The best workout apps of 2019

There’s nothing worse than walking around the weights floor at your local gym and not knowing what you’re doing. It’s one sure-fire way to kill your exercise motivation. And while hiring a personal trainer can help give you specific instructions on how to work out, it definitely doesn’t come cheap.

But exercise doesn’t have to be confusing – or expensive. It’s 2019 people, and there are a whole heap of handy fitness apps that can create a personalised fitness plan for you, as well as track your progress and help you set goals.

Whether you’re looking for gym workout apps or you’re all about the at-home workout sesh, there’s an app out there that can help you exercise more effectively so you can finally achieve your fitness goals.

To get you started, we’ve pulled together some of the best workout apps that’ll help keep you motivated. Whether you have an iPhone or Android, there’ll be one in here for you! 

#1/ Nike Training Club

Price: Free to download. $23.49 per month for premium access. 

The Nike Training Club fitness app features a collection of visual workouts, hosted by celebrity athletes like Serena Williams. It’s completely flexible for men and women, and tailored to suit your ability, fitness level and strengths; it’s also equally effective at home or at the gym. While each lesson can be taken on its own, Nike Training Club also features month-long structured programs if you’re looking to achieve long-term fitness goals. You get a whopping 185+ free workouts for all levels, with workout times ranging from 14 to 45 minutes.

#2/ Workout For Women: Fitness App

Price: Free 

This app features a selection of short and effective seven-minute workouts that are completely beginner-friendly. Perfect for those who love at-home workouts, these routines don’t involve any equipment, so you can do them anytime, anywhere. Each lesson on the Workout For Women: Fitness App features a personal trainer who provides cues on what you need to do, as well as video instructions. It can also track your workouts, calories and weight.

#3/ Sweat: Kayla Itsines Fitness

Price: Free to download. $19.99 per month for premium access.

The Sweat app features multiple trainers and programs that you can choose from depending on your fitness goals. Whether you opt for Kayla Itsines’ Bikini Body Confidence Program, which includes high-intensity interval training app options, or Kelsey Wells’ PWR strength training, which focuses on increasing lean muscle with weights, or any of the other options, there are both at-home and gym-based programs to suit your end game. Each workout is 28 minutes and features audio cues, videos and workout challenges. As well as featuring heart rate, calorie and step-counting metrics, the app also features hundreds of nutritional recipes.

#4/ Strong Workout Tracker Gym Log

Price: Free to download. $7.49 per month for premium access.

If you’re looking to stay on track in the gym, this is one of the best exercise apps for it! Whether you’re a beginner or advanced, Strong Workout Tracker provides everything you need to record your workouts effectively and quickly. It also offers detailed exercise instructions with animated videos, along with statistics to show your personal records and progression – such as your one rep max and your total weight lifted. It also allows you to share your routines and workouts with friends.

#5/ Gymaholic Workout Tracker

Price: Free to download. $5.49 per month for premium access. 

This personal trainer app uses augmented reality to bring you a virtual trainer, along with your own avatar. Gymaholic Workout Tracker allows you to completely tailor your programs by setting the avatar to represent your gender, height and body fat percentage. After you log a workout, all the muscles you trained will appear on your avatar, and the app will alert you as to which muscles are ready for training (it’ll make sure you never skip leg day!). You can use your virtual trainer companion to check how to properly do exercises, and to see which muscles will be targeted during the routine. You can also track any kind of workout and sets.

#6/ Centr, by Chris Hemsworth

Price: Free to download. $19.99 per month for premium access. 

Say hello to your PT, dietician, chef and wellness coach all in one. Completely tailored to the individual (you can log your goal and set the intensity from beginner to advanced), Centr by Chris Hemsworth provides meal plans and snacks, workouts, and practical techniques to help you get on track with your fitness routine. Whether you want to train at home or at the gym, Centr offers daily workout videos for HIIT, boxing, strength, MMA, HIRT, functional training, Pilates, yoga and more. It also features a whole load of experts such as Luke Zocchi (Chris Hemsworth’s PT), Tiffany Hall and boxing champion Michael Olajide Jr.

#7/ Keep It Cleaner

Price: Free to download. $19.49 per month for premium access.

The Keep It Cleaner app offers a fitness training program, run tracker, meal planner (there’s hundreds of recipes!), a period tracker, playlists, and interval timer, all in one place. Whether you opt for a HIIT, boxing, strength, yoga or Pilates session, there’s a wide range of 20-minute workout sessions for every fitness level. You can set goals and track your cardio progress with a 12-week running program, as well as sign up for extra fitness challenges when you want to really push yourself. The app also features blog posts and advice from Australian fitness influencers (and founders of the app) Steph Claire Smith and Laura Henshaw, as well as a private community for sharing tips, progress and life hacks.

#8/ JEFIT Strength Training Guide

Price: Free to download. $9.99 per month for premium access.

JEFIT Strength Training Guide is a workout tracking planner and free fitness program that’ll help you get the most out of your gym or home fitness sessions. It features over 1300 weight training exercises with detailed instructions and animations. It allows you to easily track your workouts, create your own fitness routines, and view your body and lifting progress. You can also connect with friends and share your progress to keep you motivated (and get competitive!).

#9/ Fitbod Weight Lifting Tracker

Price: Free to download. $11.49 per month for premium access.

If lifting weights is your thing, this is the guy for you! Providing a completely customised strength training approach to workouts, the Fitbod Weight Lifting app offers workouts such as general conditioning, strength training, muscle toning, body building, powerlifting - or if you’re serious about lifting weights - Olympic weightlifting. It customises each session by studying your past workouts and available equipment, and mixes up your workouts with new exercises to keep things fresh and interesting. Between workouts, your training plan also intelligently varies the intensity (weight) and volume (set/reps) between sessions to maximise your session. When paired with an Apple Watch, you’ll be able to see your training at a glance, track your progress, and monitor your personal bests. 

#10/ Qinetic

Price: Free

Qinetic is an interactive, on-demand video wellness platform that brings together some of the biggest names in the industry for exclusive classes such as yoga, strength training, cardio and dance fitness (there are over 400 different classes to choose from). All live and on-demand classes can be connected to your Apple Watch, allowing you to monitor your activity while participating in the workout. Super handy.

#11/ MyFitnessPal

Price: Free to download. $14.99 per month for premium access.

Under Armour’s MyFitnessPal is a diet tracker, calorie counter and exercise motivator all in one nifty little app. It personalises your goals based off of your body type and your daily eating habits. Whether you’re looking to lose weight, tone up, get healthy or change your habits, MyFitnessPal makes tracking food fast and easy so you can make it happen. It has a database containing over six million foods, as well as a barcode scanner to make counting your calories precise and simple. It also includes tools for logging exercise and steps so you can compare your ‘calories in’ and ‘calories out’ at a glance.

If you’re looking for more ways to keep yourself motivated to workout, check out some of the latest fitness gadgets you need to get your hands on.

What exercise apps do you use? Have you tried any of the ones above before? Let us know in the comment section below.

Main image credit: @kayla_itsines