Instagram is a wild place. You’re exposed to everyone’s best angles which somehow always seem to be captured candidly. Influencers make the site extra engaging, with their beautiful footage of their admirable lives, and perfectly timed songs to enhance their reels.
The fitness side of Instagram, in particular, gives a whole other sense of wild- not only are the people beautiful and know how to market their lives, but they do so from the angle that anyone could live a life like theirs, all they need to do is follow a similar workout and wellness routine.
I am one of those unsuspecting insta-goers that has fallen victim to this marketing scheme- and honestly? I’m glad I did. Instead of pushing me to buy a product I didn’t need, these influencers pushed me to try their apps, which have only contributed to enhancing my level of fitness. If it makes me healthier and doesn’t drain my wallet, I’m here for it.
This is my experience with each app.
Krissy Cela’s “Evolve You”
I need to start off by saying, following Krissy Cela was one of the best instagram choices I’ve made. She is one of those creators that are so open to their audience that you feel as if you know them. Her content emits strong best friend energy, while the dedication to her fitness journey and down-to-earth personality work together to help her walk the line of relatable and admirable.
She was the first person I followed 7 years ago when I was thinking of starting my fitness journey and her content was elemental in my decision to pick up my first barbell.
I followed her for years while working out, enjoying her easy-to-make “Cooking with Krissy” recipes, and being inspired by her feed to keep pushing to get stronger, despite societal ideas of how a woman “should” be telling me otherwise.
Of course, when she started her app, I had to try it.
(Before and after the Strong program; Oct 2021 versus October 2022)
Pros:
–Easy to pick your program. The descriptions of the programs are thorough, yet concise, providing the user with a description of the training style, necessary equipment, and the goal they’d achieve through each program. You could flip back and forth easily through the pages while making your decision, as if you were perusing a catalog, and the descriptions worked well together, each discussing the different ways in which they approach the same aspects of fitness, making them remarkably easy to compare.
–Diverse line-up of trainers. You can choose anything from functional fitness, performance strength, HIIT, yoga, barre, and Krissy’s signature Strong program (I decided to go with hers). The trainers also come from different backgrounds, which I liked. Representation matters and Evolve You does well.
–Exercise swaps In case your gym does not have a certain machine, or it’s currently occupied, the app offers you a selection of similar exercises to swap with mid-workout.
–Easy weight/rep tracking to motivate you with your own progress. It was very easy for someone who is not at all technology-savvy to find this feature on her app, and it gave me such a confidence boost to be able to track how far I’d come.
–Social Support You have the option to hear your trainer’s voice, which gives the suggestion of social support, if that’s helpful for you. Krissy is always updating her Instagram with her fitness journey on the same program, making you feel like you’re not in it alone.
–Pre-selected cool-down sets It goes directly to the option to do a workout-appropriate cool-down, to make it easier not to skip stretching
Cons:
–Workouts lacked integrated cardio training and explosive exercise
–There are little integrated core exercises in the program
–Workouts were too long for me. Because they were strength-focused, there were a lot of single-set exercises with 2 minute, and sometimes 3 minute rests. Because of this, and me wanting to add the missing core and cardio pieces at the end of each strength session, I would end up spending 2-3 hours in the gym per day.
-There is a meal plan and a ton of delicious, easy-to-make recipes, but no macro goals or explanation as to why you should be eating that way
This is for you if…
You’re a beginner/intermediate level at the gym and want take it more seriously, or improve your strength and body composition
This is not for you if…
Weight loss or physique is your primary goal, time is your main barrier to exercise, you want to increase all around fitness levels, you want to learn more about why you’re doing what you’re doing
Price:
$99.00 per year, $16.99 per month
Stef Williams’ “WeGlow”, Strong with Stef Reloaded (Part 1)
After doing about a full year consistently of the Evolve You app, I decided I needed a change. After some searching, I found the WeGlow app by Stef Williams. If you follow her on instagram you will find her content to be promoting a fit lifestyle, while also being aesthetic and trendy, which is something rare from the usual metal and badly lit gym videos which frequent the fit side of instagram.
Pros:
–To help nourish your mindset, the app sends you motivational quotes each day
–The selection of recipes ranged from balanced meals to snacks and even cocktails! Your meal plan is chosen based around your goals, which I liked, and there were macro counts for each meal.
–It teaches you to fish. If you wanted to know more about why your meal plan is the way it is, the app offers a very helpful “Learn” section to explain nutrition and exercise concepts. I personally loved this; the information is scientifically up-to-date so that the user can be more prepared to make healthy choices outside of the app.
–Lots of variety for one plan, which I felt was missing from Evolve You. The program’s strength training offers not only heavy weighted exercises, but combined them in tri-sets and AMRAPS along with core and explosive exercises. This helped me to have a more well-rounded level of fitness by building up my cardiovascular health and muscular endurance.
