Insight Timer - A full exercise routine with the push of a button

For more than a year I successfully use the interval timer functionality of Insight Timer on my iPhone when I conduct stretching sessions. I'm convinced that this simple tool is the main success factor, that helped me maintain the 20-40 minutes long sessions for the benefit of my health.

With the push of a button my custom sequence starts. From then on I just have to follow the audio signals. Seeing the time progressing and knowing it adds to my statistics is motivating.

Insight Timer was originally built as meditation timer. But it supports custom intervals that loop for a certain number of times or indefinitely. Every round is indicated with a sound, for example a gong or a wooden block strike.

In my Liebscher & Bracht stretching regimen I hold poses for around 2-3 minutes. My custom interval timer looks like this:

• (1 minute) one wooden block strike
• (1m 15s) one Shürong Bell strike
• (2 minutes) two wooden block strikes
• (2m 30s) two Shürong Bell strikes.

The wooden block strikes help me prepare to ease out of a pose and into the next. Splitting the 2-3 minutes in two segments, indicated by either one or two strikes, gives me a sense of progress within a session and the flexibility to do a pose either shorter or longer in half increments. For example, if I stay longer in a pose, I start a new pose at the two strike mark and take it from there.

The gong and wooden block strikes give me a feeling of calm and mindfulness and I prefer them over technical stopwatch sounds.

I am myself surprised about the stark difference compared to doing the routine on my own and wouldn't be surprised if I would quickly fall of the cliff without it.

Insight Timer evolved over the years to includes features like streak counters, live sessions, overall statistics and much more. I'm sure it could be used for many other purposes as well.