Whether it's at a party Saturday night or at the gym Monday morning, shaking your booty brings much bigger benefits than you might think. One Scottish study found that people who dance recreationally are 62% more likely to report being in good overall health than those who don't. No surprise, then, that fitness trends from Jazzercise to Zumba have harnessed the power of busting a move. Break out your dancing shoes for one of these cool new classes.

Werq
Simulate a night out at the club with your girls (think awesome hip-hop, pop, and rock tunes and plenty of hip shaking) with this high-intensity dance-cardio sweatfest. Use the class locator at werqfitness.com to pinpoint one near you.

Bokwa
Each fist-pumping, fast-paced 55-minute routine involves dancing in the shape of numbers and letters to the latest hit music. Find classes at Sports Clubs in the northeast (mysportsclubs.com) or via bokwafitness.com.

Tabura
This 45-minute strength and endurance class has you performing kickboxing combinations and West African dance moves. Get busy at Miami and New York City Crunch locations (crunch.com) or with streaming video at crunchlive.com.

It seems like every day there’s a new workout app in the app store. And with so many influencers, trainers, and brands partnering on social for promotional purposes, it’s never quite clear who has actually used an app and which apps are really worth the download. (We get it—it can be hard to take anyone’s word seriously when there may be financial incentives involved.)

So Health decided to jump in to help by spending a couple weeks testing out a slew of the workout apps offered. We weeded through the paid and free subscriptions to find out which apps will help you reach your fitness goals. Here’s our list of the best workout apps.

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Tone It Up

As a planner, I love that you can browse upcoming classes and add them right into the Tone It Up app’s in-app calendar. You can even invite friends who have the app to join you for the workout, so it’s like you’re exercising together. Classes have descriptions as well as equipment you’ll need (which is minimal and includes things like dumbbells and a mat) to participate in the workout, and the same class is offered all day long, so if you can’t make the 7:30 a.m. class, you’ll have another chance at 8, 8:30, 9, etc.

$12.99 per month or $83.99 per year

Playbook

You can download the Playbook app for free, but you’ll be prompted to choose a way to pay immediately (though you can do a free seven-day trial) for workouts. It’s worth the price though: The platform was built to bring some of the biggest names in training—who you’d normally never have access to—to your living room.

You choose to follow one “partner” (or trainer) so you have access to all the workouts they put on the app, but you can switch at any time and as many times as you’d like. I love that you’re able to message the trainers directly if you have a question about the workouts or to give them feedback on what you like or don’t like.

You also have the ability to download workouts directly onto your phone, which I love, because you don’t always have service when you want to use an app with video, so this allows you easy access on or offline.

$14.99 per month, $39.99 per quarter, or $99.99 per year

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Sweat: Kayla Itsines

Chances are you’ve heard about Kayla Itsines. The Australian trainer is known for her Bikini Body Guides (BBG) workout e-books, which have transformed numerous women’s bodies. She moved her workouts into an app, where you can choose to do the original BBG—which includes resistance workouts paired with high- and low-intensity cardio sessions, all of which use minimal equipment—or her newer BBG Stronger program, which is specifically for individuals who love to work out at the gym.

I love that the Sweat app workouts are only 28 minutes, and they’re always challenging, which is why they work. You can mix and match from the two programs if you can’t make a definitive decision between the two. And by joining, you’re teaming up with a community of millions of women with similar weight loss and body goals as yourself.

$119.99 per year

Apptiv

Let Apptiv know what your goals are—losing weight, running a race, building strength, or reducing stress—your level of fitness, where you do your workouts, and the days and times you prefer to sweat, and the app will recommend programs to you. Or opt to pick individual workouts from categories like treadmill, outdoor running, strength training, yoga, rowing, and so many more.

I love that the workouts are focused around music. Each one has a playlist that’s timed to the exercise you’re doing, and you can decide up front if you want to run to rock or pop. The music is interrupted by an instructor who will coach you through intervals or exercises, providing helpful tips and motivation, which I appreciated during short sprints. And if you end up enjoying a specific coach, you can see when you choose your workout who is teaching it, so you’re able to stay loyal or try working out with different people.

$11.99 per month or $49.99 per year

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Nike Training Club

If muscular endurance is what you’re looking to build and you’d like more basic workouts that can be done at home or in your building’s gym, check out this Nike app. Tell the app how active you are and it will suggest workouts for you, or browse what the app has to offer by muscle group, workout type, workout length, or equipment.

Play the workout and the app will display how moves are done and cue you through timed sets, or just scroll to the bottom to view the list of moves and timing for each exercise and do it without instructor cues.

I personally like to exercise on my own, but I need new workout ideas, so I love to browse the workouts on this app, check out the moves list, and decide which I’d like to do at my local gym.

