Serious guys in the gym walked around with notebooks and pens, writing down each approach, but as an IT journalist, I decided to turn to the fruits of technological progress and download an application for recording workouts on my smartphone.
Since I use an iPhone, I went to App Store. There were more than 20 fitness diaries, at first glance, almost identical. I chose the five most popular and started testing.
What did I need?
- The ability to save your training program in the application's memory.
- The ability to mark your workouts on the calendar to visually see how many times a week and what exactly I trained.
- So that when recording a workout, information about the last lesson is displayed on the screen - how many times and with what weight I performed the exercise at that time.
- To be able to add supersets and dropsets.
- It is desirable that the application has a base of exercises with pictures, where one could peep the technique and description.
iGym: everything you need. But it's not immediately clear.
There is almost everything you can dream of: an exercise base, creating your own program, two pre-installed standard programs, a workout with a built-in rest timer, a workout log, a progress graph, a timer for a workout in general (it is important to know how much you train - training in the gym should not take more than an hour and a half)
in the PRO version, you can create supersets of exercises - this is when you first do one exercise, and then immediately another, and this counts as one approach. Accordingly, the program offers you both exercises in turn, and not first one and then the other. As it turned out, this is not the most common function, although in training, someone rarely does without such a scheme.
The interface, however, is spartan, and not intuitive everywhere. In the part where you press "start" and train, everything is fine - you press the exercise, write it down, press "done", the program gives you the next exercise. But if, for example, you need to watch one of the past workouts, get ready for non-obvious access: you click on the day, click on the name of the workout, click "done" - instead of going to the workout just by clicking on the day.
There is absolutely no support for recording cardio workouts. More precisely, they can be entered, but as one of the items in the list of power ones. You can’t write down the time and intensity, you can’t track the quantity and quality of cardio workouts in a journal. For me, this is not a minus, since I do not do cardio, but looking at the number of occupied treadmills in my gym, a function would not hurt.
SportNote: too simple
The application is the second most popular after iGym, but it is completely unclear to me why. The interface is prettier than that of iGym - it seems to be five years out of date, but here everything is neat and even cute. This is where the benefits end, because the functionality of SportNote turned out to be rather meager.
The main drawback is the inability to add your training program to your smartphone, and the lack of a training calendar. Workouts are saved simply as a list by number - workout 1, workout 2, and so on. There is no class timer, no database pictures, no systematization of results - the same graph of growth in strength over time, which is important for tracking progress.
Another disadvantage is the insufficiently large base of exercises, since it is possible to enter them manually. If iGym did not know only 2-3 exercises from my program, then I had to manually enter 40 percent into SportNote.
In general, this application is definitely not suitable for my purposes, moving on to the next one.
GymBoom: not only a diary, but also an encyclopedia
When you log into GymBoom, you immediately see the calendar. Already good.
I was pleased with the gigantic database - there is a guide both to exercises (and broken down by muscle groups), and to nutrition and the training process in general. Right in the application, you can read about the basics of bodybuilding, periodization of training, stretching, training principles of popular athletes, and so on. A separate section is devoted to sports supplements. Hello, well done.
But here it turned out to be not very convenient to create a training program. Did I say something about the difficulty of iGym? Forget it. GymBoom does not have a “create program” button at all, it is done in the wilds of training planning.
But there is a class timer, and it turned out to be quite convenient to record data during training.
FitMeUp: for home and gym. But not free
This application is distinguished by the fact that, firstly, there are a lot of pre-installed training plans, including narrowly focused ones - take it and do it - and secondly, there are programs for both the gym and at home. Some of the programs are paid, and this is the catch: the application works by subscription, it costs 329 rubles per month. In iGym, there is no such luxury as a bunch of ready-made plans, but the paid version costs 149 rubles and one-time.
It is convenient to train: you press the "start" button, the system turns on the timer, including for warming up. Write down reps and weights.
I noticed a minus: you can not adjust the program during the training process. It happens that I change the number of approaches - I can master one more or remove one, and the system only allows me to follow a predetermined plan. I also keep shuffling exercises within the same workout, getting rid of some and adding others, which is impossible to do in FitMeUp.
And yes, you can’t create your own plan without premium, which makes the free version of FitMeUp unsuitable for my workouts.
