So, I’m a self-labeled fitness fanatic. I come from a long line of collegiate athletes and, while that life certainly didn’t work out for me, I like to stay very active and love trying out different workouts and sports. I was recently recommended the Nike Training Club App–that apparently came out almost seven years ago and I somehow have never heard of it–and thought I would give it a shot.
There are three different types of workouts: strength-based, endurance-based and mobility-based. Each workout has an estimated total time, a list of the equipment needed and a rep-based or time-based structure. When you open the app, there are featured workouts that they suggest for you based on your activity, as well as a number of new updates that they have added. You can filter out workouts based on the intensity you want that day, the muscles you want to exercise, the time you want to work out for, etc.
Starting off, I love how clean and crisp the interface is. Everything is very well labeled and you are able to easily navigate through to find the kind of workout you are looking for. While you can’t actually change the movements in each session, there are a wide variety of ACTUAL sessions to choose from. You can find one of low intensity if you are just getting started or want a light workout, you can choose a 14-minute workout if you are crunched for time and you can select to use no equipment if you aren’t near a gym. This makes working out accessible to so many people, which I really admire.
If you scroll through the workouts, several of the workouts have been designed by different famous stars or athletes and have videos and voice-overs of them doing the workout. I quite like this because it makes me feel super athletic when I can complete Michael Jordan’s “30-minute,” workout in under 15 minutes or can stand up after a Lakey Peterson’s “Beach Leg,” session. It’s also pretty motivating to hear Christian Ronaldo’s say “You can do it!” in his dreamy voice–just saying.
A feature that I love is the “My Plan,” section of the app. Here, Nike will form a 4-8 week workout plan based on the goals that you enter. They will choose existing workouts and suggest days that you should complete them, asking you to review how you felt after the workout and how much effort you put into it. Using this data, they then select workouts for the next week that would be beneficial to your goal. I love how personalized the plans come out to be, and I can personally say that after doing one of their 8-week programs, I felt much fitter and stronger.
One thing I personally don’t like is the time-based workouts. Before each time section, there is a 10-second “break,” interval for you to pick up equipment or move positions, but I personally feel like it is much too long. In a circuit workout, you should be moving all the time to keep up your heart rate, but the pauses create gaps and stop you from getting the challenge of continous movement, meaning the workout is less effective towards building fitness.
I also believe that the app isn’t updated frequently enough. While the workout library contains over 50 workout ideas, you will quickly go through them if you workout every day. Adding more workouts would help add variety and make going to the gym more exciting because you'II have a bunch of new drills to try. A majority of the existing workouts contain the same exercises, just in different orders and rep numbers, so adding different movements would also make the app better.
Overall, I recommend the Nike Training App to people of all fitness levels who want variety and like to follow a planned workout. It helps motivate you with soothing–or sexy–voices, the sessions are designed by professionals and it’s so easy to use. There is even a feature where you can interact with people around the world and compete against them for Nike Fuel points. For those who are looking to get into fitness as a new years resolution or otherwise, you can download the app for free from the App Store –all it costs is a little bit of your time.
P.S: Micheal Jordan has some workouts on the app, so if that isn't some Tar Heel motivation, I don't know what is.
