[App Review] Cardio Trainer

I imagine that a pretty significant part of our readership is of the more sedentary persuasion, if that describes you then that isn't something you and AndroidNZ staffer Anita Paling share in common. If you're amongst the active, or contemplating joining their ranks soon, then this article is definitely up your alley. Make the leap over the break to find out if this app should be your exercise companion of choice [Ed].

This little app boasts its ability to record your training, track using GPS and send the data to the website.

It has a great variety of activities that you can record. And you can also share your training sessions via Twitter and Facebook. You can schedule your training and there’s a nifty countdown to starting your workout.

The interface is clean and fresh.
There are a number of different settings you can tweak, one of the most important to me is the ability to change from imperial to metric.

All up the reviews on AppBrain looked promising and I was keen to give this application a try out alongside my Garmin 310XT watch.

So how did it measure up? Mixed results I’m afraid.
My first session was on the bike and it didn’t record. I’ll put this down to user error. I must have accidentally bumped something while putting my phone in my cycle jacket. All was not lost. You’re able to manually enter a workout. I took the details from my Garmin and duly added the workout and then manually transferred that information to the website.

What I wasn’t able to enter was the calories burnt. Cardio Trainer did the calculation and arrived at 736kcal. The Garmin had 576 calories. I only wish Cardio Trainer could be relied on. I’d have eaten a chocolate bar rather than a couple of jelly beans post workout.

The web portal view

Next I used Cardio Trainer while I ran through the forest. I wore my arm band and safely tucked the phone out of harms way.

On the positive side the GPS worked flawlessly. However my session was a smidge over 75 minutes. I travelled 11.5 kilometres – no I won’t be called up to represent NZ anytime soon.

This is where you can’t expect the same sort of technology of a free application to the R&D budget of a big company like Garmin. The Cardio Trainer application asks no more than your weight and gender. On that data alone, along with the type of activity, the time and the distance it calculates the calories you’ve burnt.

Cardio Trainer reckons I travelled .68km in 25 minutes despite the accurate GPS shown on the map. I’m not sure how it works out the distance given the map was accurate.

Because of the hit and miss recording I decided to uninstall the application. My GPS was having a heart attack and I wondered if the app might have been the cause (it wasn’t).
I reinstalled the application and all my previous settings were restored. However the training specific data isn’t. You’ll need to log back into the website to view that information. But at least it’s saved.

My next run was around my neighbourhood. This time the GPS was way off. Of my 5.7km run Cardio Trainer only recorded the last 3.54km with a total workout time of 30 minutes where as the run was 37 minutes.

Viewing a track

The app is easy to use, it’s almost fun, and it’s clearly working for many users. However for me no app was ever going to measure up to my Garmin HRM. And while I wasn’t looking for a replacement, I was hoping to find something that could be relied upon.
Even if the calories burnt were never going to be accurate, so long as it’s a consistent calculation you can usually live with it.

If anyone can think of a setting I might have incorrectly applied or tweaked that could lead to such fickle recordings please let me know. I’m more than happy to review my review and give this another try.

And as I said, even uninstalling and reinstalling the app will save all my settings. It’s not like I have to start from scratch again.

Happy training.