Trainiac Review - The App, The Workouts and More - Everything You Want To Know!
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If convenience and customization are important to you when it comes to your workout regimen, the Trainiac fitness app might be a good choice for you. We’ve put together a comprehensive Trainiac review to help you learn more about the personal training app that's taking the fitness world by storm.
What is Trainiac App & How Does it Work?
The Trainiac company was founded in 2018 by a pair of Seattle-based entrepreneurs. You may have heard or read about it in media outlets like Women's Health, Self, The Wall Street Journal, WebMD, and Business Insider. In an interview with GeekWire.com, Trainiac co-founder Akshay Ahooja describes the app as an opportunity to work one-on-one with a certified personal trainer via video, audio, text messaging.
To start with Trainiac, you'll go through an initial intake process through their website and answer questions like your age, height, gender, fitness goals (e.g., losing weight or getting stronger), current habits, and ideal fitness routine. Then you download the Trainiac app onto your iOS-compatible phone and pick one of the Trainiac personal trainers to work with.
Once you've selected a trainer, you'll schedule an introductory phone call with him or her. This gives both of you the chance to get to know each other more and make sure you'll be a good match. Trainiac also offers introductory "assessment" workouts. By doing these workouts and logging your results, your personal trainer gets a better idea of your current fitness level.
After reviewing your information from your intake survey, chatting with you on the phone, assessing your introductory workouts, and helping you clarify and set realistic goals, your personal trainer will create and digitally deliver your customized workout plan. Workout plans are delivered weekly and include high quality instructional videos and written instructions on all the exercises. You can schedule your workouts ahead of time or do them on-demand.
Who Is Trainiac Right For?
A digital fitness service like Trainiac would probably be a good choice for someone who wants:
The benefit and experience of personal training but doesn’t necessarily need real-time, in-person coaching
Personal training without the budget to afford the typical price of $70+ per single session in conventional gyms
Confidence and know-how before doing live in-person fitness classes at a real gym
The ability to workout anytime and anywhere without having to be limited by gym hours or commute times (e.g., a person travels a lot, doesn't live close to a gym, doesn't like the gym environment, and/or has a busy/unusual schedule)
The opportunity to use digital devices and apps to enhance their fitness experience
External motivation, even if they have an exercise plan to follow
This last point—staying motivated—is a particularly unique benefit of Trainiac. The Trainiac app gives you the chance to digitally interact with a real person regularly. Working with a trainer can increase your accountability and help you stay committed to your workouts, which is corroborated by research.
After all, it's pretty easy to find free workouts these days, and there are a lot of paid online training programs to choose from. But having a workout program doesn’t necessarily guarantee you’ll stick with it. But having an online personal trainer via Trainiac, and engaging with them, is what can really help make an investment in the app worthwhile.
The Pros & Cons of Trainiac
Trainiac reviews wouldn’t be complete without including a list of the ups and downs of the program.
Pros:
All Trainiac personal trainers are experienced, certified professionals who hold certifications with one or more of the following: The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), Next College Student Athlete (NCSA), American Council on Exercise (ACE), and the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM).
With Trainiac, you get customized workout plans designed explicitly to help you achieve your goals, rather than getting some cookie-cutter program that may not be your best fit.
Instructional videos that accompany weekly programs are filmed in high definition.
You don't necessarily need a separate gym membership to use Trainiac. A lot of the workouts can be done in a living room, a backyard or hotel room with just your bodyweight.
It's affordable. An entire month of personal training via Trainiac is about the same as the average price of a single personal training session at most brick and mortar gyms.
When you use the app and input your workout results into it, you and your personal trainer can easily monitor and track your progress over time.
According to their website, Trainiac users have an "unlimited" amount of text, audio, and video messaging to answer questions and get feedback.
You can cancel or pause your membership at any time—no long-term contract or major financial commitments.
Cons:
There's no in-person interaction from your coach—your coach may actually be thousands of miles away from you. For some people, this takes away a major source of inspiration, accountability, and plain enjoyment out of working one-on-one with a trainer. Plus, not being able to work in-person with your coach means he or he can't physically correct or modify your form in real-time. Trainiac does offer video messaging, however, which can allow the trainer to offer video-based feedback.
Trainiac doesn't currently sync with all fitness devices, such as FitBit.
Currently Trainiac is only available on iOS. It is not available on Android or other streaming services.
If you're not tech savvy or don't have a device that works with iOS, Trainiac isn't for you.
What Makes Trainiac Different?
There are at least two things that make Trainiac stand out among fitness apps and brands.
First, it gives you the chance to work one-on-one with a personal trainer and get truly individualized workout programs. Other online fitness apps may give you different training plans and accessory programs, but the workouts aren't necessarily modified to accommodate individual factors like injury history, current fitness level, equipment availability, or schedule.
Second, Trainiac is an official Apple featured premium fitness app. Aside from enhancing Trainiac's legitimacy as a reputable program, being officially featured by Apple comes with some significant benefits, especially if you're already the type of person who loves integrating Apple technology in your day-to-day life.
