, distance, calories, elevation, nutrition, and maps your route. You can connect with friends, receive voice updates on progress, and post workouts to Facebook and Twitter. It is synched with its online database MapMyFitness.com, so your entries are also easily accessed from the Internet. Stemming from this app, iMapMyRUN and iMapMyRIDE are also available for specific tracking of your preferred outdoor workout (running or cycling).

 

4.       Nike Training Club: Available for iPhone with iOS 4.0 or later. This app includes 85 full-body workouts and short drills for building lean muscle, toning, and strengthening, plus gives access to celebrity workouts as user progresses. All exercises have step-by-step instructions and videos. You can set goals and fitness level for each workout to choose a routine that fits your personal criteria. It tracks the details of the workout and has the ability to share progress with friends. It also includes audio guidance and allows you to set your own playlist while exercising.

                                    

5.       RunKeeper: Available for iPhone and Android with iOS 4.0 or later. RunKeeper is the free version of the paid app Nike+ GPS and uses GPS technology to track fitness activity. It records your distance, time, pace, calories, and your path on the GPS map. The app is synched to the RunKeeper website (www.runkeeper.com), so you can view your workout history and see cumulative totals of vital stats. You can also share your progress on Facebook and Twitter through the website. The app includes audio that tells you if you’re behind your target pace, and it coaches you through interval training. You can also set an iPod playlist to start automatically when you begin your activity.

These five apps are FREE and easy ways to help you reach your health goals. Look for Part II on this topic, featuring the best paid fitness apps available, coming soon!

Composed by Emily Sis, University of Kansas Exercise Science Intern at LMH Therapy Services

Lawrence Memorial Hospital does not endorse or recommend any commercial products, processes, or services. The views and opinions of authors expressed on this website do not necessarily state or reflect those of Lawrence Memorial Hospital, and they may not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

Stay in the Game: Preventing Basketball Injuries

Basketball is one of the most popular sports played throughout the United States and certainly a focus of the Lawrence community.  Today’s game is played at a fast pace with emphasis on explosive jumps, sudden movements and physical toughness. From youth recreation leagues, to college hoops, playing this dynamic sport can lead to unwanted injury and a loss of playing time.

 

You want the big stage? Make sure you train smart to prevent injuries. 

Youth injuries sustained while playing basketball are surprisingly high. It is estimated that over 325,000 basketball related injuries are evaluated and treated in hospital emergency departments each year from ages 7-17 according to recent data obtained from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Basketball injuries are also shown to be the most common sport to lead to emergency department visits for male athletes and second most common for female athletes. The most frequent diagnosed injuries, in order: ankle sprains, finger sprains, finger fractures, knee sprains, and facial lacerations. Surprisingly, females had a higher rate of knee sprains and males had a higher rate of ankle sprains.

Basketball players are at risk for traumatic injuries, such as finger injuries due to the nature of the sport. Fortunately, there are strategies you can implement to help reduce ankle and knee injuries common to both male and females.

Develop and maintain appropriate cardiovascular endurance: Many competitive and recreational athletes suffer knee and ankle injuries toward the end of basketball games. When players become tired or fatigued, it appears muscle control decreases leading to increased stress on fragile ligaments.

Perform a dynamic warm-up routine before playing: Research studies have shown cold muscles are more prone to injury.  Prepare your body for the physical demands of basketball by performing a series of dynamic movements to increase your core temperature, activate muscles for explosive movement, and excite your nervous system for activity. Examples of exercises to perform include 10 repetitions of body weight squats, forward lunges, side lunges and simple jump jacks.

Increase functional glute strength: Greater than 70% of season ending ACL knee sprains are non-contact injuries and are associated with poor knee position when cutting or landing. The glute musculature complex is the foundation that controls knee position. Glutes must be developed to protect the knee and ankle from injury when the leg decelerates or stops. Consider adding single leg dead lifts and monster walks with elastic band wrapped around your ankles to your exercise routine.

Players need to be medically evaluated for persistent pain: Many of the injuries in basketball can be treated without a visit to the emergency department. Avoid the mistake many players and parents of injured players make by not seeing their primary doctor in fear of being held out of participation. It is not uncommon for athletes to have chronic pain that seems benign; however, not treating the cause of this pain may lead to significant injury and more aggressive treatment.

As a sports enthusiast and physical therapist, my goal is to help keep you in the game and free of injury through education. If in need of sports or orthopedic injury rehabilitation services, please call Lawrence Memorial Hospital Therapy Services at (785) 505-2712 for a consultation.  

This information is provided as an educational service and is not intended to serve as medical advice. Anyone seeking specific medical advice or assistance should consult his  or her physician.

Adam Rolf is a licensed sports physical therapist, certified athletic trainer and certified strength and conditioning specialist employed at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. He can be reached via email at adam.rolf@lmh.org and twitter @lmhsportsrehab.

Core Stability Training

Guest Post by Emily Sis, University of Kansas Intern at LMH Therapy Services

Many people think that having a “good” core means rock-hard abs and chiseled, six-pack muscles. Sure, performing a couple hundred crunches per day will make your abdominal muscles more noticeable, but it doesn’t help you use the core during everyday functional activites or sports. Unfortunately, just because you have a six-pack doesn’t mean you can correctly perform a simple squat or lunge. These exercises require integration of all the core muscles, not just the superficial abdominal muscles that are isolated with crunches. This shows the importance of core stability.

A stable core is necessary to hold the spinal column in alignment during all the movements you do throughout the day. The deep muscles of the core that surround the spine are the transversus abdominis, multifidus, the diaphragm, and the pelvic floor muscles. If the spinal column does not get enough support from these muscles, other muscles must compensate and are overused. This can lead to muscle strains, ligament tears (ACL tear) and back pain.

Since these core muscles link the trunk to the shoulders and hip, their activation is essential for initiating limb movements, like throwing a baseball or kicking a soccer ball. Performing exercises to gain core stability helps with balance and coordination needed in all sports and daily activities.

If you’re not sure where to begin building your deep core muscles, first just practice activating these muscles. Often called “bracing” or “hollowing,” work on tightening in your tummy as if you are laughing or are about to be punched in the stomach. After practicing this, the next step is working on stabilization by doing bridge exercises and planks.

You can then progress to functional movements using balance and coordination with a stability ball or resistance bands to further increase your core stability. By building your core with these exercises, functional movements can be performed correctly and athletes will see a higher performance level and fewer injuries.

Looking for a challenge? Check out these rotational stability ball exercises:

The Scorpion

Single Leg Bridge 'n Curl

Composed by Emily Sis, University of Kansas Exercise Science Intern at LMH Therapy Services