A Review of Some Exercise/Fitness Logging Sites

exercise logging sites

This review will cover a few of the more popular exercise logging and fitness tracking websites, though I’m going to center this review around a few of my favorites and then more briefly touch on some others.

This review also goes along with my next blog post – A Review of Some Fitness Syncing Sites.

I want to try to be as thorough as possible but frankly there are so many sites and apps and so many aspects to each site/app that it’s really hard to examine each in minute detail and cover every component and feature.  As such I am going to concentrate a bit more on the website of each, most of the mobile apps are usually somewhat similar and are usually just as easy to figure out and enter data into as the website itself.

Depending on what sport or exercise I am doing I use a couple different logging sites and in conjunction I share that data across sites using a couple different services that specifically are made to share data among fitness tracking sites.  I’ll go more into that in the next posting – A Review of Some Fitness Syncing Sites.

All of the sites I list here have a free version, but in addition many have pro or upgraded versions and services that you can pay to use.  Everything I review here is usable and useful in their free versions.

runkeeper

Runkeeper.com is probably one of the best-known and one of the most popular running and biking and outdoor exercise logging sites.

If you’re not familiar with it or not very familiar with it – despite the name it is not just for running.  You can log many different things, and more are occasionally added as time goes on.  In addition to running you can log road biking and mountain biking, rowing, hiking, walking, and stationary equipment exercises like elliptical and weight training.  Some newer things that have been added are Boxing and Mixed Martial Arts, Yoga, Dance, Spinning (stationary indoor bicycling), and much much more.  You can log things like Strength Training but more as a timed exercise and not with detail of each weight and rep you did.  Fortunately sites like Weighttraining.com connect to it so that you can enter your individual strength trainings and have them shared with Runkeeper, and Vice Versa.

Entering data into Runkeeper is either manually or, if you have a GPS watch, by uploading a .GPX or .TCX files with your stats and maps included.  Or you can connect with Garmin devices.  Runkeeper has a pretty nice app too, which will connect right into your mobile device’s GPS (if it has one) and log things right in the app without any external devices needed.

In the past there’s been an occasional issue with Runkeeper, sometimes it was down or just didn’t work right, or wouldn’t properly pass data to other sites.  But I think it was growing pains, and now it works well and consistently.

Runkeeper SignupTo start out you must sign up/register (you can do it manually or just click the Facebook or Google+ account buttons to log in with those credentials), once you do that and get logged in you can upload a picture for your profile, update your profile (including adding some fitness-related info on yourself if you wish), see what apps connect to Runkeeper, set up to share your exercises on Facebook, Twitter and other exercise sites, and adjust your privacy settings.

And I want to mention a bit about privacy here too; in the settings you can adjust what is shared with whom, which can be important.  I’d recommend turned off the public display of maps and leaving the other settings fairly public – do you really want strangers to know where you live and when you leave to go for a run or walk or bike?  This goes for all of the sites I review here, it’s good to be aware of. Occasionally you may run across a website that will allow you to turn on the option to automatically block the area around a specific area so people can’t see exactly where you live (Strava does this).

The main feed (‘FEED‘ button) shows you your friend’s workouts as well as your own, you may also see miscellaneous pics and other things posted here from friends, what you see here in addition to workouts will sometimes depend on whether your friends have paid for the Elite version as that opens up more options for sharing.

runkeeper tabs

Select a goalMoving on; if you click the “ME” button at the top of Runkeeper screens you’ll be taken to your dashboard where you will see your current exercise feed, and a tab menu at the top.

Here you will see your previous workouts (of course), including those imported through other sites that you may have connected to Runkeeper.  For each fitness item logged you’ll see some distance, caloric, and overall totals as well as some of your other stats.

The other tabs let you view your routes, join races or training programs, find or make new friends, add goals, buy Runkeeper-related merchandise, or upgrade to a paid membership.

You can also select a goal too; either by distance, race, weight loss, or cumulative distance.

workout graph

runkeepergraph1

Reports is another useful and interesting tab to check out,  pretty decent (though you get a bit more if you go up to Elite membership).  Here you can find your progress in graph-form by any time period and under any exercise.

