You’re looking to push every ounce of energy you have into your current HIIT (High-intensity Interval Training) workout. As the intervals pass you buy, the music constantly changes to fit your tempo. One minute you’re being blasted with the relaxing beats needed to calm down and get juiced, the next minute the tempo increases to induce a heavy metal jolt of heart wrenching cardio. This is Seconds, the HIIT, circuit, and fight training utility designed to keep you in rhythm.
A lot of us use music as a way to enhance our workouts. I myself enjoy warming up and running to the tempo of Aesop Rock’s All Day (shameless plug), but for more strenuous or time shifting workouts where periods of high intensity and low intensity exercises are switched up, you’ll need to be constantly changing the BPMs in your workout. Seconds gives you the ability to generate custom intervals for periods of intensity that will play a specific song or music from a playlist during that interval. While its design and function is quite simple, it’s ease of use is spectacular.
Seconds is really one of the first beautiful workout apps I’ve come across. There’s lots of utilities that help you get in shape, but they’re either really clunky or they don’t have that edge of quality people look for in design. I expect things to look good, and the fact that Seconds is full of really nice pixels allows me to appreciate the function even more.
A bunch of workouts are already built into seconds, and if you’re constantly pursuing HIIT or perhaps Tabata regimens, you may not need to even create a custom workout. But you do have the option, and every morning I’m not running, I like to mix up a serious of push-ups, squats, thigh, and knee stretches to get the blood flowing over a period of seconds. It’s a constant push into the next set of exercises, and seconds has yielded some great results in keeping me focused on the task at hand. But as you’ll see above, I do have a run and jog mix I quite like.
When you’re not making workouts, you’re most likely completing them. Seconds’ timer allows you to start, reset, or skip through intervals of the workout with simple taps. The only indications that you’re at the next interval, however, come in the form of the music changing or by physically looking at the screen. I don’t think there is an option, but a separate form of audio feedback. Much like the Couch to 5K application, I’d really like to hear a person tell me what interval I’m on, if it’s a cool-down period, etc.
But at $.99 for a limited time on the iTunes App Store, Seconds should be worth your time (literally) for those partaking in sweat inducing workouts. If you’ve been looking for such a tool, I think I’ve found just the one.