For example, if you already use Apple Health to log your weight, track your steps, monitor your heart rate, or track any other workout or fitness activity, this information will be automatically integrated and updated into your Trainiac app. That way, you can share the info with your trainer and monitor your progress more accurately. This includes any Apple Health-synced running apps that log distance, calories, time and even other digital fitness services like Peloton.
Overall, most of the features offered by Trainiac are great examples of what to look for in a fitness app in general: convenience, customization, affordability, and effective workouts crafted by knowledgeable professionals.
What Kinds of Workouts Does Trainiac Offer?
Trainiac features workouts for strength, cardio, resistance, weight loss and more. A person’s specific workout program is going to be customized to their needs and goals and largely depend on the personal trainer they work with. Each personal trainer has their own particular set of specializations, but a a group the list of specialties is pretty long. The list of specializations between trainers include, but are not limited to:
What Makes Trainiac Different?
There are at least two things that make Trainiac stand out among fitness apps and brands.
First, it gives you the chance to work one-on-one with a personal trainer and get truly individualized workout programs. Other online fitness apps may give you different training plans and accessory programs, but the workouts aren't necessarily modified to accommodate individual factors like injury history, current fitness level, equipment availability, or schedule.
Second, Trainiac is an official Apple featured premium fitness app. Aside from enhancing Trainiac's legitimacy as a reputable program, being officially featured by Apple comes with some significant benefits, especially if you're already the type of person who loves integrating Apple technology in your day-to-day life.
For example, if you already use Apple Health to log your weight, track your steps, monitor your heart rate, or track any other workout or fitness activity, this information will be automatically integrated and updated into your Trainiac app. That way, you can share the info with your trainer and monitor your progress more accurately. This includes any Apple Health-synced running apps that log distance, calories, time and even other digital fitness services like Peloton.
Overall, most of the features offered by Trainiac are great examples of what to look for in a fitness app in general: convenience, customization, affordability, and effective workouts crafted by knowledgeable professionals.
What Kinds of Workouts Does Trainiac Offer?
Trainiac features workouts for strength, cardio, resistance, weight loss and more. A person’s specific workout program is going to be customized to their needs and goals and largely depend on the personal trainer they work with. Each personal trainer has their own particular set of specializations, but a a group the list of specialties is pretty long. The list of specializations between trainers include, but are not limited to:
Core strength
Beginner weight lifting
Glute building
Distance running
Running coaching
High intensity interval training (Hiit)
Strength gain/Muscle building
Sports specific training
Speed & agility
Body weight training
How Much Does Trainiac Cost?
Right now, Trainiac is offering a free 14-day trial to get you started. After that, the cost can be as low as $79.99 per month. You won't get charged if you cancel before your two-week trial is up, you don't have to sign any contracts, and you can cancel your membership whenever you want (cancellations take effect at the beginning of the next monthly billing period). Trainiac even allows you to pause your membership and start it up again later if you need to for any reason.
Keep in mind, this price is for monthly personal training. Though it's not in-person, it is one-on-one and customized to your specific needs and goals. When you compare this to the industry standards for personal training rates, Trainiac definitely comes out as a more affordable choice. Just 8 personal training sessions at Anytime Fitness, Equinox, LA Fitness would cost you $500, $840, and $460, respectively.
What Customers Are Saying
The customer reviews on Apple for Trainiac are mostly positive. There seems to be a good mix of users, including individuals recovering from surgeries or accidents, people who travel a lot, people preparing for future athletic events, new parents, and those who are looking to lose weight and gain strength. Reviewers especially appreciate the accountability and individualized guidance that Trainiac personal trainers provide.
Most of the negative reviews seem to involve temporary tech issues with the app itself, rather than problems with the quality of the training and workouts. Trainiac's responses to these complaints, suggest that any tech and bug issues that do arise are resolved fairly quickly. Customer feedback is positive overall about the app interface which is generally regarded as intuitive and easy-to-use. If you have low tolerance for app glitches, just prepare yourself for the possibility of hiccups along the way.
Is Trainiac Worth It?
This Trainiac review highlights some key things to consider before testing out this app for yourself.
Why take your fitness goals online?
First, we know that using fitness technology may increase adherence to workout programs and is a great option in this day and age for the time-strapped among us.
Second, it's cost-effective: the monthly price for online personal training through Trainiac is the same as a single personal training session in most conventional gyms, and with Trainiac you don't have to sign up for any long-term commitment.
Third, online personal training gives you a framework to follow even if you don't have (or want) access to a regular gym.
Again, for the time being, Trainiac is only compatible with iOS devices like iPhone, so it's pretty limited in that way. But if you're an Apple guy or gal who's interested in finding out what online personal training is like, Trainiac's two-week free trial is a great way to give it a shot. Just be sure to cancel before your two weeks is up if you decide it's not right for you.
Curious about other workout apps? Check out our app comparison guide!
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