If you have other sites like Weighttraining.com and MyFitnessPal.com connected to Runkeeper it will show data collected from those sites.  Things like your weight/strength training, sleep, weight, and other things that have been imported by Runkeeper.  You get even more if you subscribe to the Elite version of the website, but the free reports are quite nice, thorough and customizable in the free version also.

Runkeeper Logging
Logging is pretty straight-forward – Click the ‘LOG‘ button and then click to highlight your activity on the first screen (use ‘SEE MORE’ at the bottom for more exercises/sports), then click the 
Next button.

Runkeeper MapThe next screen is the map screen.  There is a simple map editing ability included on this screen where you can go to a location, create a route by plotting points on it and use the onscreen tools (zoom out and in, snap to roads, etc).

Of course, most people will likely upload a map from your GPS device, or maybe a mapping program in GPX or TCX format, or skip it with no map – if you upload something or connect using your Garmin you’ll see your fitness stats show up in the right pane.  

Runkeeper Map example

The next screen lets you add your workout info or edit what you just uploaded or entered.  You can even tag friends if you did a sport or exercise with them (either by Runkeeper name or via Facebook), include a note, or add equipment if needed.  Then you simply save the log.

runkeeper additional screen

Tag fifty of your closest friends.

Go ahead, go for a run together and tag fifty of your closest friends in Runkeeper.

Once it’s saved it will show up in your feed (and your friend’s).  If you are connected to other sites Runkeeper will, in time, share this with those sites also.

One of the greatest things about Runkeeper and the people who made it is Healthgraph.  If you use Runkeeper or other sites that connect to Runkeeper you may be using Healthgraph and don’t even know it.  And that’s good, really, because it’s doing its job – seamlessly.

Healthgraph is an API (Application Programming Interface) that allows a sort of standardization of fitness and health monitoring and logging across multiple devices and websites, analyzes your health and relationships of aspects of your health to each other, and has the ability to integrate this into a social connection with others.  That means that you can share your data more easily.  As a person who has used many different exercise websites for logging this has been an amazing step-forward, and more.

And because of this pretty much every exercise, fitness, food logging, sleep logging, etc website worth a stack of beans is going to connect to Runkeeper or have an app that does.

Export dataAnother thing I like about Runkeeper is the free ability to export your entire or partial workout data log, by date if needed or in its entirety.  You just go to Settings and click the ‘Export Data’ link and you’re ready to export.

This is one of the best things I like about Runkeeper, though it may be one of the most under-used by others.   For a year I was looking for a site that would allow me to aggregate all of my workout data that I normally enter into various and sundry miscellaneous logging sites, and be able to export it.

Previously, I had been entering my weight training and other data into Fitocracy.com (excellent site; I’ll get to that site review later) – and then occasionally copying and pasting the logs there into a file manually (Fitocracy also has data exporting but it is a paid feature).  I was also hanging onto stacks of little pieces of paper with workout data written on them too, as backup.

Most of the workout data that I logged in Fitocracy; like weight/strength-training, cardio and such, doesn’t get shared with Runkeeper even though I had the two sites connected together in the settings of both sites.  Things like running and biking got shared but not items like weight training, so using Runkeeper’s export did me little good.

So I set out to find a site where I could log things that couldn’t be directly logged in Runkeeper but that Runkeeper would import from.  That way I could use Runkeeper as a central location to collect all of my exercise logging and then be able to mass-export them all at once.

After a lot of testing of various website and apps for those websites I came across WeightTraining.com.

weights

WeightTraining.com

After finding that Fitocracy (an excellent logging and fitness-oriented social networking site) wouldn’t transfer most workout items to Runkeeper I set out to try pretty much every weight-training and miscellaneous exercise logging website and mobile app that I could.

I finally settled on Weighttraining.com, which had A) a gigantic database of weight-training, cardoi, and other exercises that could be logged B) the ability to seamlessly transfer to Runkeeper B) an excellent IOS app  and C) a good website for both logging and reference.

In fact the Weighttraining has so many different exercises of all types that even if you don’t use the site for logging you might want to keep the URL or app handy for looking up things as each exercise can be searched by name, type, primary muscle group, equipment, difficulty level, sport, or force and mechanics type.

