Grey matters
Brain training became very popular and around 2010, for a time it seemed everyone had at least one app or game dedicated to stretching our brains to the limit. There are still excellent options around today that promise through a wide range of peculiar puzzles, quizzes, and logic problems to increase your IQ and make your mind more flexible in the face of new conceptual challenges.
Check out Elevate on iOS, a brain training app focused on improving attention, processing speed, memory, math, and speaking abilities. The app tailors its program to your unique level and needs and dynamically increases the difficulty as you progress, ensuring you’re always met with an appropriate challenge.
Downward Dog
Yoga is here to stay, with 300 million practitioners worldwide and an industry worth approximately 84 billion dollars, Yoga has grown year on year since its boom in the west in the 90s. There’s virtually a class on every street corner in every major city in the world now. With such saturation, it can be difficult to choose which teacher is right for you.
There is also the added hurdle of self-consciousness many feel about exercising in a group setting. Fortunately, this needs no longer concern you due to the rise of comprehensive Yoga apps and YouTube channels. Most popular among these is the Find What Feels Good app developed by famous YouTube Yogi, Adriene Mishler. Sign up at a rate of $9 a month and get access to daily yoga classes as well as a full directory of hundreds of extra videos and training tools. What’s more the app lets you connect with like-minded individuals from around the world.
In the cards
Poker is a nuanced and sophisticated game, and playing it well requires a blend of different skills. The Upswing Poker App is developed by retired professional and YouTube star, Doug Holk. It features pre-flop charts and the ability to allocate full hand ranges to opponents, allowing you to hone your strategic play and learn how to respond to different hand scenarios. Additionally, you can get involved with the Upswing Poker online community where you can access curated courses on all aspects of play.
Feel the burn
There are plenty of good running apps nowadays and with the growth of wearable tech, there’s now a host of competing sports-bands and app companies hoping to attract your attention to their platforms. Nike is one of the oldest in the game, starting out with its Nike+ augmented running shoes that contained pedometers built into the soles of the shoes.
Try out Nike Training Club which features an encyclopedic directory of on-demand work-out videos accessible to all ages and skill levels. Simply fire up the app and select whether you’re after, say, a short burst of high-intensity exercise, or a focused hour-long body-weight routine. Then follow along with Nike’s on-screen trainers who will keep your form and pace on track as well as dropping useful tips and hints to get the most out of each session.
This just in
While reading books isn’t as big a part of everyone’s lives nowadays, we are all still reading thousands of words a day between news articles, social media posts, video captions and chat messages. Accordingly, learning to read faster with greater comprehension is a valuable skill to develop in such an information-dense world. Developer Green Key Universe’s Android app Speed Reading promises just this.
It measures the speed at which you read, offers tips on increasing concentration, and features exercises to help you memorize words and numbers quicker as well as assisting you in increasing your field of view when looking at a text. This lets you take in more words a time, improving your overall speed.
