As 2016 draws to an end, most of us will be making some kind of New Year’s resolution. And among all the quit smoking, eat less and speak to your loved ones more will be the few that will be embarking on a new fitness journey throughout 2017. Like most of us, New Year’s resolutions are dumped maybe two to three weeks into a new year, so what we’ve done at TechNuovo is team up with protein drinks company Upbeat to give you our top three fitness apps to keep you truly engaged in your new lifestyle.

Map my fitness

First up is one of the best all around fitness tracker apps on the market at the moment, Map My Fitness. The application is able to track all sorts of workouts, from running and sprinting to cycling, rowing and crossfit.

If you enable the GPS setting you can choose from a selection of gym workouts and even live track the routes you run to share with others using the app. The map feature is hugely accurate and as long as you have a GPS signal, then your mobile will seamlessly track your path.

A particular useful feature if you’re wondering the best route to take when leaving the front door on a jog is that you can see routes that other app users have taken to follow their same workout sessios. There are even some social elements to the application like connecting with friends and other fitness enthusiast to check out their progress.

You can store your food log inside the app to keep track of your calorie intake. So if a piece of cake or can of cola one day takes your fancy, don’t sweat. Just log it into the journal and keep track of it. Remember though; don’t go over your daily goal allowance.

Spotify Music

Having trouble keeping pace on your runs? Or even struggling to lace up your trainers and leave the house? Then Spotify Music could be for you. It’s a smart playlist app that matches your steps to the beat of the music.

Inside your mobile phone are movement sensors, which work with most step counting apps. We used a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge to take a look at Spotify Running as we knew that Samsung provided a step counter inside the handset. What was found is that Spotify Music, as mentioned earlier can quite accurately track to your steps per minute, and select a random track that matches this number.

The app recognises anything from around 140 – 190 beats per minute, and unfortunately, walking paces, including power walks are usually tracked lower than 140 beats per minute so you must really keep a jogging pace to keep your average up. Playlists are set to genres of music, so you’ll find things like Rock, Pop, Soul, Hip-hop and more. The app won’t display the songs inside the playlists, but be assured there’ll be a mix of new and classic music for your enjoyment.

The app is available for both free and premium Spotify users, but remember, your music will be interrupted by adverts if you’re a free member.

Sleep Cycle Power Nap App

As we’ve ventured away from those traditional fitness tracker apps, it’s best to mention something like the Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock. For a quick refresh of your body, the power nap alarm clock will give you those much needed energy boosts throughout your day, simply by tracking your power naps.

You can choose from three different options once inside the app which will determine how long your powernap will last. A traditional power nap can last up to 20 minutes. This ensures that your body will not fall too deep into a sleep before waking you up, ensuring that your body will still feel fresh.

A recovery nap can last up to 45 minutes which will still keep you out of deep sleep, but give you an extra kick once the alarm wakes you up.

Lastly you can choose to sleep in a full sleep cycle. The alarm will give your body chance to enter a full deep REM type sleep, something that most of us get over a night. But really, our bodies only need around 90 minutes to enter REM and return to a light sleep. Although this app will set you back a couple of pounds on the app store, and it is only available on iOS at the moment, it’s totally worth the investment.