Plus +1: Pregnancy Workouts

I really enjoy weightlifting and though this app was fun for the duration I could do it. I’ll start off by saying that I was NOT regularly lifting weights before I got pregnant. I had in the past but before pregnancy it was more of a here or there type of exercise I did. The rep ranges and weight in this app were too much for me and I did end up experiencing some vaginal bleeding after doing deadlifts. Like it’s typically recommended, if you’re already doing these types of exercises before pregnancy you can prob still do them. If you’re like me and didn’t really do them on a weekly basis, only every now and then, then it may be too much. However, they do have body weight options for the entire workouts which I could totally do and because of the versatility of movement, education and app layout I give this a five star. Totally worth trying and relatively affordable too

I bought the pdf version when I was pregnant and used a little bit was hard to read/ follow while also trying to reference the technique for the moves. The app came out at the end of my pregnancy and I have been using it for postpartum to get back into shape. It’s been great! I haven’t used the stronger by the day app so I don’t know how they compare but this is really basic, kinda like the peg in app for. Doesn’t have as many bells and whistles as other apps I use but the meat is there which is tell me what to do, show me how to do it, and I can check off reps and see how many reps I did last time! It’s feels like it’s meeting me exactly where I’m at, so I want to keep working out!

They claim to have a 7 day free trial but when I downloaded the app and made an account it forced me to input my credit card info. I figured ‘ok they need this for after the trial is up’ but I emailed with customer service to confirm and they assured me I would not be charged. So I created my account and was immediately charged TWICE for a full month membership. It took lots of emailing back and forth with customer service to get refunded. I had to ask multiple times to get my account deleted to ensure I would not be charged after 7 days and they sent me instructions for canceling the subscription, none of which work because I did not pay through the apple App Store and the other method had me click a button in the app that does not exist. They did finally get it all sorted for me but it was not a pleasant experience, free trials should not be this complicated. I understand they just built this app but why not take the time to understand user experience and ensure people are able to do simple things like get their promised free trial, cancel subscriptions or delete accounts. On top of it all, the programming itself was not for me. It seemed incredibly slow - workouts that consisted of breathing and stretching and no more than a 20 minute walk per day when you’re months into your postpartum journey. I am very conservative in my return to fitness and lifting postpartum, but it seemed wildly slow and boring, like I wouldn’t get to a place where I could be comfortable returning to the gym once completing the program. Plus the app itself was awkward to look through and get a sense of the program you’re buying into, all you can see is the current week based on how far postpartum you are with no explanation of the progression.