Free

obé

Don’t let a time constraint keep you from getting in some fitness. All you need is a half hour (well, 28 minutes to be exact), and an area where you can do moves like a plank or glute bridge—no equipment required!

Because there’s no equipment in any of the obé app workouts, it tends to be my go-to when I’m traveling and just need to move a bit after a long day on a plane. There are over 1,000 workouts covering categories ranging from HIIT to strength to yoga sculpt—one of my favorites because I’m not great at flowing on my own.

You can even add weights to some of the workouts if you have them available—instructors give that option when applicable. If you’re never going to join a commercial gym but need some workout motivation and inspiration, you can’t beat what this app offers.

$27 per month or $199 per year

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NEOU

Instructors are one of the most important things to me when I’m choosing a fitness class—whether it’s in person or on an app. I want someone who is knowledgeable, motivational, but also someone who programs challenging workouts—and the NEOU app gives me just that. (Note: There are also a ton of beginner classes available, so all levels are welcome!)

Take a class from the live schedule, where you’ll work out with the instructor in real time, choose a past trending (aka popular) workout, or pick one by target body part. You may find a favorite series, like InTime (high-intensity interval training) or Go, which combines cardio and strength training for a sweaty session.

There are classes on NEOU of all lengths, which I love, because I can use this app for my entire workout for the day, or I can use it to add on a 10-minute ab series at the end of another class.

$7.99 per month or $79.99 per year

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Yoga for everybody.

My daily planking habit had an improbable start: a tweet. The post is lost to the flow of the feed, but in my memory, it was simple—a woman sharing her trick of adding just five additional seconds to her plank time each week.

Easy, right?

I sit hunched over my desk all day, a vision of poor posture, so the idea of planking—developing my core strength, and, bonus, possibly preventing some of my persistent lower backache—is appealing. And when I mention the woman’s trick to my husband, Jason, he’s intrigued too.

We agree to try it out together. And really, what I thought would happen next is that we’d plank for a day or two. Maybe a week—maybe. But to my surprise, here we are, months later, casually asking each other every day: Hey, want to plank?

Here are seven things that I realized as Jason and I created and maintained this daily planking habit.

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Want to succeed? Make it easy

This goal is almost comically achievable. Our first week, we plank for just 30 seconds a day. And that, I think, is part of the key to our success. When Jason asks if now is a good time to plank—even if my five-minute reminder about a meeting just flashed on my screen—there is indeed enough time. And keep in mind, planking is a zero-equipment move. All you need is a floor. I’ve planked in PJs, in tights, in office outfits, and most of all, in everyday jeans. No need for a costume change to plank it out.

Our planking routine is simple: At a random time we lie on the floor. One of us sets a timer for the week’s time (plus three seconds), hits “start," then does a 3-2-1 countdown. Each week, we add five seconds to our total daily plank time. (It's not always doable—more on that later.)

And grab an accountability buddy

Some days, it’s me that suggests planking. Far more often, it’s Jason. There’s no question in my mind that if planking were a solo operation, it would’ve fizzled out long ago. Like paying in advance for a yoga class or signing up for a 5K, an accountability buddy gives a nudge that encourages commitment.

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Bring in a neutral party for form critique

The first time we plank, we lie parallel on the floor, staring at my iPhone screen. We watch three YouTube videos in a row, full of spandexed, confident instructors who share tips: Don’t hold your breath, keep your head in position, try these variations, and so on.

We’ve planked before, of course, but it’s been a while. My form is not perfect. But it turns out, getting that feedback from my husband only makes me cranky. He may well be right that my head is too far down or that my lower back has collapsed, but the comments make me uneasy and I rudely tell him to keep his eyes on his own planks. (Since Jason's an artist, accustomed to constructive critiques from peers and outsiders, he’s far more appreciative and open to feedback.)

Keep it going, even if you backslide

Once, during a trip to visit his family, Jason and I plank together over FaceTime. But we're not always that diligent. Sometimes we flat-out forget. We plateau for weeks at 50 seconds, then again at a minute. Each five-second increase gets more and more difficult. I wish our planking routine was flawless—I'd love to have a streak sans interruptions. That's not the case, but I figure, better to have planked for the majority of days in the past three months than none of 'em.

RELATED: 6 Tips for Working Out With Your Partner

Of course, the cat gets involved

Do you have a cat? Have you met one? Then you won’t be surprised that our cat, Cashew, is a frequent participant in our daily planking. At first, she’s confused why we’re on her level—the floor's her zone, not ours. Then she seems certain it’s a new game: She runs under our held-up bellies as if we’re playing limbo. It makes me giggle (an extra workout).

