Rating: 3/5

Cost: Free with a paid option

Full disclosure — I’m a huge Atlanta Falcons fan. And thereby, a big supporter of the greatest NFL tight end of all time — Tony Gonzalez.

He’s the original reason I downloaded the FitStar app on my iPad. It’s no doubt that his celebrity, along with his renown as an athlete and fitness expert, are the reasons that FitStar partnered with Gonzalez.

Once I started using the app, however, I realized that it is much more than just a hollow endorsement.

The app is extremely well designed from both a functional and aesthetic standpoint. The exercises are based around professionally-made workout videos featuring Tony and other unknown trainers.

These exercises range from simple to challenging and prompt user feedback to determine if workouts should be made easier or more difficult accordingly. Users can rate routines or individual exercises and track results.

Part of the nice design is an integration of music, which can be played directly through iTunes or an external app like Pandora. This works in conjunction with the built-in audio instruction, rather than against it.

FitStar made a good decision to incentivize fitness by making it like a game with trophies and awards. After each exercise, the app will email users a small tangible reward, such as a coupon or free download.

Where this app fails is in the social integration. Not every app needs to be tied into social media and this only further proves that it is overrated when used unnecessarily.

In all, this is one of the better fitness app that I’ve used. It’s free to download, but the free version limits users to only two workouts per week. The owners are obviously pushing users towards their monthly subscription option, but it’s useful enough without having to pay.