Get fit and have fun on your BlackBerry with runtastic PRO

Have you ever tried to start a fitness program only to fall flat on your face? If so you’re not alone. Many people, including your humble host, have at times found fitness more trouble than it was worth. Unfortunately for our rationalizing brains, fitness is indeed important. So what are we to do about it? When I made a fitness push in 2010 into 2011, I decided to employ technology in my quest. Perhaps the most important element was a run keeping app on my BlackBerry. I didn’t use the app runtastic back then, but I certainly should have. It’s been in my experience the best BlackBerry run keeping app. Sure, there are plenty of free run keeping apps available in App World. But I’ve found that most of them are free for a good reason. They’re either not very useful, or are otherwise stuffed with ads. Shelling out a few dollars for an app that can have a profound effect on your livelihood certainly merits the cost. After all, the cost of runtastic PRO is less than a meal at a fast food restaurant. And you don’t hesitate about buying one of those, right? In the case of runtastic, the stats make the app. During my previous fitness attempts, I failed partly because I couldn’t measure my progress. I’d time my run, maybe, but I would have little information about it afterwards. Like many other fitness apps, runtastic uses your BlackBerry’s GPS to record your run stats, from distance to pace to elevation. It can even estimate your calories burned — made more accurate with the sensors that runtastic offers. Keeping with the social theme we’re seeing creep into all activities mobile, runtastic does offer BBM and social network integration. You can keep friends and family updated on your fitness routine with just a few clicks. That can help hold you accountable; my sister started bugging me when she stopped seeing my runtastic times on Facebook, and that helped get me back on track. You can even set up competitions with your BBM friends to see who can make the most progress — or who can flat run the fastest. There are plenty other features of runtastic PRO that make it in my opinion the best fitness app for BlackBerry. And, as I said, it costs less than a value meal at a fast food restaurant. So the next time you want a greasy burger and fries, maybe you’ll decide to drop four dollars on runtastic PRO instead. You can get it at App World.

About the Author

Joe Pawlikowski is the Senior Editor at MobileMoo.com and has been covering the mobile industry full time since 2007. When he's not writing about the tech scene, he can be found discussing his personal love - baseball (and more specifically the New York Yankees) as well as writing on his personal blog.