GymUp: cool find
The latest candidate for the position of my training companion is GymUp. The application allows you to create your own programs and is able to select ready-made programs based on your experience and goals. You can train both on the street or at home, and in the gym.
A very cool thing - in each approach you can evaluate how difficult it was given on a five-point scale from “warm-up” to “limit”. This is really lacking in iGym: sometimes the same load is given differently in different workouts.
The system does not allow you to stay too long with a smartphone in your hand and reminds you that it's time to take the next approach. Completed exercises are marked in green in the program (by the way, this seemingly simple function is included in iGym in a paid package).
Recording every event in life is one of the trends modern world. Did you fry pancakes? In the network, even though they are burned, friends will like. Did you buy new shoes? Rather brag! Ran out of the border? Tell everyone, and as soon as possible, posting some more photos from the airport.
The tendency to keep all the details of life is called lifelogging. It was announced in October as one of the main trends of the future 2014. According to experts, it will gain momentum all over the world. Events from the lives of millions of people will be in social networks at a glance, of course, if in this palm there is a mobile device with unlimited access to the Internet.
Already, most cars have video cameras installed, which not only help to decide who is at fault in an accident, but also provide YouTube with funny and not so funny videos. If you are not yet ready to always wear a camera on your clothes, do not despair, you can also join the world of lifelogging with the help of applications selected by .
Expereal
As you know, memories are greatly distorted over time. For example, bad things are much more difficult to forget than good things, things that were once indifferent, eventually begin to touch, and so on. Jonathan Cohen, developer of the Experial app, believes that the only way to properly remember your life is to write down objective assessments about each day.
In general, the program does not do much - it can be used to evaluate your day on a 10-point scale, after which these estimates are transformed into visual graphs. Thus, one can clearly see the successful and unsuccessful periods of life.
The evaluation process is implemented very creatively. The user is prompted to rotate the toggle switch in the direction of the arrow. The more you turn it, the more points that day has and the brighter the color spot in the middle of the screen. Sounds a little weird, but looks amazing. After selecting the number of points, the user goes to an additional menu where he can leave comments about the day, add people, place and photos.
You can download Expereal for free
memoir
This is a beautiful program that will allow you to never keep a diary again. The developers' idea is simple - users upload enough data to social networks to make a detailed diary of their life, to group all their memories. This is what the application does. You allow him access to photos on your iPhone, connect your Facebook, Instagram and Foursquare accounts (unfortunately, there is no support for VKontakte), after which a unique database of personal memories appears in front of you.
The first time you start compiling the tape, it takes several hours. At this time, the application can be minimized. While you wait, Memoir automatically builds relationships between the places you've been, social media posts, and photos. You can always clearly see that, for example, in March 2011 you flew to Minsk, in March 2012 you had fun at your cousin's birthday, and three days ago you took exams.
Saga
Saga is an unusual application that uses the sensors built into a smartphone to collect information about the user's life. With help GPS program registers all the user's places of stay and builds routes for him. Each route is accompanied by information about its duration and frequency of repetition.
Based on these data, the program creates a kind of digital portrait of a person's life. He can see detailed graphs of changing times for going to work, going to the nearest cinema, and so on. The application helps to structure your life in your head and better understand what time is spent on.
If you go shopping every day, the app will remind you to do so. If it's lunch time, the program will tell you where people like you like to eat. Given the weather data, the application will recommend going for a walk or staying at home, taking into account traffic data, the program will advise when to go on the road, and so on.
If you are not afraid of such penetration into the privacy of your life, you can download Saga for free.
human
Many people lead a sedentary lifestyle and do not even think about the possible consequences for health. The Human app can track the user's movements and encourage them to move more - walk at least 30 minutes a day.
The advantage of the program is that to track the movement of the user in space, no information is required. additional accessories like bracelets with Fitbit sensors. The app automatically tracks your movements while running in the background. The program records the route, the duration of the walk, gives the average and top speed movement. The results can be shared on social networks.
The program has a simple and modern interface, works stably, collects very detailed statistics. At the same time, you need to be prepared for the fact that, for example, running around the supermarket for an hour and a half or going to the canteen in the neighboring building Human will be counted as a walk, only if you specifically indicate that you walked at that time.
