People always want to be healthy and fit. This is the reason why many people are becoming more and more serious about exercising. Most are even taking gym membership to make sure that their body will be taken care of. However, due to the pandemic and busy schedule, lots of people cannot maintain their routine. One of the ideal solutions for that is having a fitness tracking app on mobile. There are a lot of reliable fitness apps available today, and Polar Flow is one of them. It complements a wide range of Polar devices and can be helpful for the achievement of your fitness goals.
In this review, we will discuss what the Polar Flow app is, the features that make it unique, and some of the pros and cons of using the app.
What Is the Polar Flow App?
The Polar Flow app is an interesting sport, fitness, and activity analyzer. It lets you plan and follow your training, daily activity, and sleep while you are trying to be fit. Moreover, when you use Polar devices and other heart rate monitors and GPS devices, you will instantly see your achievements and activities on your mobile phone through this app. These include the amount of time you spent walking or running, calories burned, how many steps were taken, resting time, and sleeping habits. Besides, you can structure your goals and see how far you are in achieving all your goals.
With that, you’ll be able to know how much time you are active and inactive. The app will then help you increase your activity levels so you can plan more on what you have to do.
Pairing a Polar Device With the Polar Flow App
Compatible Polar Devices
The Polar Flow app is compatible with different Polar devices, including multisport and fitness watches, GPS running watches, and many others. Here’s a list of compatible Polar devices:
- A300 and A370
- Grit X
- Ignite and Ignite 2
- M200, M400, M430, and M600,
- Polar Loop 2 and Polar Loop Crystal
- Unite
- V650 and V800
- Vantage M, Vantage M2, Vantage V, Vantage V Titan, and Vantage V2
How to Pair Polar Flow App With Mobile Device
Before pairing, connect your mobile device to the internet. Also, make sure that you have already downloaded the Polar Flow app and that your mobile device’s Bluetooth is turned on. Furthermore, you have to check if the airplane or flight mode of both your Polar device and mobile device is turned off.
To pair your mobile device, launch the Polar Flow app and log in to your account. After that, head on to the settings of your Polar device. Choose Pair and Sync Mobile Devices and then press Start. Make sure that your mobile device PIN is shown on the Polar device you are going to use. Input the PIN from your Polar device to your mobile device to start the pairing. When done, you will see the message Pairing Completed on your Polar device.
Polar Flow App Features
Smarter Workouts
Whether you are into running, cycling, or any other activities, you can have your settings for your chosen sports. You can specify your heart rate and speed or power zones and decide what data you want to see while you are training. To have an updated training log, you have to provide the right information about your sports profile.
In addition to this, you can also schedule and personalize your training plan. You can create your training targets, and when you sync the app with the Polar device that you will use, you will get training guidance. You can choose between Quick Targets or Phased Targets. Quick targets are the easy way of creating guided sessions. You just have to set your specific target, and your device will guide you through the workout. For Phased targets, you can break your training sessions into phases. Besides, you can also create a different target duration for any of your training sessions, depending on your preferences.
Season Planner
This feature lets you create a customized training plan that you will try to achieve. You can periodize your training and set your target, which can be competitions or races. Also, as you divide your targets, you can add color themes every week. This way, it will be easier for you to focus on your main target and recognize what you need to focus on.
You can also create individual workouts or training targets per activity. You can choose a target and add it to your favorites. Once you are done with your first target, you can add a target from your favorites and include it on your plan. That way, there’s no activity that you want to do that will be left behind.
In addition to this, this feature will help you analyze your training program to accelerate your performance.
Analyzing Your Progress
You can get an overview of your daily activities and get personalized feedback about them, including workouts, rest time, and sleep time. You can look into them directly on the app. However, if you want to see your progress fully, you can go to Polar Flow’s web service.
Extensive Training Analysis Tool
This feature lets you have a more profound and detailed analysis of everything that you have achieved. You can also have a summary report, which helps you keep track of your progress and trends and every activity you did before. The summary will be useful when you plan for your next season.
Polar Running Program
This dedicated running program lets you improve your running game and makes it interesting to keep you more motivated. You can set up plans for different races, such as 5k, 10k, half marathon, and full marathon. To design a running program, go through the Programs tab. You have to do it on the web app since it is more complete than the mobile app. You will be given a wide range of running sessions and a series of scheduled workouts that you can perform in your free time.
However, you will need a heart rate monitor or activity tracker to enjoy this feature. The devices are required to sync your training sessions. That way, you can follow the guided runs and get helpful information about run recovery. You always need to rest your legs once in a while.
Explore the World Feature
Designed to serve as an adventure map, you can explore the world and access public training sessions through this app. This feature is accessible via the app’s “Explore” tab. Likewise, the app also lets you filter distance, time, sports, and location.
Polar Flow Community
In Polar Flow’s community, you can join and create different groups, clubs, and events. Within the group, you can follow your friends, comment, and like their activities, see their training sessions and activities, and know what they are up to. Moreover, you can get and give support whenever the group wants to achieve a goal.
Additionally, you can see classes and schedules on the club and even share everything you have gone through. You can also get moral support and some motivation to inspire you to become motivated. You can also sign up for a race on the Flow Events. There, you will have an overview of how other members are training, get valuable tips to help you achieve your goals, and make some meet-ups to meet and make friends with other members.
