In this Endomondo review, we’ll take a look at one of the most popular fitness apps out there.
Fitness apps and trackers have become all the rage these days, and for good reason. In our busy day to day lives, we’re always on the move. When we’re on the move, our workouts are too. We’re at the gym one day, at home with a home fitness DVD workout program the next. Back to the pool once or twice a week to get some laps during our lunch break.
When we’re always on the go, our workout routine isn’t always consistent. That’s where a good workout tracking app can come in handy. They help keep our calorie burning and exercise activities in order.
There are a bunch of workout tracker apps out there but one of the current favorites is the Endomondo Sports Tracker app. It’s a free app available for four of the major platforms: Apple, Android, Windows, and Blackberry.
Endomondo Review: Getting Setup
First, of course, you’ll need to download the app.
Once downloaded, you will be prompted to create your online account with an email address. The account is set up by creating a user profile with all the usual stuff: name, weight, height, birth date, gender and a profile picture. This information will be used to help determine the calories burned for each workout, so be honest. Cheat here and you’re only hurting yourself!
There is also the social media portion of Endomondo for some extra accountability and encouragement. There you can set up friends, share progress, make workout challenges, follow a newsfeed and more.
Endomondo Review: Getting Started
When you open Endomondo, it appears to be initially set up primarily for running. You’ll quickly find, however, there are a number different exercises and activities to include. At the time of this Endomondo review, there are 58 different workouts from which you can choose. Workouts range anywhere from aerobics to scuba diving and weight training to mountain biking.
Once you’ve picked the activity you will be tracking, you can set exactly on what you would like the app to focus. For instance, you can choose a distance or calorie goal, to beat a friend or previous workout, follow a route, etc. Then hit the “Play” button and let the live tracking begin.
Endomondo Review: Live Screen
In the live feed, the app tracks your speed, pace, calories burned, duration, altitude. It also connects to GPS mapping and will track your exact path and distance in real time. You can even connect it to your Bluetooth heart rate monitor to log your heart rate.
Another nice feature is the auto pause. When “on,” the app will only track when the GPS reads that you are moving. This comes in especially handy for the running, walking, or biking. It will more accurately chart your progress in case you stop for a breather.
The app also continues to track while your phone is locked. This keeps you from having to mess with pause and restart. Or better yet, running the risk of accidently stopping or pausing the workout while you’re on the move. Instead, the app remains open but disables your phone from auto-locking. This way, you can watch your progress as it tracks.
Another bonus is that your audio features will play while the app is running. That means you can listen to your favorite workout music mix or podcast on the go.
Endomondo Review: Summary Screen
When you’re finished with your workout, you’re given the option to share your results with your friend.
Then you’re taken to the workout summary, where all of the information is pulled together. Depending on your workout, you’ll be shown things like your average speed, average lap pace, average heart rate, lap times, calories, and total duration.
There is also an audio coach feature. The coach give you start countdowns and report lap times as you complete them.
Endomondo Review: Workout History
What’s also great is that the app stores your workout history. This is done on both your phone and in your Endomondo online account. So you can see your progress at any time.
A nice bonus with your workout history is the “Enter Workout” feature. This lets you manually add workouts that you forgot to track or those that aren’t easily tracked. Simply go into your Workout History, click “Enter Workout.” There you can select the workout you did, when you did it, for how long, and how far you went. Based on this, the app will then calculate your calories and averages for you. Pretty sweet.
Endomondo Review: Live Social
Endomondo also has a live connection to your friends. Through both your phone and computer, you can what others are doing from your phone. Like so many apps, you can directly link Endomondo tracker to your Facebook or Twitter accounts. From there you can share your progress with your world.
Endomondo Review: 3rd Party Integration
Another nice feature is the ability to integrate your account with data from other technology you might already own. For instance, if you own a Withings scale, you can have your measurements automatically synced with Endomondo.
Or if you’re tracking your nutrition in MyFitnessPal, your Endomondo data can be synced to keep track of calorie consumption and expenditure. Fitbit, Garmin, Polar, among others, also have integration availability.
Endomondo Review: Paid Features
The basic Endomondo sports tracker app is free, as is your online account.
Endomondo also offers a paid “Premium” option that covers various features for both the app and your online account. The current rate for the Premium feature is $5.99 per month or $29.99 per year.
With the Premium account, you can set up customized training plans, extra auto coach options, personalized goals, friend challenges, low power mode, and no ads.
You also have 24-hour-a-day, Monday thru Friday access to live online coaching support. You get a lot of bang for your buck for only about $2.50/month. Most of us spend more than that on our morning coffee each day! Learn more about Premium vs. Free.
Endomondo Review: Room for Improvement
Endomondo is pretty great, but it’s not perfect. We would like to see them find a way to better utilize your phone’s motion sensor. They could make it more accurate than using GPS alone, at least with certain workouts.
It would also be better if it would more accurately track calorie expenditure. Admittedly, this can be hard, especially when doing something like strength training. The numbers are more precise when using a heart rate monitor.
Even still, they vary widely. So don’t get too excited (or depressed) when you see what you’ve burned.
Endomondo Review: Conclusion
The Endomondo Fitness Tracker app is easy to use and super convenient since most people carry their phones with them anyway. We like the fact that you can connect with your friends and family though both the app and website.
We also appreciate the ability to use your own playlist.
Overall, we would give this app a 8 out of 10.
We’ve not tried all the workout tracker apps out there but we really enjoy Endomondo. While the feature set isn’t identical among the platforms, at least it’s widely available.
It’s intuitive to use.
It has most of the features people want.
And it’s free.
Even if you want to go Premium, it is affordable. From our experience with Endomondo, we would recommend it to my friends and family.