looking for a fitness app for indoor workouts

zebasschick
zebasschick Posts: 1,067 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
i do use a heart rate monitor - either a polar or a wahoo - and i'd like to find an app with all the normal indoor workouts built in (treadmill with incline, exercise bike, step aerobics and stair machine/ walking upstairs). all my workouts are indoors, so an app that focuses on GPS isn't ideal unless it works well for indoor stuff. it should let you input age, weight, etc, and offer info based on that and heartrate - i had one recently that did let you put that stuff in, but i discovered it gave the same results regardless of what you input LOL

please post any suggestions. thanks!

Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,222 Member
    This may be a stupid question, and I'm not sure I have any ideas for a solution for you anyway, but what is it that you want this app to do for you: Are you trying to get calorie estimates, or are you trying to track fitness progress? You've said what you want to be able to put in for the app to consider, but not what info you're wanting to get out?
  • zebasschick
    zebasschick Posts: 1,067 Member
    It's a good question. I want to track my fitness progress, and see my overall heart rate throughout entire workouts afterwards without constantly watching me wrist and having to remember.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,943 Member
    It sounds like you want a sports watch with a website associated with it, like Fitbit or Garmin.
  • knotmel
    knotmel Posts: 80 Member
    Since you have a Polar HRM, have you tried the Polar Beat app? I’ve never used it (I use the Apple Watch to track these things, because it works well for me), but I’ve played around with it a bit and it might (no guarantees) be what you’re looking for.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,222 Member
    zebasschick wrote: »
    It's a good question. I want to track my fitness progress, and see my overall heart rate throughout entire workouts afterwards without constantly watching me wrist and having to remember.

    I do rely on my Garmin for that kind of output. (I have a Vivoactive 4.) It has treadmill (I think no incline setting, but haven't explored because I don't treadmill), stationary bike, stair machine, floor climb, generic cardio (but not specifically step aerobics), and lots of other stuff.

    It does have GPS, but of course doesn't use it for indoor stuff.

    For some of those activities, it will link to machines that have the right protocols and provide more information. (For example, I get more info when I link it to my Concept 2 BikeErg, such as distance, speed and cadence as estimated by the bike).

    All that workout data goes to the Garmin Connect app on my phone, then from there into the cloud. For activities that have a relevant metric, Garmin Connect on my phone will show graphs of some metric(s) with heart rate on the same page (such as cadence and heart rate for stationary bike), and there are more sophisticated reporting options in Garmin Connect on the web. I've upgraded Garmin devices once, and the reporting includes both devices (assuming I set date ranges accordingly.)

    It also gives me V02max estimates, and fitness age estimates for some activities (mostly outdoor ones, since it wants the GPS for those I do for which it'll estimate that). Other (more expensive) Garmin models do more, and there's potential for linking with 3rd party apps for other reporting/analysis options.

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