Training Monotony
Training Monotony is another tool that relies on TRIMP scores, and it measures the degree of variation in your workouts. Typically, a Training Monotony score over a two means that you’re over-training and that your training is ineffective (likely because you are doing too much or not enough). Scores below 1.5 are ideal.
If you really want to understand the mathematical side of Training Monotony, I’ll just let you know that it’s the difference between the daily average TRIMP score and the standard deviation for each 7 day period.
Miscellaneous Statistics
There are a couple other training scores that HealthFit provides that are more niche to specific activities. I’m going to take a safe guess that most won’t really care about or use these figures. No offense to those that do/will.
The first is an Eddington Number, which pertains only to cycling. According to the app, this is “the maximum number E such that the cyclist has cycled E miles/km on E days” The explanation goes on to say that, “for example, an Eddington Number of 70 would imply that the cyclist has cycled at least 70 miles/km in a day on 70 occasions.” Apparently it’s very difficult to reach a high Eddington Number. I can’t speak from experience because I’ve never used it or even heard of it before HealthFit.
The second niche score that HealthFit provides is called an Explorer Score that only pertains to outdoor activities. Apparently, this score originated with VeloViewer in 2015. The score is based on how many squares you’ve passed through from all of your activities of a certain type. Squares are based on the standard OpenStreetMap map tile with a 256x256px image at a zoom level of 14.
Health Data Dump
There’s one other feature to the app that’s worth mentioning and that’s that it acts as a “data dump” for all of your Apple Health data on its Health screen. As far as I can tell, not a single piece of information on this screen is actually generated by HealthFit. It’s all straight from the data that’s already in Apple’s Health app on the iPhone. It does add some pretty graphs to some of the data though and neatly presents the data for different periods of time.
Unless you just really love the layout that HealthFit uses here, there’s honestly not much benefit to the feature. Maybe you find that the presentation of the data is easier to read and access than it is in the Health app. I don’t know. I personally don’t think it makes much of a difference.
Some Bummers About the App
In my opinion, there are two big bummers about HealthFit.
The first bummer about it is that it doesn’t have an Apple Watch app. In other words, it only works on the iPhone. For such a data rich application, this just doesn’t make sense to me. Supporting the Apple Watch and using complications seems like a no-brainer. Then again, maybe the lack of such support is part of why the app is able to remain so affordable. (I’ll get to the pricing soon.)
The second bummer is that the app doesn’t really do anything to interpret or help you understand all of the data (and as you saw, it’s A LOT) that it tells you. You have to do all the hard work yourself, assuming that you understand how to do so. The app basically dumps a ton of data on you, as if to say, “Good luck figuring all this out.” It has the potential to be very useful in the right hands or to be extremely confusing in the wrong hands.
Should You Buy It?
Really, it doesn’t have to be a very complicated decision. The app costs a one-time fee of $4.99, and there are no subscriptions. Hallelujah! So, whatever you decide, the cost/risk is very low here. Here’s my conclusion though.
The app is most helpful if you’re someone that wants to keep multiple fitness/health platforms in sync. That’s just the most useful aspect to the app in my opinion. The second most useful aspect is the training statistics, but those are a mixed bag. Like I said earlier, the figures won’t mean much to you if you’re not familiar with them. They’re not simple percentages and, even once you’ve read about them, they still don’t immediately make sense or become intuitive. If you’re a casual/average user, my guess is that the training statistics are going to be over your head and overwhelming at best and maybe discouraging/dangerous at worst.
My recommendation is that if you use multiple training platforms and you’re someone that is more knowledgable than the average user about training statistics (and will actually use them), you should absolutely spend the small price of $4.99 and get the app. If all you really want is training figures, there are free options on the AppStore that can provide them to you.
