Sworkit Kids app mini-review

I've downloaded some apps for my phone with the goal of getting my 4 year old more interested in fitness, and I'm continuing to post some mini-reviews as we try out these apps.

We tried "Sworkit Kids" next.  I first heard of Sworkit on Shark Tank - they've got an app for adults where you can build customized workouts that you can easily do at home with no additional equipment.  Sounds great!  

Even better, they've got a kids-focused version, though they do describe it as being for kids 7-14.  So I use this app with him and make the key decisions, and then we do the workouts together.  

First, you select the type of workout - strength, agility, or flexibility and balance (or you can create a custom workout but I haven't done that yet).  You can choose a time (5 minutes and up) and the app puts together 30 seconds of various exercises. again with a short demo (5 seconds) and then 30 seconds to do it -- with the exercise continuing to be shown. Bonus is that this is designed for kids, so you see kids doing the movements. 

I really, really like this app.  Watching the kid do the exercise while the countdown is happening is key.  After every 5 exercises, it gives a 30 second break which is nice.  The graphics are clean, the voice guidance is calming and clear, and there's a ton of customization in here to be explored.  It's also a free app and ad-free.  Highly recommended!

Fitbreak app mini-review

Recently, I downloaded some apps for my phone with the goal of getting my 4 year old more interested in fitness.  He's a visual guy, so I'm hoping this might entice him more than me just saying "hey, let's do a plank!" ;)  I'm going to post some mini-reviews as we try out these apps.

First, we tried the "FitBreak" app, developed by Weight Watchers.  It's full of one minute exercises.  You watch a quick (15-30 seconds) demo, then a 3 second countdown, and then you watch a timer count down while you do that exercise for one full minute.  My son loves to watch timers and count anything down (who knew microwaves could be so thrilling?), so this appeals to him.   

However, I really didn't like that you only see a big timer for that sixty seconds - you're not watching the actual exercise again.  I used a screenshot they provide on their web site here to show how it look.  It's great for little man who loves to countdown, but not so great when mama is trying to get him to do the movements with her.  

You can filter the exercises by environment (work, outside, home), intensity (low, moderate, high), and target area (arms/shoulder, abs, butt, legs, full body and cardio).  I like that you can do this type of customization, but it's frustrating that you spend so much time in the app without following along with an exercise.  30 seconds of demo, plus 3 seconds countdown - and then you do your movement for 60 seconds with no reference video or images.  Disappointing.

Overall I'm not recommending this as an app to use with young kids, but looks possibly motivating for adults who can only squeeze in a few minutes of activity at one time.

Happy Scale!

OK, so I'm not happy with my scale at the moment - I'm up a few pounds from the birthday weekend of indulgence, but I trust it will come back down soon.

However, I discovered a new-to-me app for my phone that I'm happy about: Happy Scale.  It's nicely designed (I believe a redesign came out recently, so their web site doesn't have the prettier screen shots) and I love the functionality.

In particular, it allows you to focus on smaller milestones and the overall trends.  From where I started a year ago, I want to lose 100 pounds - and this app nicely breaks it up into 10 milestones for me (I could choose more or less milestones, too) and then helps me see how much until I hit the next milestone.  Lovely motivation!

I also love the focus on trends.  Yep, I've gained 1.2 in the past 7 days when you look at the trend (and not the 5 1/2 pounds if you look at the raw numbers) -- and honestly, I'm still 38.5 pounds down for the past year, so yeah me.  Doesn't look like I'm going to hit 4 pounds for February, but that's another story... ;)

And yes, the free version has a simple banner ad at the bottom that I didn't even notice until I took this screenshot ;)

Here's the report chart for the past 90 days for me -- I LOVE that it has an option to export this chart without the weight values listed!  Y'all don't need to know the exact weights ;)

Again, the focus is on the trend here - the dots are the individual weights for the days, but the smoother blue line is the overall trend.  Creatively, the green area is showing the difference from that date and 30 days prior (which would be red if that trend is higher than it was 30 days ago).

Overall, I love this app.  I think there are some more advanced features that you can unlock if you upgrade to the deluxe version (and it eliminates the ads), but for now, this is working well for me.  Kudos to you, Mr. Happy Scale developer! ;)