Improving student health is what the Life Fitness Center at Santa Barbara City College is all about, and they have done exactly that with their new SBCC LFC app.
This app was created by the physical education department to allow students to not only improve their health, but also as a way to connect with others. This app allows you to do so many things to help you with all aspects of your health, and has multiple categories that add so many different dynamics to your experience.
One such category is called Find a Class, and it has every class that is taught at the LFC everyday, from spinning, to yoga, to kickboxing and more. This allows you to see what classes are available, and what time that class will start so a person can see if it fits their schedule. The app also allows you to add those classes to your calendar.
The app has categories from referring a friend to recording your workout. A person can select the category refer a friend, type in their friends name and email, and it will send you an email saying that the staff has received your referral and a staff member will contact your friend. When you record your workout, the app allows you to enter your workout manually or take a picture of the machine you are on to enter your results on your online workout history.
Students can record every workout, from the machines you can video to the ones you can’t. If a person is weightlifting they can record every set, and how many reps they did with whatever weight. It allows you to track your stats, and see the progress that you’re making. Also, the app allows you to set goals for yourself. You can set a goal from the number of workouts a week you want to do, how many calories you want to burn, how much time you want to spend in the gym, and how many miles you want to run.
One of the amazing aspects of this app is the challenge category. Every week the app posts a new challenge, and everyone that has the app is put on a leaderboard for a friendly competition. You can see who has completed the challenge, and who has done it the fastest. At the end of every week the person in first place earns a prize.
This app was great for me not only because I am able to record every aspect of my workout, but also because I can see how close I am to my goal for the week and my goals overall.
The one thing I find the app is missing is a feature to set goals for lifting weights. I would like to challenge myself, and see if I could get to a certain amount of weight that week.
Another amazing feature of the SBCC LFC app is its ability to connect with so many other apps. For example the app can connect with Fitbit, Garmin, Jawbone, and more. Students can take all the data collected by their devices, and send it to the LFC app.
Sandrine Krul, the women’s basketball coach and also a staff member at the LFC, uses the app every time she workouts.
“I love the LFC app because it allows it to be an external motivator,” Krul said.”For example, there is always one student who beats me in a number of workouts, but week 11 I finally beat her. The cool thing is, this student doesn’t know how they empowered me not to miss a workout and that’s the beauty of the LFC app.”
The LFC app is a great way to improve your health in every way, and it also is a great way to challenge yourself. It’s also encouraging knowing your peers are doing it too, and it’s a great way to connect with other students.
