Part II: Top 5 Mobile Fitness Apps

If you enjoyed the last mobile apps post, here is a list of more fitness apps to help keep you moving. These apps need to be purchased, but the features included in each make the fee worth it.

5 Best Paid Fitness Apps

1.  Nike+GPS, $1.99 : Available for iPhone with iOS 4.0 or later. The GPS technology tracks all of your indoor and outdoor workouts. The app records your pace, distance, route, and shows your progress. You can save your routes on the map to repeat the same one later. Users get voice feedback on how the workout is going and receive motivational messages from Nike athletes. By connecting to the Nike+ community, you can join challenges, set goals, and interact with others. The app also includes personalized power songs to motivate your workout.

2.  Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock, $0.99: Available for iPhone 3.0 or later. Set an alarm and place the phone by your pillow when you sleep. The app analyzes your sleep patterns and wakes you up at the best time during the last half hour of your sleep. It recognizes when you are in the lightest sleep phase so you feel more rested when awoken. The app also includes instructions for how to correctly place phone and records sleep data for every night you use it. Used by more than 1,000,000 people!

 

3.  BeatBurn Treadmill/Outdoor Trainer, $3.99: Available for iPhone with iOS 4.1 or later. BeatBurn analyzes the beats per minute of the songs on your iPod and selects the best songs to match the intensity of your workout. It can also change the beat as needed to match the pace of your feet to keep you working hard. The app is a progressive program with interval training and changing intensity levels. So, you can set your fitness level, workout length, location, program, and speed to program a personal workout. BeatBurn tracks speed and calories, and a personal trainer gives voice tips in the background. The app also includes 24 high BPM songs to enjoy!

 

4.  Couch-to-5K, $1.99: Available for iPhone with iOS 4.0 or later. Couch-to-5K is the winner of the 2012 Appy Award for best Healthcare and Fitness App. It helps new runners get off the couch and training for their first 5K in just 9 weeks, with 20-30 minute workouts, three times a week. Users can choose a virtual personal trainer to help push the workouts and can advance to the next step as they feel ready. Progress is tracked on the iPhone, as well as online at Active.com. Distance, pace, and running routes are also recorded through a free GPS. Couch-to-5K provides the motivation for getting started, plus support from others. You can sync personal playlists to your workouts and even get discounts on 5K races in your area.

5.  Fitness Buddy, $0.99: Available for iPhone and Android with iOS 4.0 or later. This fitness app includes more than 1700 exercises with instructions, 1000 videos, and 4000 photos and animations. It also has more than 75 workout routines categorized by available equipment, muscle groups, and goals, or you can build your own routine. The app tracks body weight and metrics, graphs body progress, and logs exercise history for easy reference to past workouts. Blood pressure tracking is also available in the newest version.

 

Interested in accessing these awesome apps on your phone? You can download them using your smartphone or computer. From your Android device, click the “Market” icon. Browse or search for the app you want, and then tap the “Free” button or price of the app next to its name. From your computer, go to market.android.com and sign in to your Google account. When you find the app you want to download, click on the icon or the name and then click the “Install” or “Buy” button. The app will automatically download to your Android phone.

To download an iPhone app, you need an account on the Apple store website. When you have a username and password, click the App Store button on your iPhone. Find the app, hit the button that says “Free” or indicates the price, and then hit “Install.” Enter your username and password and the app will start downloading. Enjoy your new app as soon as the download is complete!

To update your iOS software, connect your device to your Mac or PC. In iTunes, select your device and click “Check for Updates” in the summary tab. Download and install any available updates.

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.

Part 1: Eliminate Running Injuries -> How to Train

RUNNERS….looking to improve your efficiency, increase your mileage, and stay on the road (i.e. keep injuries at bay)?  As runners, we love to run, and we crave those natural endorphins provided by each outing.  We can get our “runner’s high” by running anywhere from 2 to 50+ miles.  We each know how our own body responds to training from the inside-out.  We carefully plan our courses and mileage to perfect our training for the ultimate performance at our upcoming 5k, 10k, ½ marathon, marathon, and even ultras.  But sometimes a training program can lack a crucial piece of the puzzle for improving running efficiency, endurance, and injury prevention.

What is this crucial piece of training that some runners miss?  -  HIP STABILITY

Many believe that hip stability and strength are only important for lateral movements and motions, like those found in such sports as basketball, volleyball or tennis.  As runners, we rarely engage in such side-to-side motions.  Generally, when we run, we run in a straight line (unless dodging a crack in the road or the occasional dog in our path).  So why would we need to strengthen the muscles that control our hips?  

