Fitness App review - BAU5

Ok, I’m always up for testing new things in the realm of fitness.

Since I was coming off day to day training in the lead up to a bit of a holiday, I decided to scroll through the iTunes App store to see what was new.

Though it reaches back to May this year (2014) I found BAU5, a personal training application that promised 3 workout days a week to get you into shape.

Is this going to kill the personal trainer game? Nope, some people just don’t have the drive to do it themselves and cheating the electronic system might seem too easy to do if you don’t want to be honest with yourself. You cannot cheat a personal trainer. That said, if you are willing and determined, this app could be the ticket for YOU.

Let’s start with a few gripes first.

1.       It is really weird having these REST day intervals. I’m more of a listen to my body type rest dayer. But…it has opened me up to being able to relax a little more on the start of my holiday. Once I’m overseas, I will have to stop almost altogether as I won’t be taking my phone. I did utilize one of the rest days to tackle one of my other passions in the fitness, a RPM class. Being able to see what my next workout was going to be I could see that legs were not on the board after rest day, so I was able to put a RPM class in the rest day just to get back into the cardio.

2.       If you have a really busy gym… Forget about this app. The way the app has you jumping from one machine to another and giving you a short period of time to set up and even throwing supersets that have you going straight from one machine to another, you will not want to be waiting for the machine to become free for your set.

3.        That leads me to the next problem, this app can only be used in a gym environment, and

you had better have a pretty well equip gym to use it.

Now for some positives.

1.       If you treat the app as a trainer and minimize the change over times from machine to machine, you will get an intense all over workout. Some of the routines are top balanced and others are lower body balanced. But in the end expect some work all over the body.

2.       The app uses visuals to really show you how your machine could or should be set up to achieve the weight that they are setting up for you.

3.       You get rest days. SO GO HARD! No need to worry about burning out and conserving some energy for the rest of the week, some people lack about for shoulders day so that they can go harder for arms day. Nope none of that here. I would liken this type of workout to that of Jason Statham’s, “…get serious, do 40 hard minutes, not an hour and a half of nonsense.”

So some other cool things that I can tell you about this app. The app gauges you on an exercise first up. So if the exercise is new and you haven't done the test before…be prepared to fail, but give it all you got. If you think you can get just one more rep out of the weight that they are testing you with, DO IT. You won’t achieve your goals if you just sit back and call it quits early. If the whole set of exercises are new, then give yourself around an hour and a half to complete it all. You might end up doing 15 sets on one exercise before failing and this can extend your workout significantly if you end up doing this with all the exercises.

Once the trails are done, the app will sometimes string together a super set of 2 to 3 movements. This took me by surprise originally. But they give you a heads up as to what the next exercise weight will require so that you can either set up before or move on knowing what weights you are going to have to stack on.

Other than that, the app is pretty self explanatory in its use. Though it would help to have a quick help section to explain what the heck the Flame logo is on the capstone set (and also, I’ve kinda figured it myself, but what is the capstone set?) You do have the ability to view an exercise from a YouTube link that is accessible within the app itself if you don't have a good level of know how on the exercise they are setting you up with (be warned though the guy they use talks...a lot.).

I will defiantly keep tracking with this app for a little while longer once I return from my holiday and see what kind of results I can get from it. Hopefully by then a few more updates might have been made to the app.

If any of my readers give this app a try, please let me know how you go.

Motivating music

Always chasing good remixes. Here's one for the end of the week, ad it to your gym playlist NOW!!

Motivating music

Always chasing good remixes. Here's one for the end of the week, ad it to your gym playlist NOW!!

Do I need a goal?

There is no denying that Australia is going through an obesity epidemic. But what are YOU doing to fight it? The government is only going to do so much. At some point you are going to have to make that conscious decision to start...and never look back!

I can see how jumping head first into this fitness world can or could be frightening for new and old players. 

There is a huge level of  pressure to fit a "fitness" mold. Are you a body builder? Are you a fitness competitor? Are you a power lifter? Maybe you are a marathon runner? Wait...maybe you don't want to be any of those things. Perhaps you just simply want to lose weight and be fit. 

Well guess what? You can.

What you need to find is a reason and drive to create a goal. This is what those in the molds have that makes most of us go, "but it's so easy for you ". They make it look easy because they have the drive to achieve their goal. Given the choice, if they weren't competing and could work out later in the day just about all fitness competitors would happily sleep in over waking early and hitting the gym. But they do it because of their drive to achieve their goal!

I'm always talking about goals, and that is because goals have more to do with fitness than anything else, it's the lynch pin that everything else hangs off. Training styles and diet revolve around those goals. 

So if your goals are simple and do not fall into the fitness sport category how does this effect you? 

Diet will be less strict, but make sure it's healthy. Some people think healthy foods are flavor less and boring. Just ask my wife, this is not the case. I'm constantly making tacos, pizza, burgers and monster salads that put fast food equivalents to shame and they are packed FULL of healthy veg , protein  and carbs!

Simple goals may also have you only training 3-4 times a week. That's fine too. Even better you can really mix it up, cardio, weights, classes or whatever takes your fancy. Many competitors cannot mix it up so much, they must stick to a tried and tested routine to maximize muscle and minimise fat.

And the other thing that your goal may determine its who you train with and "hang out with" fitness related. If you are wanting to become a bodybuilder you probably shouldn't train with someone who is not aligned with that goal. the same goes for those looking to stay generally fit, don't train with a marathon runner or a fitness competitor, if you can help it. They will stifle your results as much as you can stifle theirs!

Also you might find that you only need to take a few tips and info bits from those in the sport side of fitness that will fit your goal. Don't use "Gremlin Rules" if they don't fit your goal... What's a Gremlin Rule? They are,"don't eat___ after___" rules that certain people live by it can be diet related mostly but can also span into exercises as well. 

So don't think that goals are only just for those super serious about the sport side of fitness, find yours and use it to make better food and lifestyle decisions NOW and don't look back!!