I’m always interested in new and helpful ways of tracking your health and fitness data, but well aware of the perils of getting obsessed with it. It needs to be a guide rather than the be all and end all of everything. That’s why the Gentler app caught my attention - advertising “better control of your well-being” by turning data into more human and accessible insights.

It has all the usual information, workouts done, calories burned, time spent on activities, but it presents tham in a useful way. It also gives you hints and tips about the direction you might want to take it - “you did a great run today, why not try a longer one tomorrow?” sort of thing. I do like a bit of a nudge and guide about what to do next.

And in fact, one of the really useful things about this app, and one I would love Apple’s watch and fitness tracking to take on board is to be able to say ’not today’ for a good reason. The Gentler app describes it as:

“Avoid feeling guilty when circumstances are not in your favor. Set the status (Injured, Sick, or On a Break) and kindly permit yourself enough time to rest and recover.”

Clearly you don’t want to just be able to slack off whenever you want, but it’s so annoying to be on a streak of something and then get interrupted by an unforseen day… you just want to be able to log that somewhere. Overall, Gentler is another app that promotes looking after yourself first and foremost and that can only be a good thing.