Improve health and fitness with these top apps

Sam Wylie-Harris Monday, January 28, 2013
4:00 PM

Most of us start the year by vowing to get fitter, slimmer or simply feel better about ourselves, but it can be hard to go it alone.

Download a range of health apps to your smartphone. Picture: PA Photo/thinkstockphotos.

Gym memberships, personal trainers or therapy sessions can be simply beyond the budget.

It could be time to tune into the power of apps, those handy programmes accessed through your mobile.

Whether you’re having trouble sleeping, want to count the calories or curb your alcohol intake, guidance is at hand.

So make an app-ointment with health and wellbeing and choose from one of these solutions which are either free or cost less than £3.

Can an app help ease your back pain? Picture: PA Photo/thinkstockphotos.

- Digipill - Change Your Mind, free

Digipill claims to use a culmination of 20 years of psychological research to produce carefully designed audio ‘pills’ which help you relax your brain and change your behaviour.

Its fans include actor Stephen Fry, who’s reportedly used the “Sleep Deeply” pill to tackle insomnia.

There’s a range of “pills” on offer to help in areas such as boosting motivation and confidence as well as lowering stress.

(iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, http://digipill.com)

- Sleep On It, free

Sleep isn’t just quantity, it’s quality too.

This app analyses sleep cycles and patterns, so when you wake, using the app’s alarm clock, you can work out how long and how deeply you really slept.

(iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, www.apple.com)

- FitBit Activity and Calorie Tracker, free

This addictive app calculates how active you’ve been during a day, whether you’re going for a jog or running for a bus, then tells you how many calories you can consume as a result.

(Android, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, www.fitbit.com)

- Total Relaxation by Darren Marks, £1.99

Darren Marks, one of the UK’s leading hypnotherapists, offers expert tuition on how to de-stress.

If you don’t fancy watching the additional videos on your phone, just listen to the relaxing sounds.

(Android, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, www.apple.com and www.android.com)

- iDrinkulator, £1.99

Help yourself stick to those New Year resolutions of cutting down on alcohol.

The iDrinkulator measures your alcohol unit intake per week, month and year, and even runs up your bar bill by calculating drink costs. That may stop you having ‘just one more glass!’

(iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, www.apple.com)

- British Military Fitness: My Fitness Instructor, £2.99

If you need motivation, this virtual session led by an ex-soldier’s voiceover is the one for you.

With hundreds of exercise programmes and a heart rate monitor, it’s as good as going to a bootcamp.

(iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, www.apple.com)

- Home Remedies, free

If you prefer natural remedies to prescriptions, this handy app offers information on safe alternatives to help cure ailments such as heartburn, hair loss and morning sickness.

(Android, www.android.com)

- Pts Plus Diary & Scanner, £1.50

This clever app is very handy for those on a points-based diet.

While on your food shop, you can keep track of your points total with the barcode scanner, and it also features a restaurant database.

(Android, www.android.com)

- Nike+ Running, free

Training for a marathon is made (a little bit) easier with this app which maps your runs, tracks your progress and even gives feedback to tell you how well you’re doing.

It also integrates with Facebook and Twitter, if you feel like showing off.

(iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, www.apple.com)

- BackCare, free

As many as four out of five UK adults, including celebrities such as Victoria Beckham and former Doctor Who actor David Tennant, have suffered from back pain at some stage in their life.

If you’re one of the unlucky sufferers, you might be able to ease the strain with BackCare.

It includes 22 videos showing simple exercises to help you prevent and manage it, with a diary feature to track what triggers it.

The information can also be sent to a practitioner prior to an appointment.

(iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, www.apple.com)

- Isabel Symptom Checker, free

Self-diagnosis can lead to stress and panic if you wrongly fit your symptoms to something serious.

The Isabel Symptom Checker has been used by professional doctors since 2002, and is now available to the public.

It searches a specially designed database of 6,000 diseases to match your symptoms.

(iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, www.apple.com)

- my pff, free

As any pilates fan will already know, pelvic tilts and floor exercises not only make you feel better, they can also improve your sex life.

This discreet app contains guidance and demonstrations as well as a daily reminder and progress reports.

(Android, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, www.apple.com and www.android.com)

- Great Run Training, free

This fully interactive app will give you a personalised training plan to help you run at your best.

You can monitor you progress via the website and enable GPS to track your route while on the move.

(iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, www.greatruntraining.org)

- LWR Personal Trainer, £1.49

With her slim, toned body, personal trainer Lucy Wyndham-Read should inspire you to download her new app: a six-week home-based programme of high-intensity workouts, sculpting routines and diet tips.

(iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, www.apple.com)

- DKN Motion, free

This app connects to DKN’s i-Series range of bikes and cross trainers. It claims to make working out more interesting as well as easier.

The app allows you to set up your own personalised avatar and choose a preferred exercise programme. Fancy cycling around Manhattan or Milan? The app includes some of the world’s most iconic routes.

DKN Motion connects via Bluetooth to the i-Series home fitness equipment.

(iPad, www.apple.com) The exercise bikes start at £499. For more information, visit www.dkn-uk.com