There’s, probably, no person who’s never installed any fitness app on their mobile phones. A sedentary lifestyle, bad habits, and ecology issues affect our health. To deal with the consequences, we begin to pay more attention to our health and wellness. Fitness applications help people set goals, track their progress and stay motivated in sports, healthy habits development, and health care. So, why are these apps so popular?
The fitness apps market has been booming since the pandemic hit the world. From 2019 to 2020, there was a 53,2% increase in revenue, with the market size exceeding USD 4 billion at the end of 2020. Now the market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 21.6% during 2021-2028. Key market drivers causing such growth include:
- the rise of global awareness regarding health and well-being,
- gyms and fitness studios increasing online presence,
- the increasing number of smartphone users.
Fitness apps are already influencing our sports routine, and with the development of technology, this impact will only grow. Let’s take a closer look at the fitness apps types, the benefits of using fitness apps, and what technology will influence their development.
Types of physical health applications
Depending on the purpose, physical health applications can be divided into three types:
- Fitness apps,
- Nutrition apps,
- All sorts of tracking apps.
Sometimes an application can be a combination of these categories, but usually, they pursue one goal. Each fitness app type has its peculiarities and usually differs from another in features.
Fitness apps
Fitness apps, or exercise and workout apps, provide users with workout videos, instructions, valuable articles and help create workout plans for different fitness purposes. Fitness apps can be:
- Personal coach apps provide instructions for exercises and help to create a personalized training program for each user.
- Apps connected with wearables help to manage training intensity in real-time, increasing the physical activity effectiveness.
- Logbooks apps are physical activity journals, helping people to log their workouts and create their training programs.
The feature list could be expanded, depending on your business goals and market needs. You can explore the following fitness apps examples to get inspired. Popular fitness apps are PEAR Personal fitness coach, Seven, 30 days fitness at home, 8fit, etc.
Nutrition apps
Nutrition applications help to develop healthy eating habits, track calories, control weight, and water balance.
Nutrition apps are an essential tool to achieve fitness and health goals. Such applications simplify the decision-making process for food selection, helping people to stick to the plan. Engagement features remind users to buy groceries, allow them to track their progress, and improve the overall diet experience.
All sorts of tracking apps
From counting the user’s steps every day to tracking sport activities, tracking applications let users observe their progress and get helpful analytics.
Tracking apps can track the distance of running or cycling. Combined with wearables, these apps can even count the user’s laps in the swimming pool, calories burned, etc. Gamification features may help people stick to their goals and stay motivated.
What are the benefits of health and fitness apps?
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle could be a challenge for modern people. They need to pay attention to their physical activity, eat healthy food, drink enough water, etc. They also need to work, spend time with friends and family, do their hobbies, and have a rest. Keeping all of that in balance is sometimes overwhelming. Thankfully, technology is coming to the rescue.
Fitness applications help us track fitness activities and vitals, pay attention to water balance and keep a food diary. They motivate us, remind us to keep going, give awards and satisfaction for the achieved goals. There are a lot of things people can achieve with the help of fitness apps.
Explore the examples of how fitness apps provide these benefits to their users.
Stay fit
Physical activity applications are aimed to help people keep fit and develop healthy habits. Elliptical reviews examined workout apps’ impact on exercise and found that 91% of respondents felt more fit after using workout applications. How do fitness apps provide such a benefit? Well, when developing a physical activity application, you should carefully examine your target audience, their needs, and requirements and choose an appealing and effective feature set. One of the most popular fitness apps, Nike Training Club, could be a great example of what a successful fitness app should look like.
Nike Training Club offers a lot of different workouts designed to achieve specific fitness goals. The user can choose a program or a workout session to focus on their personal goals. Simple interface and notification features help users start the workout right away and don’t skip training. According to Sensor Tower, as of August 2021, Nike Training Club had 200k downloads and generated USD 5,000 of revenue.
Identify health issues
Can fitness apps bring health benefits? Yes, advanced fitness applications, integrated with wearables, can track users’ vital signs such as heart rate, oxygen level, body temperature and generate valuable insights concerning their health and workout strategy. User personal data can be shared with their coach and practitioner to help them monitor user health conditions and suggest training and treatment plans adjustments just in time. Take Whoop as an example.