Argus
Argus is one of the first apps to use the M7 co-processor in the iPhone 5s. The program can be considered an all-in-one fitness diary: it counts the steps taken, the calories eaten (with the ability to take a photo of the dish), the number of cups of coffee, tea and water drunk, as well as the hours allotted for sleep.
And the greatest benefit from Argus will be derived by the owners of the latest iPhone models 5s. Thanks to the M7 chip, the application is able to count even if the smartphone is in "sleep mode". When the gadget becomes active again, M7 will send all the accumulated information to Argus, which will positively affect battery consumption. On older iPhones, Argus counts steps the old-fashioned way, using a GPS sensor, so their battery will drain faster.
The Argus interface is beautiful, but a bit confusing at first, so it will take some getting used to. Activity is shown as cells, where each cell is associated with an activity.
Cardiio
This is a very simple application based on very advanced technology. The program is designed to read a person's pulse and store records of the work of his heart. The application can accurately determine the pulse using the main or front camera of the iPhone.
The user simply stands in a well-lit area and directs the front camera. The application asks him not to move for a few seconds, and at this time displays Interesting Facts about the human body. After a couple of moments, they are replaced by accurate information about the pulse.
The principle of the program is based on the fact that with each heartbeat, the color of a person's face changes slightly as a result of blood flow. This is imperceptible to the human eye, but computer algorithms calculate changes in the amount of reflected light.
Endomondo
One of best solutions for tracking physical activity. The program not only tracks the user's activity, but also motivates, thanks to the social component.
Endomondo can record information about the distance traveled, calculate the number of calories burned, average speed, number of steps and so on. You can motivate yourself by competing with friends from social networks. If there are no friends using the program, you can set yourself the bar yourself and try to achieve them.
The application interface is very simple, clear and stylish. If desired, for main screen applications, you can display a large number of various indicators - calories burned, pulse, speed, fluid loss, and so on. At the end of the workout, you can see detailed statistics of your activity, which you can save or send to Facebook.
The program is available for 169 rubles. There is free versions applications with reduced functionality.
Everyday
One of the most amazing lifelogging apps that is more interesting as a piece of art than a practical assistant. The program offers to take pictures of your face every day for many months. After that, the application will be able to make a video from these pictures, which will clearly show how the user's appearance has changed during this time. The idea is wonderful, but how many people have the patience to take pictures of themselves daily.
Fortunately, pictures from the program can be shared on social networks, so that users who can’t live even a day without a self-shot on Instagram are unlikely to have to make big sacrifices. How it will look like, the video attached to the note will best tell.
Everyday is available for 66 rubles.
1 Second Everyday
Not only the name of this application, but also its idea is very similar to the program described above. 1 Second Everyday suggests capturing a one-second video every day and then combining it into a super-compressed canvas of life.
Having opened the application, the user sees the calendar, by clicking on the day, you can view the second recorded in it. Video clips do not have to be recorded from the application, they can be selected from the gallery, cutting off the required second, you can also view the entire “video of life” at once.
The program can automatically remind you of the need to “upload” a video into it so that the user does not shirk from compiling a video.
1 Second Everyday is available for 33 rubles.
Exists great amount diary software for Android/iOS. Next, the best of them will be disassembled. They will help you conveniently keep and sort notes, attach photos and videos, hide the contents of the diary.
In addition to an overview of the features of the programs, we will provide download links in Google Play.
But the owners of Apple technology will have to find them on their own in the AppStore, because. With latest versions iOS and iTunes are no longer able to install applications from a computer, only from the device itself.
Journey
A feature of this application is the synchronization function with Android, macOS and Windows using Google Drive cloud storage. You can also download a PC program, a browser extension, or use the website interface. The application supports Russian.
You can attach a geotag, a photo, a video, or a postcard with a sticker to your posts. The application can feel the beginning of movement and, upon detection, offers to record an activity, such as a run. None of the presented programs has this function. By purchasing a paid version of the program, the user is provided with additional features:
- Functions for formatting and editing text;
- Night style of program design;
- Synchronization with Google Fit;
- A special panel where it is displayed from which devices the notes were opened.
Penzu
In a diary, people write down all their moments of life. They can be both good and bad, but no one wants an outsider to be able to read them. Therefore, the user thinks: how to hide notes in the diary?
