Besides headphones and a water bottle, the number one accessory that people carry with them to the gym is their phone. Because phones at the gym serve the purpose of music and maybe even a few gym selfies, it can actually be quite the tool to help you reach your fitness goal. That is, if you have the right apps in your arsenal.

That said, there are many apps out there dedicated to fitness and healthy living. With all the hundreds and hundreds of apps out there how do you know which one is the right one for you? Luckily, we’ve taken on the task of weeding out all the excessive fitness apps and created a list of a few of our best and most used.

1: RunKeeper

This free app available for both iPhone and Android users alike is one of the most downloaded fitness apps out there. There is a reason for that. Not only does it help you keep track of your progress, but it also uses your phone’s GPS to gather helpful information about your run. It even allows you to receive encouraging messages from friends during your run.

RunKeeper integrates with your iPod, and any progress you make is synced with RunKeeper.com. It can also be synced with your Facebook and Twitter accounts, which makes it a more social app as well. This way you can share your progress with friends and other fit-minded individuals. This app easily takes away the stress of trying to find a good route and lets you enjoy your run.

2: MyFitnessPal

You know that saying, “You can’t out-exercise a bad diet”? Well, it’s completely true. Even though you may hit the gym everyday and exercise until you’re sweating buckets, if your diet isn’t healthy then you won’t see any progress. But this free app, which is available for pretty much every type of smartphone, is there to help you.

This app has been recognized for helping people keep track of their intake and to ensure that they’re meeting their body’s nutritional needs. It’s a food diary at the palm of your hands that breaks down the calories of each food. This makes it easier if you’re trying to lose weight or bulk.

3: Nike Training Club

Available for free on the iPhone and Android phones, this one is geared towards the ladies. Nike Training Club is an excellent app that provides women with different exercises ranging from strength training, toning, cardiovascular and others. It even shows the exercise routine for various female athletes. They offer many different rewards for reaching a certain point within the app. It is built for beginners and gym rats that want to freshen up their routine. The app allows for music to be synced during the workout as well.

4: Seconds

This free iPhone and iPod app is a programmable interval timer. It’s a very simple programmable timer. It was originally developed for fitness interval training but has since gained popularity to be used for much more. The app offers Timer Wizards (best for HIIT), iPod integration, which assigns playlists or certain tracks to a specific timer, and save timers which allows for a purely customizable timer among other things. Even though it is a simple app with a simple concept, timing is everything during a workout and this app does its job.

5: Touchfit: GSP

The name of the app already says exactly what you’re in for. It’s $6.99 and iPhone only but it’s worth every penny. The GSP stands for Georges St-Pierre and yes, he will be your workout coach every time you open this app. One of the most notable things about this particular app is that it asks you to first complete a test workout. The test workout is designed for you to choose the difficulty of each exercise, which informs the app how difficult your workout will be going forward. The workouts are offered within a 20, 40, or 60 minute timeframe that can be done at the gym or at home using a resistance band and a mat.

Keep in mind, you really want to be honest with yourself on how difficult each exercise is at first because let’s face it GSP will make you put in work.

6: Shopwell

Available for the iPhone for free this app aims to help you make healthier food choices at the grocery store. It ranks each item in your basket with a number between 1 and 100 based on how healthy it is. The main focus of this app is to help you make healthier choices and even suggests “trade-ups” when users enter less healthy options.

7: Lift

Lift is a free, iPhone based app. It lets users track their goals and lets them know how they are progressing. Goals like bringing food from home rather than eating out for lunch or even taking the stairs more often are recorded through this app. Lift even compiles a personalized report to let you know how far you’ve come since day one for each one of your goals.

Each of these apps is designed to help you improve your life the healthy way. Whether your goal is to be a body builder or to just be able to run without huffing and puffing these apps have got you covered. Fitness is not just about hitting the gym everyday, it’s a lifestyle; it requires you to make positive changes to your diet. Luckily our phones will be there helping us track our progress since we’re glued to it 24/7 anyway.