Each one has a small thumbnail photo, a rating, what muscles are being worked and which category it belongs to, variations, tips, stats from other users on that exercise, other similar ones, training plans that use it (some of the training plans are free, many are pay), many times a Youtube video of how to do it, and a textual description and details.  Both the app as well as the website allows you access to this.

They are still working on the Android version of the app but it’s coming (as of this writing it is going to be May 5th, 2014), and they recently upgraded the IOS app to a newer improved version.  Unlike Runkeeper this site is more geared toward weight training so there’s no GPS tracking on the app for rides and runs.  Otherwise you’ll find it fairly extensive for weight training and cardio and such.  And you can log any running, biking, or what-have-you if you wish to.

Unfortunately for me – I have an older IOS device that does not run IOS 7 so the app doesn’t install on mine, and the older version no longer connects to the site.   So I am somewhat unhappy about that and I’m anxiously awaiting the Android version.

But it’s pretty easy to log things using the website on my tablet or computer.  A search bar allows you to start typing the exercise you want to log and the website will display a list of anything matching it as you type.  Like I mentioned above – this site has a multitude of features and the exercise/workout database covers almost anything you can think of no matter how obscure.

Different people, trainers, and exercise DVD series like P90X will use varying names for different things so sometimes you can do a partial name search in Weighttraining.com and occasionally you may have to look up how an exercise is done on the in the website or on the Internet to verify what the equivalent is.  But the exercise and weight training titles seem to be pretty standard and the ability to see descriptions and Youtube videos of each is really amazingly helpful.

When entering your fitness logging you can add reps, weights, distances and times, total workout times, a note, update your body weight and select which gym and who you worked out with if you wish.  And even how you felt during the workout.

You can also post to Facebook right from the log screen as well as in the settings you can connect your workouts on WeightTraining.com to Runkeeper, Daily Mile, MapMyRun, MyFitnessPal, Fit Bit, etc.  As is the case with many of these sites sometimes other sites will be able to connect to Weighttraining.com even when those particular sites aren’t actually listed – you just might have to go at it from the other end; the other site that you are trying to connect with.

Also on the log screen you can recall recent exercises, favorited exercises, and access workout plans if you have selected one.

The workout plans are interesting, and there are a mixture of free and paid ones.

You can also save any number of workouts so that you can recall them without typing them in again, which is especially nice.  You can do this on sites like Fitocracy.com but you are limited the how many you can save on that site without an upgraded membership, so it’s nice to have the ability to have an unlimited (as far as I know) number on Weighttraining.com.

Another really nice feature is the Fitness Report Card, you fill out some stats and get a little report card grade on your health and abilities but it’s fun to compare it to others.

You can also select workout plans (some free, some not), download diet plans, find groups to join, add goals, compete against others in challenges and battles, find gyms, and chat in the extensive forums.  And of course compare yourself to others via the Leaderboard (I seem to be in 13th place site-wide at this time).

Weighttraining.com is a great site, and well worth checking out no matter what you do.

fitocracy

I’m going to reproduce here, with some tweaks, most of the review I did about Fitocracy from an earlier post.  I don’t actually use Fitocracy any more, don’t get me wrong – I love Fitocracy, and I would love to be able to continue using it but since many of the things I was logging didn’t share with Runkeeper, so that I could export the entire thing into a spreadsheet; I went on to other sites that do share all of the logging.

But it’s a great site, and you won’t find a better place to be able to talk to people about fitness and get and give tips.  It is like the Facebook of exercise sites.

I started out with Fitocracy when it was still in Beta, as I had gotten an invitation from someone else since the site hadn’t officially opened yet.  Once I started using it I knew right away that I had found an interesting place that suited quite a few of my needs at the time.

Fitocracy is built more around the social aspect of exercise rather more so than some of the other sites that aim more toward other facets of exercise-logging, mostly the logging itself or stats.

I want to use the word ‘competition’ here to describe Fitocracy, but that implies all sorts of things that sometimes can have negative connotations.

While I can be competitive – I find that I don’t necessarily enjoy the stress of it when it comes to day-to-day exercise.  Running in a race is a little different.

But everyday exercise I want to do for relaxation and health, if I don’t enjoy it I’m not going to continue doing it and I’ll move on to something else.  And this site is a very relaxed, laid-back place that just happens to allow you to compete for points against other people in a social environment so there’s not much pressure, unless you want it to be.