Hip stability and strength are important in injury prevention.  If our hips are not strong and stable we are more likely to develop poor running technique  that can lead to common running injuries such as back pain, IT band syndrome, knee pain, patellofemoral pain syndrome, Achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, and the list goes on and on.

Let’s dive into a little anatomy:

The gluteus medius (aka glute med) muscle originates on the outer side of our pelvic bone and inserts on the lateral side of the greater trochanter (a bony projection of our femur or thigh bone). 

A view of our posterior hip.

The glute med functions as our primary hip abductor.  Hip abduction can occur two ways.  First, hip abduction is the action of our femur moving outward to the side (in the open chain position).  Second when in the single limb stance position (or closed chain position), hip abduction occurs when the hip opposite our grounded leg elevates. 

    

  Left hip open chain abduction                Left hip closed chain abduction

So what happens when we lack glute med strength?

Weakness of the glute med can result in “hip drop” during the stance phase of running, walking or any other time we are in a single limb stance position.  Hip drop during the stance phase of running can change the mechanics both up and down our kinetic chain (aka our body).  Up the chain, hip drop can change the alignment of our back and neck which can also affect our shoulders and arm swing.  Down the chain, hip drop can result in knee valgus (knocked knee) and increased foot pronation (flat foot).  Lack of hip stability and consequently “hip drop” changes the mechanics of our running form which can place excess stress on areas not typically stressed and subsequent common overuse injuries can set in.

Lack of hip stability can also affect our running efficiency and endurance.  As we step and our hip drops (which causes changes throughout our kinetic chain), our body has to respond to keep us running in a straight path.  Thus energy is wasted correcting for these compensations and therefore our endurance also takes a hit.  The smoother we run and the less movement laterally and rotationally we have throughout our body, the better we can move straight ahead towards the finish line. 

Want to see if you may have some hip weakness?  Here is one way to check out your hip stability.  Start by standing in front of a mirror with your eyes closed and your hands on your hips.  Slowly lift up one leg while balancing on the other.  Open your eyes.  Do your hips look level or do they drop?

                        

        Level hips = hip stability                 Unlevel hips = hip weakness (right side)

So we have talked about anatomy and why we need hip stability.  So now how do we strengthen it? 

Simple!  Follow this sidelying series to improve your hip strength.  Start by performing 10 repetitions each side and progress up to 3 sets of 10 repetitions (or 30 repetitions total).

Exercise 1: hip abduction

Start by lying on your side with your lower leg bent and your top leg straight.  Your hips should be stacked one on top of the other.  Raise your top leg up to the ceiling.  Your shoulder, hip, knee, and ankle should remain in a straight line.  Do not let your leg come in front of your hip and do not let your hips roll backwards. 

                         

Exercise 2: Clams

Lying on your side, line up your shoulders, hips and ankles with legs stacked. While maintaining your heels and toes together lift your knee as high as possible without rotating trunk or pelvis backward.

                        

Exercise 3:

Complete exercise 2 and leave knee up while you lift your foot directly up in line with your knee (do not allow foot to go above knee!). Slowly lower foot with maintaining knee in elevated position, after feet are again stacked then lower knee to start position and repeat.

“knee up, foot up, foot down, knee down”

                       

Exercise 4:

Complete exercise 3 then extend your knee while maintaining height of leg, return to bent knee position, lower foot, lower knee.

“knee up, foot up, extend knee, bend knee, foot down, knee down”

Exercise 5:

Complete exercise 4, but repeat extending knee.

“knee up, foot up, extend knee, bend knee, extend knee, bend knee, foot down, knee down”

Exercise 6: Bicycles

Start in position of clams with foot up.  Now make a bicycle motion by bringing your thigh up and bending your knee.  Then extend your knee out while simultaneously bringing your leg to the back and bringing your heel to your butt.  Finally, pull your thigh back up towards your chest with your knee bent (starting position).  Repeat forwards bicycles.  Then reverse and perform backwards bicycles.  Maintain your pelvic position (don’t allow to rock back and forth) and make as big of a motion as you can.

                   

                                 Start position: thigh up and knee bent

                   

                           Extending knee out while starting to kick leg back

                    

                                  Bringing leg back and heel to butt

Coming up in a future blog…..progressing your hip strengthening to the standing position!

Have more questions regarding this topic or need assistance getting back to running from an injury?   Contact (785) 505-2712 (our hospital location) or (785) 505-3780 (our south location) and ask to speak with any of our Sports Physical Therapists.  We are here to get YOU back on the road!

Julia Noonan, DPT

Sports Physical Therapist

LMH Therapy Services