Exercising Made Easy

Exercise: According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, regular exercise is a key part of staying healthy, living longer and feeling better. However, if exercise is such an important part of our life why do so many people abstain from this important daily activity?
The CDC also says, “Most adults need at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity at least five days per week. Examples include walking briskly, mowing the lawn, dancing, swimming for recreation or bicycling. Stretching and weight training can also strengthen your body and improve your fitness level.”
With so many options for keeping active, one begins to wonder why there is such problem with people getting daily exercise. Being an athlete for most of my life, being active has never really been a problem for me. If I don’t do some kind of physical activity on a daily basis my subconscious usually makes me feel guilty about it. Nevertheless, I understand everyone has different daily routines, which can make it almost impossible to make time to exercise.
This summer after feeling in a bit of a slump in my exercise routine, I came across two awesome apps that Apple created to motivate people to stay active.
The first app is called MyFitnessPal, it allows you to track how much you exercise along with what you eat to see how many calories you gained and burned for the day. If you are looking to shed some weight this app is perfect, you can enter a goal weight and it will tell you how many calories a day you should be consuming to make your goal. You can just type in the brand and name of food you ate and it will find it, making calorie counting easy.
Nike plus is another exercise friendly app that I have absolutely fallen in love with. Nike plus comes equipped with GPS, so tracking a run outside is easy. It allows you to listen to music with constant updates of how far you’ve run. You can also set goals for your run and it will motivate you the closer you get to your goal. It has other cool features such as making a power playlist, ratings for your run and a tracking system that lets you know your personal best times as well as overall miles run.
It is understandable that not everyone can make it to the gym everyday. However, it is important to keep in mind that staying active daily is key to your health and wellness. These apps have helped motivate me to get my daily exercise in and not get into a summer funk. I urge everyone to give them a try and get your fitness on!

Morgan Miller
Pierce Arrow Editor-In-Chief