It’s a great mixture of everything, and a great place to get and give encouragement from and to strangers, whether they are newcomers to exercise or experts in a certain area. I have to say it again because it’s said about Fitocracy often – “It’s the Facebook of exercise!”

You should check out this site whether you are new to exercise, fitness logging, trying to lose weight with exercise, and/or exercise is a longtime friend.  Whether you are a runner, a bicyclist, a weight lifter, a cardio nut, etc.  Though again – like Weighttraining.com; you might want to log things like running and biking in Runkeeper and stick to logging weight training and cardio things on Fitocracy.

There are apps for both the iPhone/iPad/iPod and Android (click the links to the left to download the app for your mobile device).  The Fitocracy app is a bit different than the website, but pretty straight-forward in use once you get used to it.  There is no GPS tracking or anything like that.

On to the website itself.  I think you’ll find that it’s pretty easy to navigate it as well as to figure out what you are looking for once you get used to it.  The interface might seem a bit different at first but you quickly get used to it.

Since the Beta they’ve changed the design somewhat a few times and I think it continues to get better and better.  Sometimes there are growing pains, but for the most part it works great.  And of course you’re always going to have people who don’t like ANY changes, but I think Fitocracy has done well at improvements in general.

It also connects to your FacebookTwitterTumblr, etc accounts so that if you want to post your workouts to any or all you have that option – as you can do on many other of the exercise logging sites.

And if you like and use Runkeeper.com and you log running, biking, rowing, or whatever there – you can have Runkeeper share the information to Fitocracy so you don’t have to add it on both sites.  Like I said above though; many of the things that come from the other direction (i.e. from Fitocracy to Runkeeper) don’t get transferred the other way unfortunately.

Otherwise it works well, and once data from Runkeeper is sent to Fitocracy you can edit some of the information on Fitocracy that can’t be edited on Runkeeper.

Just a couple of notes though about logging things from Runkeeper on Fitocracy.  Firstly once something gets transferred from your Runkeeper account to your Fitocracy account you need to hit “Save Workout” in Fitocracy to have it actually save and log the workout that was shared from Runkeeper.  Otherwise it just sits there in the Track tab on Fitocracy for your unlogged exercises for the day.

fitocracy log

Logging is easy in general.  You can search for an exercise, see your recent things and workouts, your most popular, search by alphabetical order, etc and then just drag or click them and enter your details.  Reps, distance, miles, weights and so on.

You can select previously saved workouts too, though the free version of Fitocracy limits you to a certain number.

fitocracy log 2

I have to say – Fitocracy, for the most part, has been one of the most friendly online places that I have come across online.  And I’ve been online since the 80′s (just in case you remember the days of BBSes).  I love the Internet, and I love the social aspect of it – but where ever I go there seem to be idiots who make even the friendliest place a lot less enjoyable.

But so far Fitocracy; for some weird reason – still manages to have a large number of nice, friendly, helpful, encouraging people for the most part.  Very, very unusual.  It’s a great place to hang out and I used to find myself sometimes spending a few extra free moments there instead of on Facebook or other social sites.

You can join groups, join quests (where you have a certain amount of time to finish a particular exercise or series of them), post pics and messages, and of course log your workouts.  If you have an upgraded membership you can compete against others too.

fito groups

There are a few idiosyncrasies when logging, in addition to having to manually save a workout imported from Runkeeper you can’t log more than thirty reps per set, etc.  You get used to it; and work around it.

And also, one of the things that cause people a little trouble is finding equivalent exercises.   Not just on Fitocracy, of course, but when logging anything on any exercise site.

People call various routines by many different names, and sometimes you have to use a partial search as you enter things to find what you are looking for.  Or sometimes you might have to go to Google to find the differing names that others call similar exercises and routines.  You can even using Weighttraining.com to find and cross-reference things.  In a pinch you can go to the Knowledge tab, which has a LOT of info along these lines.  You can also ask if you can’t find something, but make sure you search first.

It’s a great site, and worth a try to check out.

garmin forerunnerGarmin Connect

I hadn’t used Garmin Connect, having only glanced at it a few times as I didn’t have a Garmin GPS watch (I had a Schwinn GPS/Heart Rate Monitor Watch which comes with its own software) but after trying out the Garmin site I realized that you can import .GPX files from ANY device.

