u/Fulwell

Hanging up my Future spurs. Thought I’d share my review.

Context: Future user for 3 of last 3.5 years, spending a hair over $6,000 and averaging 3.5 workouts a week. Two primary coaches (first left for another job) with a couple others at the start. Obviously you could have a meaningfully different experience with different coaches.

The Good: 

• If you’re new to working out or took a long break, you have a coach to hold your hand through program design, then videos explaining each exercise. 
• The human motivation factor - if you miss a session you’ll be ‘disappointing’ a human rather than simply an app - is real.

 

The Bad: 

• Your coach has a tremendous number of clients. They’re reticent to specify but I’ve seen estimates of 80+, which fits my experience. In a typical week I got a few “good work!” texts and nothing else. 
• Partially due to the trainer workload, do not expect someone watching your performance and proactively making improvements - the ONLY way anything will change is if you directly (and repeatedly) request it. If you’re not on top of them expect maintenance, not progressive overload.
• No (recommended) form correction. There is app functionality to send a video to your coach; that was not encouraged.
• Coaches seemed most comfortable in the HIIT world - anything else an afterthought. 
• The apps are fairly buggy. The Apple Watch app, a required component, stopped syncing every 2-3 weeks.

 

Is it worth $200/month or $1800/year? For absolute beginners, perhaps; for most people no. 

I would recommend a variety of more focused apps under $150/year (Runna or Hevy for running and lifting respectively, say), interspersed with occasional in-person trainer sessions to refine technique.