Fit Tech: Track your workouts with Physique for iOS

26.09.2012
In my high school's strength training class, we used an old-fashioned file and folder method to keep track of our workouts: We opened up our folders, put our workout schedules on one side (complete with little boxes where we filled in how much weight we lifted and the number of reps we did on each exercise), and put a 1RM weight chart (that's one repetition maximum) on the other side. Our weight room had clipboards on the walls, so we could hang our folders while we were working out.

Since I left high school, I've been searching for an effective way to keep track of my workouts without carrying a filing folder around my gym. Enter Physique, an iOS app that replaces the system of my high school days. Physique Workout Tracker is a $5 workout-tracking app compatible with any iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad running iOS 5 or later.

Working out with Physique

Physique is simple to use, once you get the hang of it. There are three screens: the home screen, which houses your workout data, workout routines you've used and/or created, and settings; the Routines screen, where you search for routines or create custom routines of your own; and the Exercises screen, where you can search for specific exercises to add to routines or create new exercises (for use in complete routines).

The app, as you might have already guessed, revolves around workout routines. There are a couple of ways to input these routines: you can choose a pre-set routine, or you can create your own. Physique has ten pre-set routines, each with different workouts for different days. These pre-set routines include a beginner level, beginner with supplementary exercises, a bodybuilding routine, a cutting routine, a dumbbell routine, a machine routine, a muscle building routine, a six-pack definition routine, a strength routine, and a weight loss routine.

There are different workouts in each routine, depending on what the routine is meant to achieve. For example, in the strength routine there are three workouts for three different days--Monday is squats and overhead presses, Wednesday is bench presses, and Friday is deadlifts and chin-ups. You can customize these routines by adding new workouts or modifying the existing ones.