Women's weight training apps ease fear of strength conditioning

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Going to the gym, especially the weight room, can be intimidating for women, which is why experts say some women skip strength training and focus on cardio instead.

But a new batch of apps designed specifically to help add muscle to women's workouts are helping them rid the fear of weight training.

"Seeing the majority of guys, you know, weight training, you're going to feel like you don't belong or that you're going to get these looks like what is this girl doing here?" Leah Kendrick, a mother of two said.

Kendrick wanted to get back in shape, but said she was hesitant to walk into a gym. Because of this, Kendrick turned to Spitfire Athlete, a training app created by two women who were unhappy with what was currently on the market.

"They take something that was designed for men, make it pink and make it slightly worse and now it's for women. These apps would often feature a lot of aesthetic training, physique training, be a lot about weight loss, they really wouldn't ever mention anything about athletic goals," Spitfire Athlete co-founder Nidhi Kulkarni said.

Spitfire Athlete and other women-specific strength training apps feature real female athletes demonstrating movements instead of models. The apps teach everything from strength training basics to advanced techniques.

"We actually wanted to infuse this sense of female strength and power into our app from the very beginning," Kulkarni said. "Knowing which exercises you're going to do, how you're going to do them and how to set up the equipment."

Fitness apps are popular with millennials with one study showing 24 percent download them to their phones.

In the video above, food and fitness coach Lori Corbin takes a closer look at fitness apps.