Our society has become sedentary, work schedules so busy most of us never find time for the gym. The available exercise media doesn’t work so well when you are watching perfect physiques showing you how it’s done. The Wii changed the way we look at physical fitness and recreation, bringing back exercise and making it fun. Thankfully because of these types of console games and fitness cards included, many software companies have been producing great fitness apps for the BlackBerry. What a great concept! Having your BlackBerry as your Physical Trainer as well, so that you can take your trainer wherever you go. With this in mind, I am introducing you to the app iFit.
This app, iFit v 1.0 by MMMOOO, is $12.99. It is designed with seven different exercises, and you can choose how many and length of time, which adds a touch of a professional trainer. There are different sound effects that you can choose from to inspire you. The UI is very simple and concise, pleasant to view and I know that you are going to be very familiar with it. What’s really nice is there is also a calendar that keeps track of your workout days, so you can see progress or slacking. To install, it’s fairly easy, here are the directions:
1. Download the following file to your PC:
2. Unzip the file to your Desktop.
3. Connect your Blackberry to your computer.
4. Open up Desktop Manager – Application Loader – Add.
5. Find the file called ‘iFit.alx’ and hit ‘OK’.
The icon appears on the BlackBerry screen as shown. It’s somewhat similiar to the FitDeck icon with a green green background instead of blue, and the white silhouette facing toward the front doing a push up in the opposite direction of the NexFit. It takes about seven seconds to load. You see the white background with exercise silhouettes gracing the background and the white silhouette on the icon is now green, and there’s a green iFit banner. There are two choices, Option and Exit. Q brings up the options, which include Enter, Help, Online help, About us, and below are option and Exit. P is the opposite side option button. Enter will take you to a Select Screen. As you scroll over each exercise silhouette, they actually move! There are seven different exercises and one will require a pull up bar for pull ups and two require dumbells. There is also a silhouette for sound. This brings up six different sounds. You can scroll over them and they sound off, choose confirm at the bottom to set the sound, then back out back to the exercises. Click on an exercise silouette and it takes you to another white screen with a green 0 on the Background and the name of the exercise on the green banner. You can choose the numbers of repetitions by fives, and the speed you will do them in as in seconds. Click the Q and the program counts down from 3, 2, and 1. The program then counts the exercise repetitions with you as in “one” “two” , “one” “two, and so forth until the end when the bell dings. It then goes over to the calendar month so that you can check your workout. You are able to do all your exercises and track your progress or your lack of progress. Help gives you general guidelines and Online Help is just that. I do have one thing to suggest however, go online to the MMMOOO blog website, or click here: iFit User Guide. This pdf user guide will be a tremendous help to understanding and navigating through the application. At first I had no clue what keys worked and was a bit confused but the user guide was very handy. The app is very easy to back out of and to close out of.
Pros: It’s easy to use once you learn how to navigate it, the UI is pleasing to the eye, and it flows well from screen to screen, and the sounds are neat. It is very reminiscent of Wii fit. There only seven exercises to do, sounds can be changed, and it keeps track of your progress on a calendar so you can be inspired and motivated. The workouts aren’t very long, so it’s great for doing once or even twice a day, even doing some in office or at lunch if possible. The counting with you helps you to keep you motivated as well letting you feel you have company, your trainer is there to keep you on track. The movements are fluid and help you keep time. The Calendar is a real incentive with this app.
Cons: Figuring out the navigation of the app took some investigating and research, so that took a bit of time. There are only seven exercises included, and if you don’t have or want to work with equipment, then there’s only four. You could probably take the dumb bell exercises and use extra force to do them without dumb bells, but the pull ups requires a pull up bar of some sort. It would be nice to see a few more exercises with this app, as it’s fun. In the future it would be nice to have some background music, but I do love the way that it does them with you.
Grab a copy of iFit for only $12.99 from the BlackBerry Sync Store >
Compatible devices: 8300 (Curve), 8310 (Curve), 8320 (Curve), 8330 (Curve), 8350i (Curve), 8800, 8820, 8830, and the Storm.
Compatible OS: 4.2,4.3, 4.4,4.5, 4.6
Rating: 