Once we hit 50 seconds, planking is particularly challenging, and Jason gets in the habit of calling her over midway through the session for a fuzzy distraction. We’re months in now, so Cashew’s less intrigued—and sometimes snoozes through our plank time—but often, she’s an active participant, winding her way under and around us.

There's a side benefit to our relationship

Planking with Jason makes me feel close to him. It’s the most manageable of projects—easier than hunting for a new apartment, caring for our cat, dealing with work issues, illness, family drama, or so many other things we’ve done through the years. But it is still something that just the two of us are doing, and doing together.

Also: Sometimes at the end of our planking, it’s conversation time. Most are small-scale. (As in, “Wow, have you noticed how dusty it is under the TV stand??”) Sometimes though, we talk through weekend plans or even bigger topics. It’s nice, even if it sometimes means the planking portion of the day sometimes stretches beyond the ding of the timer.

RELATED: This 10-Minute Resistance Band Ab Workout Will Work Your Entire Core

I feel ready for more

Most days, when the timer goes off, I collapse downward immediately. Lately though, I've been trying to hold the position just one more second, or swooping into downward facing dog. I've resurrected my seven-minute workout app on my phone, have big plans for my warm-weather jogging, and am pondering the best time to sign up for a swim class.

Having this just-over-a-minute plank in my day makes me think more about fitness and what bigger, more challenging goals I'd like to go after next. And even if there is no noticeable difference to my abs, I feel stronger, more capable, and just a smidge more fit.

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Let’s talk about girl crushes. I totally have one on Jessamyn Stanley, whose class I had the pleasure of taking at The Yoga Collective in New York City. A certified yoga instructor in Durham, North Carolina, this 29-year-old is simply awesome—not just because of her friendly spirit (she gave me a big hug at our first meeting), but because every time this self-described "fat femme" steps onto the yoga mat, she proves that getting bendy has little to do with your shape or size.  

Need proof? Just scroll through her Instagram account. Each pose she posts to her 227,000 followers is of her twisting or contorting herself into challenging positions, often while clad in nothing but yoga pants and a sports bra. The difference between her and the other yogis who have reached social media stardom: Stanley is many sizes larger, and is still flaunting her flesh in all its glory.

“I cannot be contained within a definition,” explains Stanley, who confesses that if yoga were a person she would marry and have kids with it. “I think that it is important for other people to see that and to acknowledge that they don’t have to be contained by a definition either, and they can just be whoever they are.

After we got down (dog) for about an hour,  Stanley opened up about why yoga is such an important part of her life, breaking stereotypes, and loving the skin you are in.

Why do you love yoga?

It is the thing that changed my life, honestly. I was in a dark place of depression and I always wanted to loose weight and “be healthy,” and I had never given it any real energy, and then I just reached this place where I was so sad for a lot of different reasons. Yoga pulled me out of that. But more than that, it has allowed me to acknowledge that those times in life don’t go away. There is always going to be something happening where you are like “Oh my God I can’t handle this!” And it always reminds me that there is reality; that these boxes that we live in are not real. 

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What is your favorite pose and why?

It always varies depending on what stage I am at. The poses that resonate for me are the ones that are very difficult for me. They are the ones that I have to work on, and eventually stop obsessing over, and see, oh my god, I can be this person who is not ego driven, and I can just be in it to do something. So I love poses that get me to that place. For a long time it was Camel; right now it is Dolphin or Ardha Pincha Mayurasana, and it has been for a while. It’s a very difficult pose that seems much easier than it is. It has just taught me so much over the years, especially in terms if building my practice.

There is an image associated with what a yogi looks like, and you are not that. What are your thoughts on that?

That is probably the reason why I am teaching. There is this stereotypical idea, this physical picture that comes with it, which is typically a slender, white, traditionally educated, and affluent woman, and if you are not that then you are automatically different. That is why social media is cool. I feel like I can get out there and show what the yoga lifestyle really looks like, and being able to showcase that is critical at this point. At the end of the day, we are not trying to be popular; we are just trying to be ourselves. And if I can encourage other people to do that, than that is amazing.

What makes you feel body confident?

I feel the best about my body when I am just walking around and not thinking about what anyone else thinks about me. So much of our lives is what does this person think of me, and how can I affect this person. And as confident as I am in myself, that urge doesn’t go away. But in those moments, in those glimmers where I am just totally in myself, those moments are priceless; it’s gold. You can’t walk away from that. And I wish I could bottle that and give that to every person on the planet.

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Do you have any advice for young girls, or even women, who struggle with body image?

If I could go back and talk to myself when I was younger—because I used to have horrific body image—I’d tell myself, "Don’t think about what other people think about you; you think about what you think about you. And try not to obsess over everything." You must always just work towards this light; work toward living in your truth. As long as you are doing that, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks of you.