Sorry for the questionable Lord Of The Rings reference but we can’t hide our excitement about this fitness app.
While the title may be slightly dramatic it’s not far from the truth given Fitbods reputation amongst fitness enthusiasts and raving user reviews.
As many of our readers will already know we are constantly on the lookout for the best Calisthenics and fitness programs on the market.
We have reviewed the best and the worst and it’s well past time that Fitbod makes its grand entrance among the best workout apps available.
If you’re wondering what all the hype is about or we’ve piqued your curiosity be sure to read on.
Let’s dive straight in and help our readers gain a better understanding of what Fitbod is all about.
What is Fitbod?
Now for anyone that’s slightly familiar with Fitbod or has had a chance to take a look you may be wondering why it landed itself on our site of all things calisthenics. That’s the beauty of it.
Fitbod can absolutely be used as an excellent calisthenics app with endless options for bodyweight exercises and routines – but it doesn’t end there.
Everything from strength training, weight training, cardio, HIIT, powerlifting, and even bodybuilding.
Fitbod has it covered.
It really begins to shine for individuals who like to mix up their routines and periodizations.
Gone are the days that you have to have multiple apps and subscription fees for different kinds of training or alternating months for bulking and shredding.
Even for the die-hard calisthenics fans- do you never feel the urge to flirt with the dumbbells? Tempted by the appeal of the bench press? Lock eyes with the squat rack across the room?
Fitbod is perfect for mixing and matching different training methods into one session.
You can arrange calisthenics-heavy routines but get your fix for a bit of weight training without feeling like you’ve cheated on your partner.
Add HIIT, cardio, or both to the beginning or end of a session, tackle exercises with bodyweight, free weights, or machines, and substitute a specific exercise in lieu of another at any time.
With endless options, it’s possible to have your workout session resembling something similar to Frankenstein’s monster.
Now whether or not that’s actually a good idea, we’ll leave that decision up to you.
Bulk Or Shred? Experienced or Inexperienced?- Who is the Fitbod app for?
We’ve already covered a few things about the versatility of the Fitbod app that appeals to multitudes of people but what about features such as difficulty levels, required experience, fitness goals, and guidance. Let’s discuss.
Like so many of the best fitness apps today, Fitbod is suitable and adaptable to all experience levels. Yet it still manages to set itself apart with a few unique twists to original ideas.
Difficulty and Experience
Following registration users will be prompted to input their current body composition, height, weight, experience level, and fitness goals.
The Fitbod app then uses this information to establish appropriate starting points, weights, sets, reps, and progressions.
We find the app does a great job of assessing capabilities and organizing a workout plan accordingly but if you happen to disagree don’t worry.
It’s an absolute breeze to add extra sets, reps, exercises, or increase/decrease weight.
Whether you get to the end of your workout and want a bit extra or like to push your goals before you start, the adjustments can be made on the fly or prior to beginning the session.
Just have a look at the generated workout of the day and personalize the workout to your heart’s content.
Guidance and Tutorials
One of the biggest complaints we see about calisthenics programs and fitness apps is the amount of guidance provided.
For the more advanced athlete it may be too much where the less experienced may find some tutorials lacking.
This is another aspect of Fitbod that we absolutely love. It’s there for those who want it but it’s not in your face and unavoidable.
There’s nothing worse than feeling lost during a workout, except for maybe feeling like the program is holding you back.
It’s a bit of a catch 22 when it comes to some workout apps- How much guidance to provide. More advanced programs may suddenly throw in an exercise users are capable of but not familiar with and it can disrupt the flow.
For beginners in-depth tutorials are great and an absolute necessity but once they are familiar with the program it can feel like they are being held back by the time it takes to listen to tutorials unnecessarily.
Fitbod has found an excellent balance in this issue. When you access the workout of the day, before starting the session, you can select an exercise.
You’ll be greeted by the glorious or possibly grueling (depending on your mood), amount of sets and reps for that exercise.
Just below this you can access instructions and videos which provide an in-depth explanation along with a comprehensive tutorial video.
You can scroll through before you begin, checking the exercises you need to and skipping the ones you already know.
Even if you draw a blank mid-session the quick and easy access avoids delays or you can just have a quick peek during the rest period.
Fitness Goals
Get stronger, faster with a fitness plan that fits you.
Use Fitbod’s training algorithm to build and try your personalized workout plan now!
No Fitness app would land in our list of the best without adapting to various personal goals.
