If you love BlackBerry apps more than you love exercising, you might want to give miCoach a look. Created by Adidas, this application puts a personal trainer right in your pocket, helping you track your workouts and much more.
Invariably around this time of the year, I seem to give myself a end-of-year grace period from exercising because y'know, there's only about 50+ shopping (not to mention pig-out) days till X-Mas. Now if I were as diligent about my cardio as I am about re-watching my boxed sets of LOST, then this would be a very different review. Such as it were, it is not.
So instead, I'm sitting here staring over my rather modest belly writing this review and pondering the fates of the survivors of Oceanic 815. But what if I were able to flash sideways to a reality where I could self-motivate myself into getting to the gym and incorporate my unhealthy love of BlackBerry apps?
This is where the new app miCoach brought to you by Adidas comes into the picture. Your very own pocket personal trainer allows you to manage and track your workouts as well receive real-time coaching direct to your phone. Workouts can also be saved for you to refer to in the future.
Imagine your very own Burgess Meredith a la Rocky. MiCoach is available in a wide vary of languages including but not limited to French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch. Users also have the option of Outdoor (GPS-enabled) or Indoor Mode (GPS-disabled).
There are four options available to users:
GO! - This is where you can access and perform exercise plans, assessment workouts and even free workouts.
Track - This option allows you to review the progress of your workouts, from weekly achievements to the wear and tear on your sneakers. You can have as in-depth a look at your performance as you'd like, on a weekly basis; anything from monitoring the calories that you've burned to how many miles you run. You can also monitor such stats as pace, routes, even elevation. Users can also set up weekly goals in the achievements section that tracks your distance, speed, time and calories over the course of your miCoach account.
Explore - This window grants users the advantage of accessing specific features and tips online. Such tips include how-tos about using GPS, learning about audio coaching and conserving battery life.
Settings - Last and certainly not least, this is where users personalize their accounts. This includes your personal info, audio levels, and a passcode option. There's even an option to set up customizable voices from famous athletes such as Reggie Bush, et al.
The miCoach app also has a zone training feature that gives its users a visual interface in the form of a colored zone progress bar during your workout. The zones range from blue (least difficult) to red (most difficult.) The app will keep track of your training and help you keep from submitting to the frustration of "plateauing." You can even rate your workouts (1 to 5 stars).
And if there are any miCoach users out there that not only like, but need a soundtrack during their workouts, never fear. The app can access your playlists directly from the app itself, even pausing the music to give you any relevant coaching notes.
All in all, miCoach definitely delivers on the goods when it comes to record keeping, visual and audio status updates and various other bells and whistles. Now if only there was an app to catapult me out of bed in the morning to exercise!
The only drawback that I noticed would only really pertain to those runners out there. The maps under the route feature cannot be zoomed in on for greater details. But if this sounds like a cool app, then be sure to download your free copy from BlackBerry App World. Maybe that's how Jack and Sawyers stay in such great shape.
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