Your health can be judged by which of these you take two at a time — pills or stairs? Think about it: Fitness and health are not a destination, but a lifestyle. And there’s nothing better at tracking your daily living — be it physical activity, inactivity, diet, hydration or sleep habits — than a fitness app on your smartphone. Since your mobile is always with you, mobile health apps can perpetually be by your side and, therefore, present an ideal, and often, a no-cost way of monitoring your progress and pushing you on.

Yet, there’s no one perfect fitness app to suit everyone. That’s because you need different apps to cater to diverse types of workouts and activities. Also, apps must vary according to the grade of exercise intensity required. We jog through mobile fitness app spectrum, picking the outstanding ones meant for divergent levels of fitness, workout intensity and performance.

Be that as it may, the only thing to remember is that the only bad workout is the one you didn’t do...

LOW INTENSITY WALKING

Moves 
Android, iOS | Price: Free
www.moves-app.com 

Walking is a perfectly acceptable form of exercise. And Moves is one of the easiest (and fun) ways of tracking how much one’s getting around, especially for those who say “I don’t have time for exercise” — i.e., the grown-up version of “The dog ate my homework!” Moves autotracks and logs not just your activities and movements but also your periods of inactivity. Apart from the sauntering/walking/running/cycling, your time in a vehicle or a café is also logged. This also makes Moves a timelined journal of your daily life, replete with stopover minutes and maps to pictorially depict when, where, and how you moved. It tells you how many minutes you walked, the distance traversed, steps taken and calories burnt. Impetus enough for self-motivation, eh? 

The app’s ideal for beginners and a subtle way of integrating routine hustle into conscious activity. Caveat: The always-on, location-aware abilities of Moves deplete the phone’s battery.

Google Fit
Android | Price: Free
https://fit.google.com

If you’re serious about getting some cardio exercise into your life, download Google Fit to your phone, will ya? A wonderful, no-nonsense, clean app for beginners, Fit uses your phone’s inbuilt sensors to automatically track walking, running and cycling and then depicts the data in straight-forward charts and stats. It doesn’t monitor your whereabouts (like Moves), so won’t hit battery life. You can set goals and review your activity history, in the app as well as on your Fit web account (https://fit.google.com/u/0/). You can go a step further and rig Fit with third-party apps, gadgets (including heart-rate monitors) and services. It can serve as a central hub for all sorts of health-related data. What Fit lacks, however, is the ability to record your sleep, diet and water intake.

MapMyWalk
Android, iOS, Windows Phone | Price: Free
www.mapmywalk.com/app
MapMyWalk is ideal for those of you who like to keep calm and power walk. The fitness tracking app uses your smartphone’s in-built GPS to track your fitness activities — be it walking or running. Apart from recording details like duration, distance and calories burned, it employs the GPS to tell you your pace (minutes/km), speed (km/hour), elevation, and of course the route you’ve travelled on an interactive map. You can save and upload this data to the MapMyWalk website to view your comprehensive workout history over time. Or view it on the phone of course. Unlike the aforementioned walking apps that are active 24x7 as you meander through your day, MapMyWalk is meant for ‘recording’ your walk routine as a workout. The app also has social features that allow you to connect with other users, compete against them, and see other walking route options in the area, etc.

MEDIUM INTENSITY RUNNING, CYCLING

FirstRun 
Android | Price: Free
www.firstrunning.com 

When it comes to running, remember, you don’t have to go fast, you just have to go. No matter how slow you go, you’re lapping everyone on the couch! Running ain’t easy for a lot of people, but FirstRun is a great app to get you off the blocks on the right foot. It “deploys” fitness buff and evangelist Gul Panag to mentor your sprints with audio instructions, encouragement and tips. Based on Josh Clark’s famous C25K (Couch to 5km) program, FirstRun coaxes newbies to run 30 minutes a day, three days a week until they can eventually get to run 5km by the ninth week. Sounds impossible, eh? Then know that the app expects you to begin with only one minute of running on Day One. It features different modes for indoor and outdoor running and records running stats for later perusal.

