I'll tell you what useful functions are in the paid version of Runkeeper and is it worth paying 400 rubles for them every month.
January is great for sports. Exercise helps to recover from the long holidays and holiday feasts. I use jogging for this purpose; I used to run outdoors with the Runkeeper app, but when winter came, I dropped it and moved to the gym. For cardio, I still prefer running, but on a treadmill. I decided to go back to the RunKeeper app to keep track of results and track progress. At the same time, I wanted to know what the paid subscription of RunKeeper Go gives. Because on the Internet I could not find any sensible reviews about the benefits of the paid functions of the service.
By the way, when paying for a subscription, I first felt the work of 'Google tax'. Instead of 351 rubles per month, I had to pay 414 rubles.
RunKeeper Go subscribers get 4 additional features:
- Weekly personal training;
- Statistics and analytics of classes;
- Exercise plans from experts
- Online broadcast of training.
A very small list, considering the cost of a monthly subscription – 400 rubles.
What do we pay for
I'll start with the most useless addition – live streaming. In theory, your friends / relatives / acquaintances can track the training process: watch it by moving on the map and track the results. But I still couldn't get this function to work. The application does not inform in any way about the beginning of the broadcast, how and where to watch it. Included in the settings for automatic publication of links in Twitter and Facebook – no messages were published.
But even so, I do not see the need for myself to broadcast workouts online.
Statistics seems to me the only useful function. Although, in fact, it only assembles your results into two graphs and one chart. That is, you do not receive new information, but simply see how the pace of running and endurance change from training to training in a single tape. It's convenient, but I wouldn't pay extra for it. It is enough to look at the tape with your previous workouts and understand the approximate change in performance.
The free version of Runkeeper has several versatile workout plans for losing weight, exercising the heart, and covering a certain distance (5 or 10 km). Runkeeper Go subscribers can get a personalized workout plan that is constantly adapting to the user. However, the main disappointment awaited me here – you cannot add exercise on a treadmill to the training plan. Yes, you can enter a workout manually, but it will not count towards the plan. So subscribing to Runkeeper Go for gym workout is definitely not worth it, just for street jogging. Accordingly, I also failed to check the work of the personal training designer. If it is interesting, I will re-pay for the subscription in a few months, when it gets warmer.
Outcome
I see no point in paying for a Runkeeper Go subscription. The app is great for running outdoors, but not for indoor activities. Without movement in space and communication with GPS satellites, the service is practically useless. Streaming a workout online seems to me to be an absolutely useless function, and statistics are not so useful to pay money for it every month. Adaptive workouts are also in doubt, the free Runkeeper has a good set of generic workout plans.
Share your experience with Runkeeper and other similar services in the comments.