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Saturday, July 13th
2024 Online Fitness Program Reviews
Fitness Blender
- Free account with 600+ workout videos, workout calendar
- Free account with 600+ workout videos, workout calendar
- Membership includes exclusive workouts, ad-free content, trackers and more
- 7-day free trial on FB Plus
- Professionally-developed meal plans and workout programs can be purchased a la carte
- No smartphone app required
You shouldn't have to be rich to be healthy. Fitness Blender is on a mission "to make health and fitness attainable, affordable, and approachable" . This online fitness platform offers over 600 free workout videos (streamed right on YouTube, no account necessary), ranging from 10-85 minutes and covering everything from beginner stretching to elite athlete conditioning.
No music?!
Now, you'll need to manage your expectations a bit: giving away content for free means that Fitness Blender probably doesn't want to deal with music rights... so you won't hear any, and we mean any, in their workout videos. You'll want to have your own Spotify playlist nearby, unless you really enjoy the sound of the instructor breathing.
Get started today
We love that you can just jump right in and start doing workouts here. New videos are added at least weekly, and the default sort is "newest first" - so you can always keep it interesting. Want some Power Yoga to Challenge Your Balance? How about Bodyweight Stacked Cardio Intervals? You'll find a lot of everything here, including an overview of the whole class and "chapters" you can use to move around easily. (For example, maybe your phone rang and you need to go back to the part you were on, or you want to skip ahead to the stretch because something came up.) And, each video carefully shows you how to complete each move properly, minimizing your risk of injury. That's fantastic.
Plenty of benefits with free and paid memberships
Once you have tried a few of the videos, we encourage you to sign up for a free Fitness Blender account. Besides the workouts, you'll get access to an interactive workout calendar, weekly giveaways, healthy living articles and recipes, and much more. When you're ready for even more, consider the Fitness Blender Plus subscription for just $6.29/month or $55.99/year. It'll make your online fitness experience ad-free, while adding many more helpful tools like progress trackers, the ability to enter custom workouts, workout challenges, and so on. You'll also get access to about 300 exclusive workouts that are only available to FB Plus subscribers.
Meal plans and workout challenges available a la carte
Or, if you want to jumpstart your fitness with a challenge, Fitness Blender has a series of a la carte Workout Programs for purchase. Many of them are included with an FB Plus membership. One example is the 2-Week FB Reboot Challenge - A Balanced, Approachable Return to Fitness. It requires 15-40 minutes per day, five days a week, and targets cardio (both HIIT and low impact), strength training, and stretching/flexibility. You'd pay $5.59 as a standalone purchase, which is fairly average for all of Fitness Blender's workout challenges. There are also Meal Plans that can be accessed this way, from one-week programs to help you know what to eat for strength training to four-week plans to learn how to eat "real" food and feel your best.
A few limitations
We give Fitness Blender a lot of credit for offering online fitness for all. There's really something for everyone here, and so much of it comes absolutely free. But, it's a little haphazard compared with other platforms: you might feel like you're cobbling things together on your own, even with the FB Plus subscription, the workout challenges and meal plans. And, for us, the lack of music is a huge downside: if you're playing your own tracks just to have a beat to move to, you might miss some of the instructions being offered, and it's not likely to sync up with what's being shown on the screen.
Not bad for free
If "free" is your main focus when selecting an online fitness option, take a look at Fitness Blender. On the other hand, if you want a slick smartphone app, integration with wearable devices, or a hot soundtrack with your workout, you'll want to check out the competition instead.
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Which Online Fitness Program is the Best for You?
To answer that question, you should start with an idea of what you're hoping to accomplish. Are you at the very beginning of your fitness journey and need some gentle, encouraging guidance to get started? Do you have a gym membership but you're not quite sure what to do when you get there? Are you frequently traveling for work and looking for a way to exercise no matter if you're in Manhattan or Miami?
There are platforms that fit all of those situations - and so many others. Another consideration is whether or not you're looking to combine nutritional changes with your online fitness choice. Some services give you an all-in-one, with meal plans and workouts to choose from, while others specialize just in exercise.
Continue reading below
Online Fitness Program FAQ
Online fitness programs are workouts you can do from anywhere. They might include step-by-step instructions on how to do different strength training exercises or provide a fast-paced cardio workout that you follow on a video. In addition to focusing on improving physical strength, online fitness programs sometimes help with meal planning to improve your overall health.