The Penzu app uses 256-bit encryption for this. This feature is paid and must be purchased separately. You can also use a simple PIN code lock, both to enter the application and to view individual entries in it.
The paid version of the program has an unlimited number of diaries, supports tags, fonts and custom covers.
Day Journal
Typically, a user keeps several diaries, such as a personal diary, a work diary, and a family diary. AT this application folder sorting function is used. This allows you to organize your notes well.
Day Journal has an excellent built-in text editor that counts the number of characters and words, supports full screen mode and text formatting.
You can also attach an audio recording up to 2 minutes long to the recording. However given function available to users who have purchased paid subscription.
In the program settings, you can customize the theme, fonts, select maximum size attachments and turn on sync with Dropbox.
For some reason, keeping a personal diary used to be the prerogative of girls: a young lady sits in the garden and sighs languidly over a pink book where she writes down all her secret thoughts. But no. In fact, the diary is often a way to structure disparate thoughts, make plans for the future, and clearly see goals. For those who want to keep a diary in electronic format, but do not know where to start, Kapital.kz has made a selection of five interesting applications. They are well suited for those who find it easier to type text through a tablet or phone than to "millimeter" it on a sheet of paper.
dayOne
Let's start with the most beautiful and functional. Day One is a cloud-based diary app for both personal writing and note-taking. Day One allows you to structure your thoughts in the form of notes, which can then be highlighted with an asterisk or an appropriate label. When typing, the application automatically shows your location (geolocation function), as well as weather information. In Day One, you can set up a reminder system, as well as a synchronization function: all data is synchronized between devices via the cloud in iCloud. Like most apps, Day One notes can be protected with a numeric password in case you're worried someone might be interested in your personal information. By the way, Day One entered 50 best apps 2016 according to Time.
Price: $4,99
Platforms: iOS
Journey
In terms of platforms, the Journey diary is almost perfect. The app works on Android, iOS and Windows via cloud storage Google Drive and, most importantly, allows you to keep your own diary. Like the previous app, Journey lets you geotag, provide weather updates, attach stickers and media, and keep track of which devices you last checked your notes from. Of the features: Journey independently "notices" the user's activity and offers to add it to the notes. Let's say you're running your dog in the park or rushing to catch a flight to the airport. The app is in the top "Editor's Choice" on Google Play.
Price: is free
Platforms: Android, iOS and Windows
Momento
Designed exclusively for the iOS platform, Momento Diary is also one of the top most popular diary apps on iTunes. In case you are especially active on social media, the application gives you the opportunity to organize your thoughts with what you "post" on social networks. The Timeline section collects everything about you from Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Instagram. Then you can see it all. At a good time for you. Indulge in, so to speak, memories. The application independently divides events into segments, the interval of which can be configured. Thus, you can structure events, notes and photos and videos by simply adding the date from and to so as not to get confused in the chronology of events.
Price: is free
Platforms: iOS
Bliss gratitudejdomestic
Bliss gratitude journal allows you to keep electronic records of how the day went and structure the flow of thoughts in your head on Android devices. Additional option app is the ability to write down things for which you are especially grateful. Hence the name of the diary - Bliss gratitude journal, that is, "Gratitude Journal". The options don't end there. The developers, based on various studies, offer to go through a series of mini-exercises to find "happiness and inner harmony." iTunes has an analogue of the application, with almost the same name - Gratitude Journal - and the same functionality, and also for free.
Price: is free
Platforms: Android
Askt
A new and unlike anything journal view helps the user to keep a journal based on the questions that it suggests. According to the developers, this way of keeping a diary allows you to get to know yourself better, instead of taking notes on a random set of thoughts in your head. With prolonged use, the application analyzes the answers to the same questions to see how the user's emotional maturity changes. In addition, the user can go back and answer questions they previously missed.
Price: is free
Platforms: iOS
Most productivity experts will agree that journaling is one of the most effective habits.
Sometimes this record keeping is called journaling.
Keeping track of your life has many benefits: achieving goals, making New Year's resolutions, analyzing the reasons for life changes. Helps you understand what makes you happier and more grateful. If you haven't started yet, here are five of the best apps to help you.
