App Profile: Stepminder

SDBchicago

Rating: 5/5

September 2019 StepMinder is a great tool to use if you want some help maintaining an average number of steps over any period of time. StepMinder is also a great tool for tracking daily progress toward a monthly step goal, especially as in the Monthly Challenge in Apple Watch coaching. And if you change your step goal in StepMinder, it won’t affect any of your other exercise/movement apps: no streak breaks or affecting other goals. In my case, I wanted to meet a 270.5 mile walk/run goal for August. I restated 270.5 miles in steps (my steps-yours might be different). In StepMinder I set my step goal as 19,500. For the first week of the month, I turned off the averaging. Once past the first week, I set the averaging to 7 days weighted (other options include 3 days, 2 weeks and 4 weeks, weighted or unweighted). Each day StepMinder told me at a color-coded glance if I had maintained my step goal of 19,500. If I had not made enough steps to maintain my goal that day, it rolled that deficit into the average calculation for the next day, telling me how many total steps I needed to make up that deficit and get my progress where it needed to be. If I made more steps than needed on a day, it rolled that excess into the average calculation for the next day, telling me that I could “take it easy” while keeping my progress on track. This is great because some days I was under goal and some days I was over goal. The averaging kept track of the varying number of steps I needed to maintain my (goal) average. That was super! Before installing the StepMinder app, I had to do all that calculation by hand every day to make sure I was on track to complete the Challenge by the end of the month. StepMinder also has a History, View Data option that allows you to see the progression of your daily average in steps and miles as well as (in the iPhone) history of your actual steps and miles from the Health app. I give this app an A+! Trip! Added March 2020 Step-minder has now added a Trip tracker. Trip tracks time and distance, with easy on, off and reset (much easier to use than other “stop watch” features I have tried. I am using this to add some interval training to my daily workout as a way to increase my workout stamina. This is a great addition to a product I use everyday! And it is compatible with my Apple Watch: reading “watch steps or miles” thru the Health. Love this app!