And as luck would have it I received a Garmin Forerunner 405CX from my wife as an anniversary present so I could then use it in all its glory 😉  i.e. once it’s set up the device links wirelessly and automatically uploads data to Garmin Connect.  After receiving the watch I started perusing and using the site much more and I pleasantly surprised at all the site has to offer.  Though there have been the occasional hiccup as things are upgraded on across the system.

I found that after connecting it via some third party syncing sites (I’ll get to those in the next post) it also transferred to and from other sites I use to log things.  So no more having to manually upload GPX files to Runkeeper, now whenever I finish a run or bike trip I set the watch down near the computer and it automatically transfers the data via an ANT+ USB adapter to Garmin Connect.  And then one of the third party syncing sites I use eventually transfers this data to Runkeeper and to other exercise logging sites I use.  No duplicate or extra or manual uploading needed.

Addendum as of 8/28/2014 – Garmin and certain other sites seem to be working together a bit more, and now a few other exercise logging sites like TrainingPeaksStrava, and MyFitnessPal are connecting directly to Garmin.  Go to each individual site to set this up.

Garmin Connect doesn’t let you manually enter any fitness tracking, each item must be uploaded using a GPS device or a mapping file but you can edit anything once it is uploaded.  Addendum as of 8/28/2014, with the new redesigned Garmin Connect you can now manually add fitness tracking items by clicking the little plus button at the top of the ACTIVITIES widget.

Data uploaded can be from a connected Garmin device, from map data on your computer or from a memory card (likely while inserted in a GPS device), or – if Garmin Connect is synced with another tracking site – it will be automatically imported.  With a Garmin GPS watch, as I mentioned above, it is done automatically and you don’t need to actually upload anything on your own.

Once the data is uploaded you then can edit most anything about it (including workout names), delete it, compare it to other workouts, export it, save it as a course or print it.  You can also see a map using satellite photos or display a regular road map through Bing, Google, or OpenstreetMap.  And do all of the regular map-sort of things like zooming out and in and scrolling around.

Your stats are displayed, including splits, timing and elevation and heart-rate charts, pretty much anything else you need, even weather.  Of all of the sites I mention in this blog posting you will probably find this Garmin site has some of the best analyzation and display of data that you might want.

The site also has (customizable) reports and health graphs, a planner for goals and workouts, a calendar displaying and allowing you to schedule workouts, training plans and courses.

Again, you’ll find this very comprehensive and detailed, as is the whole site.  There’s really too many options for me to mention, and it’s quite excellent for those who like a lot of data to peruse.  But for those who want a more cursory glance at their relevant stats the Dashboard screen will probably be just right for you.

Additionally you can search for friends, interesting groups, activities and courses by other members of the site, and training plans.

It’s an excellent site, but it is geared toward GPS-related activities where sites like Weighttraining.com and Fitocracy.com are more suited to weight-training and more general exercise.  If you have a Garmin GPS watch or other GPS device you’ll find the site of special interest because of it’s ability to access those devices, but it can be just as useful for use with some other GPS devices too.

There are some other exercise logging sites that directly connect to Garmin Connect and share data back and forth, or you can use one of the fitness syncing sites I will review in the next post.  It seems that Garmin Connect can be a bit cantankerous when trying to sync it with other sites but generally it works fine with them.

The mobile app is pretty nice too but much, much more limited in its scope than the website.  And there’s no way to track your run, bike, or walk using the app on a phone’s GPS, nor any way to access your Garmin GPS’s directly from the app running on a mobile device.  There are some third party apps that DO allow you to upload your GPS data to the Garmin Connect site, but they require some additional drivers and set up.  You’ll also find some other non-Garmin apps that connect into Garmin Connect and display your data.

MapMyWalk

MapMyFitness

MapMyHike

MapMyRide

MapMyRun

MapMyFitness, MapMyRun, MapMyRide, MapMyWalk, MapMyHike are all a part of the same site.  In other words – if you log something in one it is going to show up in the others.

It’s a great site, both the website as well as the mobile app.  Good for tracking your workouts, runs, rides, etc but unlike Garmin Connect you can log a multitude of other things like weight-training and cardio activities and lots of other things not related to GPS-tracking.