These apps help keep diaries or journals different ways- from light reminders to hard money motivation if you miss a deadline. One way or another, here you will learn the art of keeping diaries.
1. Life Calendar (Android, iOS): Weekly journaling with color scheme. Suitable for beginners.
Daily journaling is a habit that is not easy to develop, especially if you have enough daily worries. Life Calendar offers to color-code weeks based on their results. As a result, you get a visual dotted visualization of your life.
At the end of each week, give it a color based on how the week went. Use green for happy weeks, red for angry weeks, blue for sad weeks, and so on.
Get creative and come up with your own color schemes. The application will remind you to write a note about the past week. The week in which your birthday happened will be marked with a special diamond-shaped icon.
As you start adding events and moods to each week, you will see a snapshot of your life. You will suddenly find that, for example, in summer you are happier, and in winter - in despondency. This analysis will help you take appropriate action.
Download: Life Calendar for Android (Free) | iOS (free)
2. Journal Jerk (web version, email): Takes money if you miss entries in the journal.
Sometimes it takes a kick to get us to do something. Journal Jerk is a service that will give you monetary motivation to never miss journaling.
Here's how it works. You sign up for a $5/week subscription. Journal Jerk sends you an email every day. The answer to this letter will be a journal entry.
At the end of the period (for example, a week or how often you want to log), the price drops by 50 percent. So don't skip recordings and it will drop to just $0.09 a week. Skip the deadline and go back to $5 a week. This is the additional motivation to continue.
This is a variant of Jerry Seinfeld's "Don't Break the Chain" method used to form habits. You can download your magazine at any time and unsubscribe if you wish.
3. Journaly (Android, iOS, macOS): Simplifies journaling by automatically collecting data about you.
Journaly is one of the best full-featured journaling apps we've seen. It can take on even heavyweights like Day One and won't cost you a dime.
All kinds of journal entries, photos from the phone's camera, emoticons, GPS locations, etc. are supported. You can add text notes to all of these elements.
It should be noted that Journaly is a smart application that automatically receives a lot of data about your life. It tracks time, date, location, activity, sleep, and weather, resulting in a complete visualization of your life.
If you're new to journaling, this automatic data collection will help you a lot to form the right habits. Even on days when you forgot to write something down, the application will still log some information about your life.
All you have to do is add your comments from time to time.
Download: Journaly for Android (Free) | iOS (free) | macOS (free)
4. Gratefulness (web version, email): Daily gratitude journal.
Keeping a gratitude journal is one of the best mental health practices you can use. It helps to appreciate the world around us more and suppresses the tendency of the human mind to negativity. To get started, try Gratefulness. The article has an example of what to use a gratitude journal for.
The app works via SMS (US only) or via e-mail. After signing up, you'll start getting a daily reminder in the morning or evening, asking you what you're grateful for today. Answer the letter and forget.
The application keeps track of all your answers and forms a log from them, which you can view and download at any time on the site.
Ease of use is what sets Gratefulness apart. The only thing you need to do is write 5-10 words about what you are grateful for this day in response to the message. You may not even open the app for several months. A simple reply to a text message will do the job.
The trick here is that it's easy to keep a journal every day. This application reinforces a good habit.
5. Dream Journal Ultimate (Android, iOS): Track your dreams.
Do you remember what you dreamed about yesterday? Most of us forget our dream as soon as we wake up. But what if you could remember all your dreams?
The app will automatically remind you in the morning to describe your dreams before you forget them. The more often you do this, the more strange the picture will open up to you. After a few weeks, you will be surprised at what is going on in your mind, and it will actually become easier for you to remember dreams.
Dream Journal Ultimate also has a built-in social network where you can post your dreams on the Dream Wall and read other people's dreams.
It can even be funny when strangers interpret your dreams, giving you ideas you would never have thought of.
Download: Dream Journal Ultimate for Android (Free) | iOS (free)
Digital magazine or paper?
For centuries, people kept records on paper, but now there is a shift towards apps, as we always carry smartphones with us and this is convenient. But there is an opinion that the therapeutic effect is best achieved when writing your thoughts by hand on paper. Either way, the templates are the same, only the method changes.
What do you think? Should magazines be digital or paper? Or does it not matter if you keep regular records?