Whoop is a fitness app that collects users’ vital signs and monitors users’ sleep and recovery to help them optimize their training. It includes a Health Monitor feature that can detect deviations in metrics, give alerts and generate health records to share with specialists. In August 2021, Whoop raised USD 200 million in a Series F funding round and was valued at USD 3.6 billion.
Develop healthy habits
Many health and fitness apps are designed to encourage people to stick with healthy habits such as keeping a diet, getting enough sleep, doing exercises regularly, drinking enough water, etc. These apps use engagement features such as gamification and reminders to help users develop healthy habits with less effort. Users receive awards and badges to celebrate their success and stay motivated. Here’s one of the most excellent apps to build a healthy habit called MyFitnessPal. With 200 million users in 2020, MyFitnessPal generated USD 128 million of revenue.
MyFitnessPal is a calories intake tracker with a simple log feature to manage consumed and burned calories. The user can set their weight goals and see the progress in the application. The application helps users be more mindful about what they are eating and build a habit at a personal pace.
Stick to the fitness goals
Fitness applications usually include goal-setting features that allow users to personalize their workout experience. A fitness application can recommend exercises and meals to achieve the goal. Instant feedback and support motivate users to stick to their goals and achieve more. For example, Noom, the application for weight loss, asks users their ideal weight and sets it as a goal.
Then the app offers a comprehensive questionnaire to figure out users’ experience about eating habits and overall attitude to weight loss. Based on received answers, Noom generates a personalized plan and calculates its time to reach the goal. No generated $400 million in revenue in 2020.
Fitness app as a networking tool
Sharing sports results could be a great motivation tool in a fitness app. Many physical activity apps provide social media integrations and sharing features to let users communicate, support, compete or find sports buddies. As mentioned earlier, Whoop and MyFitnessPal applications include social features that allow users to see their sports fellows’ results, share their achievements and stay focused on their goals.
Emerging tech in physical health apps
In times of social distancing and remote communication, fitness applications have significant advantages compared to offline workouts, as they are accessible, easy to use, and cost-effective. Businesses are also searching for ways to improve usability, users’ outcomes, and overall user experience. That is why modern technology is actively emerging in fitness app development.
Our experience in physical health app development
Riseapps has comprehensive experience in health and fitness app development. Our team works with different fitness app projects, including full-fledged fitness applications with wearables integration, social features, and marketplace extension.
One of our clients wanted to move their fitness business online. We’ve provided web, iOS, and Android applications to help our client digitize their business. Our team also developed the application for trainers to help them manage their clients, set personalized exercise plans, and monitor progress. The application includes all required features, from workout planning to progress tracking. A straightforward interface makes the app easy to navigate, so it requires little effort to make changes.
As a result, the client raised their service sales from 20-30 clients per month to 100-150 and extended their team from 2 to 12 trainers.
Wrapping up
Physical activity applications help people keep a healthy lifestyle, improve their bodies and strengthen their minds. People can set goals and achieve them, develop healthy habits, eat and sleep better, guided by carefully designed fitness applications. The market tendency shows that the demand for mobile applications for sports activities will only grow. It’s time to embrace progressive technology to improve user experience and build helpful and reliable solutions.
FAQs
What are examples of fitness applications?
The most popular fitness applications for home or outdoor workouts are Nike Training Club, Strava, Whoop, MyFitnessPal, PEAR Personal fitness coach, Seven, 30 days fitness at home, 8fit, etc.
How many types of physical applications are there?
Depending on the purpose, physical health applications can be divided into three types:
- Fitness apps,
- Nutrition apps,
- All sorts of tracking apps.
Sometimes an application can be a combination of these categories, but usually, they pursue one goal.
What are the benefits of using a fitness app?
Fitness applications help us track fitness activities and vitals, pay attention to water balance and keep a food diary. They motivate us, remind us to keep going, give awards and satisfaction for the achieved goals. Benefits people can get from using a fitness app:
- stay fit,
- identify health issues,
- develop healthy habits,
- stick to the fitness goals,
- use it as a networking tool.