The selected option will adjust the amount of weight and the number of repetitions and sets to help achieve different results.
If the Cardio recommendations feature is turned on the amount of cardio for each will vary based on your goal.
General Fitness
This is a great option for individuals who don’t have a specific goal and just want to improve health and physique overall.
Strength Training
For those that want to get stronger, increase gains, build muscle mass, and focus on the main muscle groups.
Muscle Tone
Used to tone and sculpt the physique, this goal focuses on higher repetitions with minimal rest periods.
Bodybuilding
As the name suggests this is all about building a larger and stronger body. Fitbod will increase the recommended weight and maintain relatively high repetitions to achieve the best results.
Powerlifting
Not for the faint of heart, the powerlifting option will focus mainly on the big three- Bench press, Squat, and Deadlift. Shifting to high weights and lower repetitions is sure to help you hit some news PRs.
Olympic Weightlifting
Appealing to a much more niche group. Olympic weightlifting will provide training to improve on two lifts- the snatch and the clean and jerk.
Splits, Recovery, and Muscle Groups
As any fitness enthusiast knows, or any personal trainer worth their salt will tell you, programming, muscle recovery, and rest are just as important as the training itself.
Finding the right balance can be achieved in various ways such as having the appropriate splits based on your goals, taking sufficient rest days, targeting specific muscle groups periodically, or in all honesty…just by downloading the Fitbod app.
Training Splits
There are various options for training splits to choose from in the Fitbod app.
This will dictate how the app structures your workouts based on muscle groups and recovery. Have a look at the options.
Fresh Muscle Groups
Fitbod will create a workout of the day that primarily targets your two most recovered muscle groups on that day.
Upper/Lower Split
A very common approach to training, the workouts will alternate and vary targeting either upper or lower body for that day.
Full Body
The title is fairly self-explanatory. This will create full-body workouts daily with excellent variety and challenges
Push/Pull/Lower Split
Another well-known approach to training that forms a regime based on whether the exercise is a pushing motion, pulling motion, or involves the lower body.
Muscle Recovery
Fitbod portrays your muscle recovery in a simple and effective way.
Each muscle group is designated a percentage that reflects their freshness.
This is based on prior exercises throughout the week and the percentage will gradually increase the more time that is provided for rest.
The algorithm assumes full muscle recovery after a 7 day period.
When a fresh muscle group is targeted Fitbod will calculate the impact based on weight, sets, and repetitions, and display the new percentage for users to easily see.
For newcomers or those who happen to conduct a session outside of the app, you can log your previous exercises and Fitbod will make the appropriate calculation.
Or if you feel your muscle recovery is different from the norm, whether it be quicker or slower, users can manually adjust the percentage as they see fit.
Get stronger, faster with a fitness plan that fits you.
Use Fitbod’s training algorithm to build and try your personalized workout plan now!
Bodyweight or Equipment
As we mentioned when users register to Fitbod they will be presented with just about every option for training.
These will include approaches such as strength and resistance training, cardio and circuit training, bodyweight only and limited equipment, or warmup/cooldown and stretching.
The easy-to-use platform allows users to select which options they prefer to start and what aspects they would like to incorporate into their workout plan. These can also be adjusted at any time later on.
But what about the required equipment? This is another fun and user-friendly part of Fitbod- You get to build your own gym.
It’s as easy as creating a title for your gym and selecting the equipment you prefer or what’s available. This will range from everything to bodyweight, dumbbells, barbells, squat racks, and any number of machines.
You can even create multiple gyms to be selected daily.
Once you choose which ‘gym’ you’ll be using that day, whether it be at home or your local fitness facility, Fitbod will adjust the plans accordingly to accommodate the available equipment for that day.
Does the Fitbod App Really Work?
The short answer – YES!
Not only is the Fitbod app easy to use, effective, and cost-efficient, but with endless options and versatility, it can be used to tackle just about any fitness goal you can imagine.
Add to this the hundreds of workouts included to accommodate anything from calisthenics, Olympic Weightlifting, and everything in between, it’s really a no-brainer.
In fact, a few of our writers are using Fitbod regularly and the results are impossible to miss. But there is no need to take our word for it.
With a free trial available on the app store, there is really no reason not to try it.
Save yourself some time and give Fitbod a try, it may be exactly what you’ve been searching for and you have nothing to lose.
Get stronger, faster with a fitness plan that fits you.
Use Fitbod’s training algorithm to build and try your personalized workout plan now!