Getting in shape with C25K: an iPhone exercise app

Jul 14th 2010 by Jay

I have never considered myself a workout person: I ‘ve never owned a gym membership; I was the overweight kid in elementary school and scrawny kid in high school; I don ‘t enjoy a workout routine and have no idea about how to tighten treadmill belt like a professional. And once again, the iPhone market ‘s ‘there ‘s an app for that ‘ seemed to be an intriguing possibility of privately starting a workout routine to improve my over-40 lifestyle.

After reading a MacLife staff ‘overheard at the office ‘ page about using an app for easing into a 5K runner, I researched a few choices and opted for C25K (which stands for ‘Couch to 5K ‘ “ a program designed by and available at CoolRunning). I ‘ve been at it for over 9 weeks now and can admit that I ‘m addicted to getting out and getting moving!

C25K is an easy-to-use app that is graphically simple without being childish. The main screen has a slider across the bottom to highlight to week and day you are on, and a description of that activity is given in the large circle window. To begin that routine, simply touch the large ‘Go ‘ button.

Adding your own music helps to pass the time and motivate. You can add songs individually from the native iPod by pressing the + sign, or better yet, you can create a playlist in iTunes (or iPod) and import that. I highly recommend the latter approach because an earlier version C25K dropped ALL the songs I had added individually (thinking I was making a playlist) during a sync with iTunes. Thus, I encourage you to read the ‘Help ‘ section to get a good idea of how to use this and additional features.

After pressing ‘Go ‘ a new screen appears displaying a total duration time, a total routine countdown with a slider to jump forward and back in the routine, an indicator of which phase you are in (Warmup, Walk 3 of 4, Run 1 of 3, etc.), and a large countdown timer for each phase. There is a vocal prompt “ saying ‘Warmup, ‘ ‘Walk, ‘ or ‘Run ‘ “ accompanied by a chime, so the display isn ‘t actually necessary.

The familiar ‘Slide to Unlock ‘ slider begins and pauses the timers for your run, although, the screen locks on start by default, so you have to touch the ‘unlock ‘ icon in the corner to operate the slider. An unlock is not required to activate the music button during your workout, so pausing or rewinding and forwarding a song can easily be done. The volume button also is available during the workout to modify both the music and alert volumes.

Also available is an integrated History where you can rate the conditions during which you ran, how you felt, the weather, and a place to create a brief journal entry. Of course, our world wouldn ‘t be our current world if we couldn ‘t share our accomplishments! Both Twitter and Facebook integration are options to broadcast how challenging or easy your workout was. A few friends of mine have commented on the progress I ‘ve made; and even a few have begun using the app themselves.

I am extremely pleased with this app and with the developer. I had an issue with an inability to post to both Facebook and Twitter, and within 24 hours, the developer had emailed and professionally walked me through a solution.

If you have been living on the couch too long and think you want to try something different, this app might be for you! As you may have heard others say, ‘If I can do it, anyone can do it! ‘