The smart way to get fit

Thanks to the latest tech, there's no need to invest in an expensive gym membership or personal trainer to make sure you stick to your fitness regime. Stay healthy, keep on top of your workouts and enjoy your fitness data right at your fingertips.

Smartphones and smartwatches can benefit from an entire range of apps that will make getting fit for less even easier. Take a look at the must-have apps below to see how they can motivate, educate and track your progress throughout your fitness journey.

Learn something new

Whether you're a total beginner or looking for advice on making the most of your workout, the following apps will be ideal for you.

Created by Fitbit, Fitstar Personal Trainer offers users a fitness experience tailored exclusively to their needs and goals. Learn how to perfect exercises and workout safely thanks to video guides, and enjoy a host of new features every month. You don't need a Fitbit to enjoy the app, but if you have one you can sync the two together and receive recommendations based on your everyday activity.

For daily routines, just remember to connect to WiFi where available, so as not to drain your monthly data.

Nike+ Training Club is another excellent app to help you amp up your fitness routine. There are pre-loaded workouts available for all levels, alongside personalised training plans and recommendations that'll suit you better the more you use the app.

Keep motivated

So many people complain about lacking the motivation to stay fit. Use the following apps to keep yourself on track while making sure your workouts remain interesting.

The right music can really have an effect on your performance, especially when it comes down to giving that final push. There's no need to waste time crafting playlists to suit your workout, RockMyRun will do it all for you. Stations range from house and pop music to rock or country, so you'll easily be able to choose a genre you love.

Manually set the tempo of your chosen station to ensure the music matches your pace and then let the app utilise data from the accelerometer in your smartphone or smartwatch to adjust the speed as you exercise.

Do you find it difficult motivating yourself to exercise? If you're the kind of person that would consider a personal trainer just to ensure you actually get moving, then CARROT Fit is the ideal app for you. Filled with hilarious motivational messages, that inspire, bribe and even humorously threaten you to exercise, and a range of exercises, including the dreaded '7 minutes in hell' workout that'll whip you into shape, it's a refreshing change to many standard fitness apps on the market.

Create a food diary

Your overall health depends on more than just exercise. Keeping fit involves enjoying a nutritious diet too, particularly one that can support your increased physical activity. Here's our favourite apps for keeping on track of your daily calorie intake.

Well-known for a reason, MyFitnessPal is an excellent app for recording meals. Simply search for the food, use the right proportions and the app will do the rest. Set goals, cut down your sugar intake and find out how much saturated fat and carbohydrates you're consuming.

MyFitnessPal also works wonderfully with a whole range of other fitness apps, automatically syncing data from your workouts to make sure you stay happy and healthy.

Lifesum focuses on making small changes for the better. Create a food diary, view personalised recipes and banish bad eating habits by learning how to eat wiser and train better with the app's handy tips and tricks. Whether you want to lose weight, build muscle or just maintain an overall healthier lifestyle, Lifesum is a great app to use.

You can also connect Lifesum with various apps like Fitstar to instantly inform the app about your physical activity.

Seeing results

There's a lot of speculation surrounding fitness apps and whether they really work in practice. The obvious reality is that you have to put the work in to see results, but they're the perfect companion for fitness enthusiasts of all levels. Learn new moves, safely practice a new routine in your own home and keep track of your progress all thanks to a collection of handy apps stored safely inside your smartphone or smartwatch.

Whether you're an Apple fan or an Android lover, there's a huge range of smartphones simply waiting to help you on your fitness journey. Head over to Mobiles.co.uk to find your perfect phone today.