Example screen from MapMyRide

Example screen from MapMyRide website.

Example screen from MapMyRide

Example screen from MapMyRide mobile app.

Like many of the other sites you can see your stats, maps, courses, find groups, find routes, and create goals or join events.  And of course you can manually enter your exercise, weight training, cardio, or food for the day or import from a compatible device.  If you are using the mobile app you can use your device’s GPS to log your ride, run, walk, or hike also.

Things like weight-training brings up options for time, reps, weight, and things like that versus logging something like a bike ride that brings up distance and duration and things along those lines.  Logging individual things like bicep curls isn’t quite as extensive as Weighttraining or Fitocracy.  But the site does have workout DVD’s like P90X and other popular ones which are hard to log on other sites.  Other options like Route Genius (that allows you to create your own maps by entering your area and distance) are premium membership items.

Another good site, and well worth evaluating.

myfitnesspal

MyFitnessPal allows you to log your fitness but centers more around the food aspect somewhat.  But it is still perfectly capable of being used to track your other activities.

Once you get registered and logged in you have quick access to every part of the site using the big menu at the top and its sub-menus.

myfitnesspal menu

You can log exercises by searching for them in the Exercise Diary, which has a huge database and covers pretty much anything and everything.  There’s also a separate database search which lets you look things up first before logging them (or doing them) by searching or selecting one from an alphabetical list, at which point you can check to see how many calories you are likely to burn.

Seeing what you logged is easy, splitting your logging up into strength training and cardio. for logging exercise there’s some details you can fill in when actually logging items, but it’s pretty basic; especially if you are logging things like running and biking.

For things like that you might want to take the opportunity to go the APPS tab and connect to something like Runkeeper for more advanced logging, or to one of the many other sites that it can connect to and sync up with that might be more specialized to logging exercise.  it really depends on what you need, if you’re just starting out or don’t need the extra options it will likely work perfectly fine for you.

Because where MyFitnessPal shines is the food diary and database/calorie counter.

myfitnesspal food

You can look up nearly any food you can possibly think of and see its nutritional info, log your breakfast, lunches, dinners, snacks, etc and see just how many calories you are taking in versus what you are burning in exercise. You can even log your fluids for the day.

Of course your nutritional logging is not going to be exact or show perfectly your caloric intake versus output, but it’s a very good estimation.

Even if you don’t use the site for logging any exercise or food it’s handy to have bookmarked, or even to have the app on your mobile device for referencing nutritional info on what you are eating, whether it’s something home-cooked or at a restaurant or fast food.

It’s an excellent resource and seems to be very accurate when comparing it to some other sites.

You also have the option of saving foods and meals that you eat often for quick access, and even keep recipes (you can enter them manually or import them from an URL).

If you’re trying to lose weight, or actively maintaining your weight then this is something you might use often or at least occasionally.  Even for those of us who have systems of exercise and food intake in equilibrium it can sometimes be interesting and/or informative to occasionally log our food and cross-check it against what we do.

Never underestimate the value of a little extra information in your life.

Also the site has a basic but adequate Report screen that allows you to display reports on your progress in graph form for things like weight, body fat, calories, exercise time, and much more.

Additionally as is the most case for other sites you can change your settings, add your profile and a photo, connect to other exercise logging sites, read the site’s blog, and use the Community options which give you use of extensive forums, groups, and personal blogs.  There’s a huge amount of information and discussion going on on this site and, like with Fitocracy, it’s a great place to get motivation and help.


health vault

HealthVault is a little different and I post it here mostly for variety.  It is used to track and store any health information, whether it is medication, health problems and issues, blood pressure, weight, allergies, food intake, appointments, medical and family history, medications and much more.  In addition allowing you to track your fitness manually or via a number of devices like heart rate monitors and Withing scales and trackers.  It also allows you to share this information (and optionally allow others to be a ‘custodian’ of your data if you like) with others including doctors and family members, and even store medical imaging and medical documents on the site.  It also has the ability to send encrypted medical info via email to your doctor.  Some of the information fields it provides gives you a place to add extensive health-related information.

