iPrescribe Exercise App, an exercise prescription plan to improve your fitness and health

Staying healthy means we need to be physically active. Sedentary lifestyle is a killer. Several studies already associated the time you spend sitting with all-cause mortality. Being inactive is one of the biggest factors in developing heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, as well as the other long term health conditions.

Physical activity plays an important role in preventing these conditions in those who are sedentary or at risk from developing them. Exercise is also a crucial part of the management of long term health conditions, if they're already developed.

Bottom line: we all need to stand more and get moving. 

But, this is sometimes easier to say than to actually do.  A lot of people lack motivation and guidance, as well as knowledge about certain types of exercise that may be helpful. Doing exercise wrong is sometimes as equally bad as not doing it at all.

Mobile apps may come to rescue. There's hundreds of thousands health apps available for both Android and iOS devices, with large percentage of fitness and exercise apps among them. But, in this ocean of solutions which one to choose? Which one is the best? The answer is not simple. It depends on what exercises the app includes, or if the app is simple tracker or a complete solution, if it allows customizations and personalization, etc.

We stumbled upon iPrescribe Exercise app, made by the company of the same name, with the goal to help sedentary patients and patients with chronic diseases to improve their health through exercising with the app's 12-week personalized plan. The app is apparently medically endorsed and evidence-based. The purpose of this review is to check if this app really delivers.

Upon starting the app, users are walked through the short tour, which describes the main features of the app. i.e. how you can use it in order to create a tailored plan based on your personal data and health inputs, as well as any medical conditions you may have.

After finishing the tour and tapping on the button to start the app, you will be taken through a medical screening questionnaire, which is based on the PAR-Q, or Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire, by Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, and the Adult Pre-exercise Screening Tool by Exercise and Sport Science Australia. This questionnaire is medically validated and recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine.

The purpose of this screening questionnaire is to identify if you're suitable to start an exercise program and if you have any medical contraindications that will be excluded until your condition is under control or until you've been reviewed by a medical professional.
The questionnaire takes you through seven steps. The first step identifies if you have any ongoing or chronic medical conditions, such as heart conditions, chest pain, dizziness, diabetes, asthma, bone or joint problems, etc. If you answered yes to any of these questions, you'll be advised to talk to your doctor before starting the exercise program and to proceed only if you have a recommendation from a healthcare professional.

Second step requires you to enter some info about yourself, so the app can build a plan for you. The information you have to provide ranges from gender and age to your heart rate, BMI, waist circumference and blood pressure (if known). 

While you are supposed to enter all the info manually, checking your heart rate is done in really intuitive way. It allows you to place your finger on a lens of your phone camera in order to pick you resting heart rate, which is automatically added to the field. We're not sure if this is accurate, but it's a nice touch. There are also color coded risk profiles as you input information, for example you'll get a warning with a piece of advice if your waist circumference is too big or you have rapid resting heart rate.

The third step requires you to enter your current activity level, asking you to choose between sedentary, moderately active and very active. For the purpose of this app, we've chosen sedentary. Step four asks if you're on any medications that may affect your heart rate or rhythm, such as beta blockers. Step five goes through the list of medical conditions, from cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes to COPD or MS, asking you to choose if you have any or none.

Next step will ask you to specify your goals, i.e. if you want to improve health/fitness, to decrease weight, resting heart rate, pain levels or blood pressure, or to simply improve your mood and energy levels. Final step is non-compulsory '6 minute walking test' that should provide good information about your current fitness level and help tracking your progress.

Upon providing all necessary information, you'll get your own personalized plan from Week 1 to Week 12. The plan starts at low intensity with 5 sessions lasting 20 minutes each, and after two initial weeks it gradually increases the intensity and session duration as you progress.

Tapping on start (plus) button initiates the exercise, giving you the option to choose between walking, cycling or aerobic. Walking and cycling opens the map of your location, allowing you to track your session in real time. If you chose Aerobic, you'll get an option to download an aerobic video.

All options are really great because they allow you the freedom to choose the most convenient option for you, i.e. you can basically exercise while you're walking on the streets, or you can exercise at home getting visual instructions from the video.

Any way you chose, the app will suggest you to check your extortion level and a heart rate after each session, and to register each entry in Heart Profile tab. The app also generates the report with your results, which can be emailed to your doctor. This option however didn't work as we tested the app. We also couldn't send an email using Feedback option. Maybe this is a temporary glitch, which would hopefully be fixed, because having your results evaluated by a healthcare provider should be one of the most important aspects of this app.

iPrescribe Exercise app also provides a lot of useful information regarding various medical conditions, i.e. how the exercise can improve your condition, with a general advice, as well as precautions and contraindications. No wonder since the app is created by physiotherapists with a huge experience in the NHS, private practice and elite sport, who are also experts in exercise prescription.

This is amazing free health and fitness app, which is well-designed and easy-to-use, and what's more important it is medically endorsed, providing evidence-based exercise recommendations for everyone. Whether you're patient with chronic disease or just someone who wants to get back into shape, iPrescribe Exercise might be the real app for you.

Benefit: This app is designed for sedentary patients and those with chronic diseases who want to reach fitness goals to improve their health or medical condition, along with the advice of their healthcare providers.