Many online fitness courses come with a series of classes that build on each other. This will help you get stronger each day and build on the progress you have made. Many fitness program apps also let you record how long you exercised, what types of exercise you did, what you ate that day, and track some of your vitals. This keeps you accountable for the frequency of your workouts and helps you see areas where you could improve.
An online fitness program is one of the most convenient ways to get your exercise in. You don't have to leave your house, but you still get your own kind of personal trainer. Have you ever had a plan to get to the gym, but the hassle of having someone watch the kids, getting dressed, driving to the gym, and having to see other people prevented you from getting there? You're not alone. Having a workout plan you can do from home will likely increase the consistency of your exercise.
It is reasonable to spend $10 - $20/month for full access to an online fitness course. If you pay for a few months at a time or buy a year-long subscription, you'll end up saving money. Luckily, most online fitness programs offer a free trial so you can see what they have to offer and try out a few days of workouts before deciding if you want to continue long-term.
You could use your phone, computer, or tablet to view your fitness course. Whatever is most conducive to the type of workout you are doing will work for most fitness apps. Some apps even have Bluetooth capability that will sync with your heart rate monitor, Apple health, or other fitness resources to give you the best overview of your progress.
If you want to update your fitness app or stream any of the workouts on-demand, you'll need access to the internet. However, if you know ahead of time that you'll be away from the internet and want to have one of your courses accessible, some online fitness programs allow you to download videos and/or guides to your device. This would be useful if you're going to be camping or traveling in an area where you aren't sure you'll have a good connection, but don't want to skip a workout.
Some online fitness courses are geared toward one type of workout (cardio, strength training, kickboxing, etc.), while others give you a taste of everything. If you have a home gym with weights and cardio equipment, you might want to do strength training exercises that allow you to use your resources. Some people prefer fast-paced classes online like Zumba, while others want to practice mindfulness with yoga. Chances are, no matter what online fitness program you go with, there will be hundreds of different workouts that target all areas of the body and give you enough variety that you'll never get bored or run out of challenges.
When deciding what online fitness program to go with, ask yourself what your goals are. Are you wanting to lose weight? To tone your upper body? To feel healthier overall? Knowing the purpose behind your workout will be the first step. It also helps to know what kinds of exercise you do and don't like. If you choose a program all about weight lifting, but you don't like that kind of strength training, odds are you won't stick with it long. Most online fitness programs allow you to customize the way you want to work your body and cut out things you don't want to do.
Continued from above...
Either way, most online fitness platforms work in roughly the same way: take advantage of a free trial, then decide if a paid membership is right for you. On a budget? No problem: there are several excellent choices that let you access tons of workouts at no cost. Yes, you'll probably be invited to upgrade to a paid plan, but feel free to ignore that and work out using just the regular content and tools.
Now that you've given it some thought and have an idea of what your online fitness "wish list" would include, it's time to start browsing what's available. You might feel a little overwhelmed at first, with so many choices and new ones popping up all the time. Don't stress. Here are some criteria to keep in mind that will help you narrow them down:
- On-demand, live stream, or both? Most platforms feature an on-demand library of classes, but some of today's most popular online fitness brands give you the best of both worlds. How important is it to you to be able to take a live class? If you're transitioning from a gym/studio environment to home workouts, live workouts might help you feel more engaged.
- Cost. What's the most you want to spend for an annual or monthly membership? Or maybe you're only interested in what you can get gratis. When it comes to online fitness platforms, you don't necessarily get more by spending more: many paid memberships add features like premium music or extra workouts, but you can still get plenty with a free account.
- Variety. The more classes and workout genres a platform carries, the less likely you are to get bored and walk away. It's okay to choose a service because it has your favorites, but make sure it has a few workout types that are new to you - when you're ready to try something different, it'll be waiting for you.
- Reputation. Check out what users of the online fitness platform have said. Are the workouts basic - or challenging - enough? How's the music? If it uses an app, does it work consistently? Does the service deliver what it promises? Is it worth the money if you pay for a membership?
To help you choose the online fitness program that's going to be the best fit for your goals and lifestyle, Top Consumer Reviews has evaluated and ranked today's most popular services. We're sure you'll find the perfect way to take your fitness to the next level - on your own terms!
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