This is part 2 of the review that I posted yesterday on the fitness app Strava. Strava is an app on both android and IOS that tracks your exercise and presents it to you and your friends in a simple yet beneficial way. The first part of the review has already been posted, so if you haven't seen that, I recommend go checking it out before reading this.
Strava is an app that is based on the website, which has a few more features on it. The website has the usual activity feed and goals, however has a great feature called segments. These are very good for if you are going running. Segments are either big or small routes that other people run or cycle in that particular area.
For each segment, there are times of how other people have done, how quick they went and so on. In my opinion, this is a great way to challenge and give meaning to your run or cycle, This is because with each segment you can try to get the quickest times, and beat other around you. This is also a good way of meeting people and gaining support from other like you.
There are plenty of segments, and I was really surprised to see that there are hundreds of people challenging and racing them. This is, for me, is a brilliant feature and I know of someone who has got top in a segment- something that is very hard to do! There are lots of segments to do, I can spot loads a short distance away from where I live. Some are on streets right next to mine.
Another feature on the website is the route maker. This lets you make routes for your run or cycle, which is then automatically put on your phone ready to start whenever you want.. The route maker is good at giving you the right information, as it tells you things like distance and elevation. It is a good to feature to have, as it gives you set goals when doing your exercise, so you know that at the end of it you have achieved what you want. Despite this, I grew very frustrated with the route maker, as it was very hard and slow to do, As I was trying to navigate the map, it would not let me move around, instead plotting new points that I did not want. After what felt like an eternity, I finally managed to get the hang of it, though it meant the process was quite slow. Despite this, the finished product is good and effective, especially on the app.
The premium version of Strava, costing 59 dollars in US, is not owned myself therefore I can not give my personal opinion on it, yet I can tell you about the features.
Firstly, your goals is vastly improved and you can customise them and set different time scales. You can set goals on segments, which help you to get there sooner , by setting deadlines.
With premium, you can have access to a range of training videos, which may or not be helpful for yourself. The videos give helpful insight on how to do exercise properly.
Premium includes more advanced analysis of everything you do , and it gives you so much data that you'll feel stuffed. It gives you real-time segments , and even a personal heat map.
Premium includes lots of other things, so go to www.strava.com to find more details.
My final point is on the settings and compatible apps. As you may know, plenty of fitness apps have support for each other, and Strava is one of these. Despite this, Strava only links with a disappointing three other apps, These apps are Instagram, my fitness pal and Google fit. Now Instagram is not a sport app, so really there is only two, My fitness pal and Google fit are both apps which I will be reviewing in future posts, and they are both one of my favourite fitness apps, so at least Strava is linking with some good ones. As for how they link up, there are not many ways in which they do. For more information about this, I will explain when I review the individual apps.
Now for the Conclusion, and here are my Pro's and Cons.
Pro's:
- Great tracking of Runs and Cycles , with good data feedback and precise tracking.
- Great social integration, with a great feed layout and plenty of data to compare to yours.
- Good reward and accomplishment system.
- Nice website with good features on it.
- Great segments feature, which gives you great motivation to exercise.
- Lots of features
- App partnerships
Cons
- Bad support for exercise other than running or cycling.
- Weak goals system for free app
- Have to pay a lot for premium version, which is not that different to standard.
- Slow and annoying route builder
- Not many compatible apps to link with
Overall, I think that Strava is a great app for running and cycling, arguably the best out there. It is great from a social point of view, and has lots of features to make it great. If you are more of a circuit training or weight lifting person, then this is probably not the best for you. If I were to rank it out of ten, I would give it a ;
7/10
Be sure to stay tuned for new app reviews, The next app being reviewed is myfitnesspal- a personal favourite. Thank you very much for reading , hope you liked this review, and please hit like or subscribe to this blog. Thanks again, and peace!
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