If you’re an avid runner, cyclist, swimmer, or all-around fitness enthusiast, then you’ve probably heard of Strava. It’s one of the most popular fitness apps out there, and for good reason. It offers a wealth of features that make tracking your activity and progress easier than ever. But what is Strava? What makes it so great? Let’s take a closer look to find out.
What is Strava?
Strava is a fitness tracking app that allows users to track their activity through GPS connectivity for almost every activity you can think of. It is popular among runners, cyclists and swimmers but activities such as hiking through to a range of winter, water and racquet sports can also be tracked effectively in Strava.
The app also has a social media element where users can follow each other and encourage one another with “kudos” (virtual cheers).
How Does Strava Work?
Strava is a user friendly app and easy to navigate, which makes it simple to use. Strava can either be integrated with most popular fitness devices (for example Garmin, Fitbit, Apple Watch, Wahoo or Polar) or you can record an activity in the app itself. The latter is obviously more battery draining and integrating with a fitness watch or bike computer is a more seamless way to use Strava. Your workouts are simply transferred and recorded in the Strava app and then displayed on your feed, ready for your followers to kudos your activity.
There are also elite and professional athletes using Strava so you are able to follow their profiles and compare yourself to the very best.
What Data and Insights Does Strava Provide For Each Activity
One of the best features about Strava is the level of data and insight you receive about each workout. The first thing you will likely notice is the map of your route (unless you were exercising indoors). You can look back at all the places you travelled and also all the various segments that are recorded in Strava. So, not only can you analyse your activity as a whole but you can delve into the performance of each individual segment of your route. Furthermore, you’ll be able to compare past performances for each segment and your performance against a leaderboard of other users for all time, the year or ‘today’.
Each activity also provides detailed information including distance, speed, heart rate (if you use a compatible device), training zones and elevation.
So you have more than enough feedback to tell you how you performed along the route, what intensity level you trained at and how you compare to your peers.
How Does Strava Track Your Performance Over Time?
As your collecting and recording data from each workout, Strava is logging your activities so you track your performance and fitness over time. In their ‘Progress’ feature they provide the following analytics:
- Weekly activity chart
- Month over month comparison
- Training log calendar
- Weekly intensity
- Monthly fitness level score
Strava provides plenty of data that will help you analyse your training volume, keep track of your programmes and goals and make sure you can see how you are improving.
Map Feature
The map feature lets you plan routes before heading out on your, hike run or bike ride. You can see where roads are closed or detours are necessary in order to avoid them while still getting in a good workout. Also, you can select from popular routes in the area.
You can also record your favourite routes and export them into your GPS devices for navigation assistance.
Planning Goals & Challenges
You can set goals for yourself within the app such as running a certain distance in a certain amount of time or reaching certain milestones in terms of achievements like biking up 10 hills in one day. You can also join various groups on Strava that offer fun challenges and virtual races that can be organised by various brands.
Training Plans
Strava also provide cycling and running training plans which are ‘free’ to users who are paid subscribers. There isn’t a comprehensive library of plans when compared to other training apps. However, this doesn’t disappoint me as I don’t see Strava as a training plan app, there are many other apps to choose from which offer that. My primary focus and expectation from Strava is that it continues to offer superior activity tracking, data and insights to keep me informed and focused on my training goals.
Free vs Premium Subscription Options
The free version of Strava is pretty good and provides access to all the activity recording and social feed features. So, if you want to use Strava purely as an activity tracker and stay up to date on what activities your friends are doing then the free version will be fine for you.
However, if you are a data nerd, want to analyse your activities, view segment leaderboards and keep a track of your progress then you will have to upgrade to premium. Also included in the premium version are the goals and challenges and also the route planning features.
The paid subscription costs £8.99 per month or £54.99 per year. The table below provides a comparison of features for the free and paid subscription.
| Features | Free | Subscription |
| Activity Recording | X | X |
| Device Support | X | X |
| Social Network | X | X |
| Beacon on Phones | X | X |
| Beacon on Devices | X | |
| Route Planning | X | |
| Segment Competition | X | |
| Training Dashboard | X | |
| HR & Power Analysis | X | |
| Advanced Metrics | X | |
| Goal Setting | X | |
| Training Log | X | |
| Compare Efforts | X | |
| Personal Heatmaps | X | |
| Partner Perks | X |
Who Should Use Strava?
Strava is a great tool for fitness enthusiasts of all levels and for all interests. Whether you are a dog walker, hiker, golfer or elite marathon runner, Strava is an excellent app to know where, how far and how fast you travelled.
If your serious about how your exercise activities improve your fitness levels then the subscription in my opinion is worth it. I view Strava as my central hub of activity tracking because it provides me with all the data I need to keep on top of my progress and training plans. It also has good compatibility with other training apps (e.g. TrainerRoad or Zwift) and platforms such as Apple Health, Samsung Health and Google Fit. So, the seamless integration makes it an ideal central log of all my exercise activities.
What Are The Pros & Cons of Strava
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Free subscription provides all activity tracking but the paid version is value for money for access to a comprehensive range of data and insight.
- Tracking for a wide range of activities and sports.
- Social media keeps you engaged and motivated with your fitness community
- Acts as a central log of all your exercise activity
- Follow professional athletes, particularly professional endurance athletes.
Cons:
There are not many con’s with Strava but the main one is the level of privacy users can be exposed to. People can access your location data, however, users can restrict access to who views their profile and activities. Also, there is a feature in settings to hide your start and end location.
Final Verdict on Strava
All things considered, Strava is one of the best fitness tracking apps available today for people looking for detailed feedback on their performance. It provides plenty of data about your activities along with helpful insights into how well (or poorly) you perform each session. Plus its social media component makes it easy for athletes from all kinds of backgrounds and locations around the world connect with each other.
The App can be downloaded from the Apple store and Google Play.
