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Put your mind in the muscle with iMuscle

The iMuscle app helps you plan your workouts and teaches you more about the muscles that help your body move.
Written by Denise Amrich, Contributor

Some of the best workout advice I ever got from a friend was, "Put your mind in the muscle." That means to really think about what muscle you're using, consider how to best accomplish the movement using proper form, and employ visualization techniques to be as mentally and physically present as possible with the exercise.

My friend (who happened to be an award-winning weight lifter and personal trainer extraordinaire) also advised anyone who would listen not to work out haphazardly, but to plan weight lifting sessions in order to get a balanced workout for opposing muscle groups.

Following that advice has gotten easier, thanks to 3D4Medical.com's iMuscle, available at Apple's App Store. It's nice for the iPhone, but it really comes alive on the iPad.

Check out the beautiful video, which demonstrates how you can choose a given muscle, see a number of appropriate exercises with a variety of options, watch as the proper form for each exercise is presented, and plan workouts so you get the most out of your gym time.

The iMuscle app has the side benefit of teaching you more about the muscles that help your body move, with features like the ability to view a given muscle in 3D, or rotate up to 360 degrees for a different view. You can also zoom in for closeups.

I'm definitely going to be geeking out with iMuscle. How about you? What tools do you use to plan your workouts? Tell us in the TalkBacks below.

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