Tracking Your Activities
With this feature, you can track your activities daily, weekly, and monthly, and you will know the benefits of the activities you perform on your health. You can view if you could meet your goal, the total calories burned, active time, inactivity stamps, how much time was spent sleeping, and the number of steps you made. Knowing all your activities, you can decide what you have to do and make the necessary changes.
Tracking Your Sleep
This allows you to know how much you are sleeping, the quality of your sleep, and the timing of your sleep. You will have an overview of the trends of your sleep schedule.
Training Log
The app also lets you log all your training so you can track all your sessions. The data is always available whenever you need it. Also, the app looks over all your data to help you understand all your training sessions. This feature lets you see how much time you spent on training for the whole year, see what sports you did, see the heart rate zones you trained in, and count how many calories you burned.
Checking Your Vitals
To get accurate data, you need to provide your right age, height, gender, and heart rate zones. This is because the training that will be offered to you will be based on the right data. The app will not provide training just on what is presumed.
Sport Profiles
The app allows you to create multiple sport profiles depending on what you wish to view. You can customize everything, whether it is your heart rate zones, percentage of maximum heart rate, or heart rate reserve.
Share Mode
The app also allows you to view someone else’s paces. You can check for some people whose settings are on the Share Mode. With that, you will know who’s attempting to go the same distance with you or have the same goals as you. You will learn a lot from them, like knowing what they did to achieve their goals. You can follow their tips on the hows of different activities to keep you motivated.
Training Benefit
This feature makes it easy for you to understand the effects of all your training and what you will benefit from them. By fully understanding them, you will get an idea of what you really have to perform and what you need to combine with other activities to create an extensive training plan fully suited for you. This way, you’ll be sure that you will fully achieve your goals.
Running Index
This feature provides you an overview of your maximal running performance. However, this is only possible if you track your sessions and record your heart rate and speed. In addition to this, this feature also creates predictions of some running distances and gives you insights into what you can complete in the future. Also, you will get an idea if you are improving or not.
Third-Party App Compatibility
Since the app is compatible with a wide range of third-party apps, you can find and make friends with other apps just by sharing the data of your fitness levels.
Pros and Cons of Using the Polar Flow App
Pros
- Easy to set up and use
- Syncs to the cloud
- Has exercise diary to track your previous workouts
- Tracks elevation
- Provides easy syncing and update transfer
- Integrates with social networks
- Provides idea on how to have a balance between rest and activity
- Has route tracker
- Provides coaching
- A community that lets you connect with people with the same goals
- Shows good graphs
- A great companion to a wide range of Polar devices
- Provides good insights into the importance of being active
Cons
- Incompatible with some trackers
- Sometimes not showing weight data
- Elevation steps not shown on the workout
Polar Flow App Competitors
LifeSum
LifeSum is a fitness app that helps you reshape your diet. It yields learnings on what you need to design a workable diet. Also, it offers recommendations and suggestions of the food that you need to eat and how much you should consume at each meal. Besides, it lets you access all the nutrients you absorb from the food you eat for the day. The app will also teach you how to balance your food intake and make changes to your diet, whatever your goal is. This will help you live a healthier life and achieve your fitness goals.
What’s great with this app is that it features water-tracking, which helps you keep hydrated. Moreover, the dashboard features a smiley face, which makes it interesting. It lights up when you are maintaining your diet with the food that you eat. On the other hand, it turns sad or neutral if you are practicing unhealthy eating habits.
RunKeeper
The ASICS RunKeeper is an app that helps you set your goals, create a customized training plan, and track all your runs and progress. It provides all the needed tools to keep you reminded and motivated. Whatever your plan is, whether it is running, walking, jogging, or biking, you can track them, and you’ll get a clear view of all your activities.
In addition to this, the app lets you participate in virtual challenges and keep up with other running groups. This keeps your activities more exciting and helps you become more focused. Moreover, you can set your own goals and routines to fit in with your schedule.
Fitbit
Fitbit is a fitness app that provides personalized guidance, health programs, and video workouts. These help you have a deeper understanding of your stats and progress. Also, the app lets you track your steps, activities, calories burned, distance, and active minutes. Besides, it has a tracker, which records your sleep at night. With that, you can set your sleeping goals and make changes to your sleeping habits. The Fitbit app provides you with the information and motivation you need to achieve your set goals. Additionally, the app offers free audio tracks to help you manage or lessen your stress to improve your mood.
MyFitnessPal
MyFitnessPal is an ideal app for fitness enthusiasts looking to improve their diets and training. It features an extensive food database, which makes it easy for you to check the nutrients of the food you are going to eat. It also features a community where you can find friends to support you with your journey and find the motivation you need to pursue your goals. In addition to this, the app uses gamification elements, which make it exciting to use. Although it doesn’t offer a diet program, the app is helpful when you want to lose weight. This is because it provides nutritional information about the foods that you will eat. With that, you can decide if you will change your diet to help you with your fitness goals.
Is the Polar Flow App One of the Best Available?
Polar Flow can be considered the best if you’re already into the Polar wearable ecosystem. You can seamlessly connect your GPS watch or fitness and activity tracker with your phone and keep up with all your activities and progress even on the go. On the other hand, if you’re using another tracker, it may not work so well. However, when it comes to features and offerings, the Polar Flow app has something to boast about. Nevertheless, the achievement of goals will always depend on how people manage themselves and how they use the app to help and guide them.
