What apps do you recommend for fitness challenges?
Not quite sure if this is a ~tech question, or a ~sport question, or a ~health question. But at least it's a question!
I have a Garmin watch, and so does my wife. They track our activities. We would like to compete in challenges, but Garmin's challenge options are quite limited. Through Garmin, you can compete for the number of steps, or distances ran or swam and such, but those don't really work very well for us.
I was wondering, are there any apps that work on both iOS and Android, sync with Garmin Connect (either directly or through Apple Health / Google Health Connect), have a sensible privacy policy, and offer some or all of the following types of challenges, which I think would be more interesting:
- Total time exercised (either any exercise type, or specific sports)
- Time spent in "vigorous" exercise
- Time spent in "zone 2" exercise (or another zone)
- Active calories burned (either total, or percentage of your resting calories)
- Number of exercise sessions
- Number of consecutive exercise days, i.e who can maintain the longest streak (allowing rest days)
Does anything like that exist?
I also have a bonus question:
Garmin has Expeditions, which track the distance you have walked or run, and once you reach your Expedition goal (say, "walk the distance of the Appalachian Trail"), it tells you that you have reached your goal and gives you a badge. I like the basic idea, but the implementation is quite bland.
Are there any Expedition type apps where the app not only tracks the number of steps against the total needed, but actually shows on a map where you'd be currently going if you actually were walking the Appalachian Trail or something, and gives you notifications when you reach some interesting points along the way, with pictures and a little bit of information about the place? Now, that would be something!
I use the Conqueror Virtual Challenges for the second aspect of what you're looking for, but it's $30-50 per course. It syncs with Garmin Connect to add activities automatically (though if you need to edit an activity, it can be a pain). There are other brands of similar virtual courses online, as well, but I'm not familiar with them.
This indeed looks pretty much like what I described! Too bad about the price though, I don't think I'm ready to pay what they are asking for. But I'll keep them in mind.
I didn't have an app, sorry. If there aren't any good apps out there now, you might have luck submitting a feature request to Garmin since they track that information anyway. https://www.garmin.com/en-US/forms/ideas/
Strava has a ton of challenges you can join for various activity types and metrics. They also have segments, which let you compete against yourself or others for fastest time, most attempts (local legend), etc. on portions of a route.
I'm not sure if it's a subscriber perk, but you can create private custom goals for yourself as well. So I have weekly distance and elevations goals, as well as annual goals.
Also, I enjoy following local athletes and seeing where other people are running, and although I do have a few Garmin friends, way more people are on Strava.
Something about Strava just didn't click with me when I tested it a couple of years ago. I guess it seemed a little too social-network-like (which I suppose I shouldn't fault a social network platform for) and I felt their privacy policy and practices were a bit questionable. Not that I remember any details now, so maybe I should just give it another try. Thanks for the suggestion!