Alive by Whitney Simmons

I am fairly new to the gym because in the past I was so intimidated by all the machines and people but this app plus encouragement from my husband has changed everything for me! I started going to the gym with my husband and doing his intense workouts with him that seemed a bit much for me. Once I felt a little more confident I went searching for an app I could use to venture out on my own at the gym. I tried a different app at first and it was ok but I didn’t feel it was helpful for me in a gym setting. Whitney had popped up on my tik tok and I started following her during this time. I felt really connected to Whitney’s message that it’s a great day to be alive and bubbly personality. I saw that her app had a free 7 day trial so I signed up! Nervously I brought my phone to the gym and followed one workout and it was great 🙌🏻 I loved that there is a warm up and cool down along with the workout and that there are video cues plus the breaks between each set and exercise. The one tiny thing I’d love to see is tips on how to do the exercises. This is my third month using the app and I’m on my second program. On top of the confidence I’ve built at the gym from having the guidance of this app, I’ve also seen amazing results! I have yet to dive into the mental health aspects of the app just yet but I love that it’s built in with building a healthy body. Overall the Alive app is fantastic and I can’t recommend it enough!

EDIT 2022: Finally!!! The Apple Watch compatibility is here, but it seems like it’s not working properly. It’s not logging all of the “minutes” for each workout. I did a leg day for 38 minutes. It only added 18 minutes to my exercise ring for the day, when if I just started the “traditional weight lifting” workout on my watch it would have been the full 38 minutes. Also; I have to end the workout on my watch NOT my phone. If I accidentally do it on my phone first, it runs until I remember to check. Then, you can’t “complete” the workout, you have to “quit” it, not logging the time at all. Yes, I still did the workout, but the numbers bother me if they’re not right! I LOVE this app and will use it forever. Just love the bugs to be fixed :) This app is amazing. I’ve tried so many other programs and apps and this is the only one that keeps me motivated AND PROGRESSING! I’ve found with other apps that you can just get stuck. Not with Alive!! I absolutely love it. Small suggestions because this team is amazing and always listens to feedback! (I.e being able to move days around in the programs, not only adding warm ups and cool downs to the app, but being able to toggle them on and off WITHIN an actual workout) - I would love a list of the exercises, and to be able to see my progression of weights and reps without being in an actual workout. Sometimes I plan ahead, and other times I just want to see how far I’ve come! -I know y’all are working on modifications for moves, but I think it would be great to have mods for the gym programs to sub gym equipment with dumbbells, etc. to make gym programs suitable for home too.

This app has been great. I am currently on week 5 of the Alive beginner gym program. I had no clue what to do in gym and have talked myself out of joining one for years because I felt like I was so intimated by trying to figure out what I should do once I got there that I just refused to go. Once I found this app I decided to finally join since I would have some instruction and it had been one of the best decisions I have made. I don’t have to stress about what I’m going to do that days or if I’m doing enough to get results. As much as I love the app there are a few small changes that I feel would make it even better. Being someone who had only ever used a treadmill in a gym I had no idea how much weight to start with I wish there were recommendations on starting weights for each exercise. I work out in a cheap commercial gym so sometimes what I need isn’t available or my gym doesn’t have certain equipment all together and wish there were alternatives so I didn’t have to skip certain sets all together. It would be nice to be able to use the same area of the gym for sets Most of my sets all use the same area of the gym so it easy to do everything I need but for example one day one exercise included a 12 rep set of dead lifts when all the rest for that set is dumbbells and my gym only uses smith machines so it really hard to leave the weight area to find an available smith machine to just do 12 reps and then have to repeat 3 times going back and forth.