It’s a bit of a Swiss Army Knife of health tracking, you might say.  But as such it may be lacking in some of the features you might be looking for in a more fitness-oriented tracking site.

Just as with other sites you can sync it to other websites and make sure your info is shared into it.  You can use some of its extensive features for the other health-related things I mentioned above in the description.  It’s a great site, but very light on the details and analyses for the exercise-tracking aspect.

health vault screen

Strava

If you’re a ‘serious’ bicyclist you’ve probably heard of Strava, or use it already.  You may even use the occasional Strava-derived bicycling term 😉  But it isn’t just for biking, you can log running and other things also.

So whether you are a Strava QOM/KOM or not, it might be worth with checking out anyway because it has some awesome statistical, power, and map stat displays.  In addition to the common features you find in similar sites of course.  It will even estimate your power output if you are biking and you can log the hours and miles on each piece of equipment; like bikes and running shoes.

Everymove, Earndit, Walgreen’s Steps With Balance Rewards and Other Reward-Earning Sites

If exercising for the health of it, for fun, for looking good, for points, or for the social aspect of it isn’t enough motivation for you – you can always try one of the many websites or apps that give you rewards of some sort.  Some dispense discounts, money donated to charity, chances to win prizes, gift cards, and much more for keeping in shape and logging what you do.

Other Sites

There’s a ton of other sites, too – an amazing number of them.  These are in no means lesser sites but I am running out of steam here a bit, not to mention having written quite a long post.

So I’ll just do a few honorable mentions here; like Training Peaks, and Endomondo and if you are looking for something bicycle-specific there is the excellent RideWithGPS which also has one of the best apps for riding.  There are also sites that cater to specific areas of fitness and exercise and which sometimes have their own fairly good logging sub-sections, too.  Bicycling.com and Runner’s World, for two examples, have their own ride logging areas.

Those are just a few more, you will find many, many other general purpose sites, as well as apps for your mobile device.  Some of the apps don’t have a pc-accessible site and are only mobile apps, and some apps that don’t have a regular website also hook directly into Runkeeper or other sites.  There are many of every kind.  Many, many, many, and by the time you read this probably many more.

 In Conclusion 

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Megan Stanton, a medic with the 366th Medical Operations Squadron, bikes along a road in Mountain Home, Idaho, July 12, 2013. Stanton regularly bikes for two hours without stopping to incorporate exercise into her daily routine as part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Photo by Tech. Sgt. Samuel Morse from http://www.defenseimagery.mil

This posting isn’t really about picking my favorite, but more about touching briefly on some of the more popular ones and ones that I use, and there are indeed so many good choices that it would be hard for me to pick just one, so I’m not going to.  In fact you’ll find such a wealth of features and usefulness in these many of these great sites that you might find my next blog entry very informative – A Review of Some Fitness Syncing Sites – just so you don’t have to choose one, or even a couple ;).

bike on mind

To sum it all up; some of these sites concentrate more on GPS-related things, others on connecting to fitness/walking/sleep monitoring devices like Fitbit or smart scales and other devices like the Withings line of devices, some on running and biking, some on weight-training, others let you log anything from running to more esoteric things (maybe you want to log skylarking drones with a crossbow or something, though I wouldn’t recommend that sport!), some on food, others on sleep, etc.  If you can’t pick your favorite, as I mentioned above; read on to the next blog entry for ways to sync the data from various and all fitness sites – A Review of Some Fitness Syncing Sites.

In closing I want to thank Mariah at Runkeeper.com, Brian Wang of Fitocracy.com, Allison at MapMyFitness, and Natalie at MyFitnessPal for getting back to me and allowing me to use logos and screenshots and such for this blog posting.  MapMyFitness even has an entire section with logos and ready-made screenshots for this sort of thing, which I appreciated.

Marc M

I am a web developer and fitness geek, but I have a heck of a lot of differing interests.  Biking, the Internet, technology, movies, fitness, running and walking and hiking, science fiction, photography, graphics, WordPress, flying and aircrafts, pets and animals, history, and much more.  I like to stay very fit but I don’t mind sitting at my computer for work and play either.  I live in upstate New York (that’s far from New York City) in a rural area, yet close to a small city, with my beautiful awesome wife, a bunch of beloved cats and dogs and chickens in a very old multi-century house.

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