The iFitness app might be the place for some to re-start but for most it leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Medical Productions Inc is the company behind iFitness. But who is Medical Productions Inc and what are their qualifications? Your guess is as good as mine. You’re probably inclined to find out through their website. Don’t waste your time, I’ve already attempted. I discovered a splash page with a snazzy picture of “medical professionals” examining an x-ray above the below text.

Medical Productions Inc. Founded by a team of medical experts, we strive to improve the world by making innovative products. Through the web, print and even mobile phones, our products embrace your way of life.

It’s been my experience, over the years, generally when someone sells you a fitness plan or workout routine they at least try and make you believe they have some type of expertise. Even some washed up actor/actress pimping their fitness wares on the Home Shopping Network has the sense to tell you something and attempt to give you the impression that you can trust their knowledge or lack thereof. But Medical Productions Inc leaves that door locked shut.

I decided to put my fear of not knowing who was providing me the information aside and delve into the iFitness app. I first noted that the directions page offers an excellent description of the icons and how to use this app. It provides a glimpse into the various sections beginning with the Exercise section which contains more than 115 exercises. It also details your ability to log exercises, track workouts, and how to access the instruction page of each individual exercise. Next I learn that the My Workout section allows me to add exercises and create my own workout routine. I scroll down to the Routines section and I find that these are pre-made exercise routines are designed by “our fitness experts” I’m once again reminded that I don’t know who “our” is or who their experts are. I press on and discover the Logs section provides a place to store all of your previous workouts.

I chose to explore the Exercise section and the first thing I noticed was a list of major body sections such as Abdominals, arms, back etc., additional options including exercises by muscle, complete list of exercises, and Add/Edit Custom Exercises. Upon selecting one of the options on the page I was led to a list of more specific options.

I selected “ab crunch on a ball” from the abdominal section. The next screen displayed two pictures of a man on a ball. One picture depicting the starting position and the other the finishing position. Immediately I notice the pictures seem a little off. Hard to say but it just seems as though they were made for another medium and not this app. I tapped into the information page of this exercise and found it to have a pretty good description of the exercise and how to perform it.

I continued to check out a number of exercises and their instructions. I found many of the instructions to be thrown together or seemingly cut and pasted from other sources. For instance the instructions for the step machine states:

For a gym owner, a step machine makes an excellent choice for a number of reasons…This makes them particularly popular with women, who are often highly focused on toning their butt and legs.

Further I found iFitness to be loaded with typos, which gives me pause. If they are sloppy enough to sell this product without proofreading it, how much effort was given to the research of exercises and development of routines. That said, although I did not examine each and every exercise and routine, I read quite a few and their descriptions and techniques seem to be consistent with some exercise books I’ve read and the diagrams on the machines of the gyms I’ve belonged to.

If you are a beginner I would pass on iFitness and find a source that documents the expertise of those providing the information.

For those of you that have been working out for a while and know the basics of routines and proper use of equipment, iFitness may be of use by providing you a list of so many exercises. You might find something that you like or haven’t done for years. ifitness also provides a way to maintain documentation of your workouts. If you’re like me and you write down every exercise and set in a composition notebook you won’t have to schlep that book around the gym.

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category: Fitness Calculator, Healthcare & Fitness