Fitness apps: A powerful tool if used in balance
While the most basic fitness assessment is as simple as locating your pulse, fitness apps that provide everything from strength training, run routes, and calorie tracking, to yoga sequences, workout routines, and food and nutrition advice, is a boom market that offers so much more than checking your resting heart rate.
Recent industry reports reveal fitness app downloads in Australia have skyrocketed.1
There are more than a quarter of a million fitness apps in Australia, with many designed to help us move more, including Health and Wellbeing Queensland’s PodSquad an Australian-first free wellbeing app that helps kids learn healthy new habits (including physical activity and nutrition) through play.
Ben McLellan, Health and Wellbeing Queensland’s Senior Health Promotion Officer and Physical Activity Lead, welcomed their popularity, but advised a balanced approach.
‘Fitness apps can be valuable tools for promoting physical activity, providing motivation, and tracking progress,’ Ben said.
‘However, it is important to encourage their use in a way that supports overall wellbeing.
‘Encouraging a variety of activities, social connection through exercise, and intrinsic motivation (e.g., enjoyment, stress relief) aligns with evidence-based approaches to long-term physical activity engagement.’
Health and Wellbeing Queensland supports a broad perspective on movement, beyond step counts or calorie tracking.
Finding more ways to move our bodies more often is a key component of both primary and secondary prevention of chronic disease.
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s 2024 Physical Activity ‘report card’ (which reported on findings from 2022):
- 83% of adolescents aged 15–17 did not meet the physical activity component of the guidelines; 80% did not do enough muscle-strengthening activities
- 37% of adults aged 18–64 did not meet the physical activity component of the guidelines; 73% did not do enough muscle-strengthening activities
- 57% of adults aged 65 and over did not meet the physical activity component of the guidelines; 84% did not do enough muscle-strengthening activities.
Our sedentary lifestyle is a contributing factor to insufficient levels of physical activity.
A 2022 report revealed almost half (47.2%) of Queenslanders are predominantly sitting on a typical working day.
Physical inactivity has major implications for the prevalence of chronic disease and the general health of the population worldwide. It is now identified as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality.2
However, while fitness apps have their advantages, they also come with notable drawbacks.
‘While fitness tracking can support behaviour change, research highlights risks associated with disordered eating, compulsive exercise, and negative mental health impacts,’ Ben said.
‘Health and Wellbeing Queensland advocates for digital health tools to incorporate features that promote balance, such as rest day reminders, wellbeing check-ins, and messaging around sustainable exercise habits.’
While fitness apps are reshaping the industry, the key to long-term success lies in balance. Whether it’s hitting the gym or sweating it out at home with an app, the best workout is the one that keeps Queenslanders moving.
‘Health and Wellbeing Queensland encourages users to critically assess fitness apps,’ Ben said. ‘Prioritise those with evidence-based design and be mindful of personal responses to tracking.’
Media contact:
media@hw.qld.gov.au
0439 599 210
Sources:
Statista. (2025). Health & fitness apps – Australia: Market outlook. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/outlook/amo/app/health-fitness/australia
PubMed. (2015). The Role of Health Apps in Chronic Disease Management: A Systematic Review. Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26180873/