–Less time in the gym. The rest times were 60 seconds or less, and due to the supersets, there were less of them. I ended up having a well-rounded workout within 35-60 minutes each day.
–A strong emphasis on abs, which is understandable, coming from the abs queen, herself
–Live workouts done alongside Stef through pre-recorded videos. This was super helpful to push you through low- motivation days!
–Suggested cool-downs and finishers after each workout gives the user a much needed nudge to do their stretching.
–A wide variety of different programs and training styles to choose from including some yoga courses.
Cons:
–Difficult to choose and compare programs. There are a plethora of programs by different trainers and no streamlined way to compare them. While each program has lengthy descriptions, it was unclear to me which would be best fit for my personal goals. Luckily, I am experienced at the gym and was able to pick a program for myself after taking some time analyzing the exercises for each day. This would be difficult for less experiences users
–There were no exercise swaps. During my workout, if the machine I wanted was occupied, I’d have to resort to a swap I’d learned from Krissy’s app.
–Moderate-high intensity at best. After my cardiovascular system got used to the explosive exercises, I started to miss having more heavy weights. I felt the need for more intensity with my workouts.
This is for you if…
You need help with consistency, you’re making the move from cardio queen to weights babe, you are looking for an app with a trendy feel, you don’t want to spend more than 60 minutes per day at the gym.
This is not for you if…
You’re coming from lifting heavy and enjoy that kind of intensity, you need guidance on what kind of program you need, you attend a busy gym
Price:
$109.99 per year, $42.99 per quarter, $17.49 per month
Rachel Dillon’s “Move with Us” App
After training for seven years, I was ready to take my practice to the next level and really push the realms of what my body was capable of achieving. I wanted to get more technical with my workouts and more precise with my nutrition. I looked to three time WBFF Bikini World Champion Rachel Dillon for guidance.
On her instagram, my first impression was of this other-worldly fitness goddess; someone who I could never be like. The combination of her hunky partner, glamourous seaside apartment, impressive physique, and model clientele were dream-inspiring, yet difficult to relate to. As I progressed with my fitness journey, however, I started to see her body builder lifestyle as more attainable. Now, instead of untouchable, it was more like a reach goal.
At the end of my 6 weeks with We Glow, I felt like I needed more of a challenge and Move With Us was the perfect fit.
Pros:
–Lots of support when choosing a program. The onboarding process included taking some “before” pictures, and a quiz based on your lifestyle, goals, and experience at the gym. After seeing my personalized macros, steps, and calorie goals, I was a little taken aback by the high carb requirement. I felt like my experience was specific, after having had COVID recently, so I emailed their support with my questions and, to my surprise, received a lengthy and detailed response from one of their dieticians. It truly made me feel seen and confident in my plan.
–Programs adjust to your progress. After two weeks, there is a check-in where the app asks you questions about your progress and how well you’ve been sticking to the program. You have the option to take progress photos here for your records, as well. Based on your answers to this , your food and exercise plan is adjusted. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much more difficult my workouts became the week after my first check-in.
This is important for two reasons:
- Your body adjusts to numbers if you stick with them for long enough. This can slow your progress.
- All personal trainers know this, but it is rarely discussed: being able to reflect on your progress builds your sense of self-efficacy and increases motivation to keep going. It is a vital part to any fitness journey.
–You can switch any workout from a gym to home workout, without needing to alter your entire program. This makes it easy to stay on track no matter what life throws in your way.
–A complete exercise program. One program provides the user with high intensity cardio, low intensity steady state cardio, weighted upper and lower body workouts, core strength, and steps. These are all aspects I want to incorporate into my own workouts and those of my clients, but I’ve never seen them all in one app before.
–Exercise swaps for every level. MWU offers exercise swaps at a lesser, equal, or higher level than the chosen workout, along with a “No Equipment” option. This makes it very easy to adapt a workout to a busy gym.
Cons:
–There are no suggested cool-downs at the end of a strength session. I’ve caught myself skipping stretching more often with this app than with the others because of the lack of an included nudge.
–Difficult to plan ahead at the gym. Once you begin your workout, you can only see the next exercise. If this is a superset, it makes it difficult to know what equipment to have ready for the third exercise in the sequence. I need to skip ahead in order to do this before starting a set and that sometimes causes the app to freeze when I want to return to the first exercise.
This is for you if…
You are ready to challenge yourself, you want to work out like a body builder, your physique is your main concern, you want to improve all around fitness, you want to lose fat and build muscle
This is not for you if…
You don’t enjoy working out and you want a chill workout plan to ease you into loving the gym, you need reminders to be consistent.
Price:
$18.99 per month, $189.99 per year
I ended up staying with Move With Us, but all of these apps have helped me in different ways along my fitness journey and I’d recommend any one of them, depending on where someone is in their personal journey! Please keep in mind, this is my personal experience with each app, only trying one program of many on them. I hope my experience was able to offer you some insight into which choice would work best for you!