Strava
Android, iOS | Price: Free; in-app purchases
www.strava.com 

This is where things can get serious. Perfect for fleet-footed aficionados, Strava tracks runs and cycle rides using the phone’s GPS. But more than that, Strava strives to use the “compare and compete” maxim to motivate and improve your 
running. Here you can pit yourself against top performers (known or unknown) on a leaderboard. If you don’t want to do that, you can test yourself in run or ride challenges to improve your personal best and see how you do compared to others.

Strava collates key stats on distance, pace, speed, elevation gained and calories burned and can accommodate data from heart-rate sensors. The paid version offers more detailed data analysis and training videos among other benefits. The app is voice-controlled and Android Wear-enabled. You can follow friends, share activity/achievement photos on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter as well. Other than Android and iOS, Strava is also compatible with Garmin devices.

RunKeeper
Android, iOS | Price: Free
https://runkeeper.com 
RunKeeper has been around for a few years and hence is a very polished app. Like other walking and running apps, it uses the phone’s accelero-meter to track cadence and number of steps. It provides all the basic requirements that a runner needs, right from pace and distance to elevation and estimated calorie burn. It can also be integrated with other fitness devices like FitBit for regular daily activity monitoring, the Withings WiFi weighing scale to track your weight automatically, and MyFitnessPal for calorie tracking. For ‘well-heeled’ and accomplished runners, Run-Keeper allows complete customisation of workout plans with an in-app audio coach. Or else you can follow a pre-ordained training plan.

It also works comfortably with smartwatches like the Apple Watch and the Pebble, as well as running Android Wear devices to give you info and controls right on your wrist.

Argus 
Android, iOS | Price: Free
www.azumio.com/s/argus/index.html
Argus is an all-in-one, middle-of-the-road, general purpose fitness activity app. The app is quite versatile since it comprises a daily steps and calorie counter as well as a workout monitor. So, while it logs your daily steps and lets you set your own 
personal targets and goals, you can also use it for activities like running, cycling and driving. Some of these also employ the phone’s GPS mapping services. Slick and well-designed, it is also compa-tible with a number of third-party fitness devices. A sleep tracker built into the app lets you monitor your sleep cycles while a food and hydration diary enables you to keep a log of your dietary intake as well. Since it goes beyond exercise and fitness, this is a good pick from a holistic health perspective if you want to discipline your entire lifestyle.

HIGH INTENSITY GYM WORKOUTS

Johnson & Johnson Official 7 Minute Workout
Android, iOS | Price: Free
https://7minuteworkout.jnj.com/

Want to stay fit despite a hectic schedule? This slick app is just what the gym instructor ordered. JNJO7 involves: barely 12 minutes of time (warming up, cooling down included), a solid chair as a workout partner, and choosing the appropriate intensity level of exercise. The app details 72 exercises involving push ups, jumping jacks, crunches, high-knee running, planks, and dips etc., along with 22 additional workouts replete with video guidance. You can rework routines to your needs. With over 1,000 variations, monotony and tedium is highly likely.

Touchfit: GSP
iOS | Price: Free; $3.99/month or $9.99/year
http://touchfit.com/
Not for newbies, this total body workout app lets you pick 20-, 40-, and 60-minute routines. You’re given a test workout and then need to  score the 
calisthenics on easy, tough, impossible, or “need to learn” parameters. What’s really nice is that the intense workouts can be performed at home free hand. Step-by-step coaching and guidance is given via video demos and tutorials with previews before the actual attempt to show you what you’re in for. The no-pain-no-gain routines push your cardio stamina, flexibility, strength and balance to the limit.

Fitocracy
Android, iOS | Price: Free
www.fitocracy.com
Here’s a strength and bodybuilding app for committed fitness freaks. Even as it records workouts and provides scores of pre-programmed exercises, it gives the flexibility to formulate drills in advance with specifics like exercise sets, reps, weight and time. Fitocracy is gamified to hold user interest. You must earn points and achievement badges to move up the leaderboard. Creating or joining team challenges with other Fitocracy users also works beautifully. For coaching and customised nutrition guidance, you’ll have to use Fitocracy’s paid service.