The Movement Athlete Review

Fitness applications today have made it easier to access professional guidance for achieving fitness goals.

However, not every app can deliver on its claims, making them unworthy of your time and efforts. So, when we came across the Movement Athlete program, we wanted to see if it could be useful to our readers. 

Dive in for our detailed review to make an informed decision at the end of it.

What Is The Movement Athlete?

For the unversed, the Movement Athlete is a callisthenics-based fitness app accessible to all iOS and Android users. It offers a fully personalised training program that aims to help users build endurance and strength as well as improve mobility and flexibility according to their body weight. All of these ultimately contribute to fat loss and building stronger muscles. 

But what is Callisthenics? Well, simply put, callisthenics is more than just bodyweight training- it’s a branch of gymnastics that helps athletes achieve optimal fitness and grace of movement. Hence, the Movement Athlete app can aid in your fitness journey, no matter if you’re looking to lose weight, build muscles, or improve your general fitness.

Here, we should mention that the Movement Athlete program has been skillfully developed by a group of professional gymnasts and callisthenics athletes. And it has been designed keeping in mind the capabilities of both novices and pros.

How Does The Movement Athlete App Work?

This app comprises instructional videos that users can access on any mobile device anywhere, anytime. You can download the free mobile app on your device and explore the different options to learn more about it. 

Users may also log into the app and avail the free personalised plan. But as you may have already guessed, access will be limited in this version. 

Once you get the hang of the app, you can buy its subscription, which, according to us, is quite reasonable. Moreover, the longer your subscription runs, the cheaper the overall cost.

One of the advantages of this app is that there’s no fixed time frame for the validity of the program as long as you have a subscription running. Besides, you can decide how many workout sessions you want to complete every week. 

The average duration for these sessions can be anywhere between 45 minutes and an hour. However, there are specifics involved- both in terms of the workouts and techniques. 

In hindsight, you can think of this application as a guide rather than a fixed set of rules to set you in the right direction for achieving your fitness goals. On that note, here are the main features of the app to give you a better idea about its functionality.

1. Resources

The Movement Athlete app doesn’t take you straight away to the workout screens. Instead, it initiates your fitness journey by introducing you to the basics of the callisthenics program. 

You will find various resources to study, which are titled ‘getting started,’ ‘mobility and flexibility,’ ‘training,’ etc., to name a few. This section also focuses on educating you about the 9 fundamental movements of the program, which form the basis of all workouts.

We’d suggest taking your time through all the literary matters, otherwise; you may find yourself getting confused later on.

Aside from that, users get to be a part of a supportive community- a closed Facebook group of peers to teach and learn from.

2. Initial Assessment 

Unlike other programs in the fitness industry that take a generalised approach to help users attain their fitness goals, the Movement Athlete app builds fully customised workout plans according to your needs. And the first step in this process involves users taking a complete assessment.

The assessment screens will take you through certain movements and exercises, which you should perform according to the given set and rep counts. Simply perform the exercise according to the number of given sets and reps and tap on the exercise logo to move on to the next workout. In case you aren’t able to complete any, leave it blank.

Once the assessment concludes, you will be asked to choose the hardest variations of the exercises you couldn’t complete. And these will be considered your “end goal.” In other words, the whole program will be designed to assist you in progressing so that you can easily perform the movements you had picked earlier. But remember that you will still be required to perform a few basic movements that aid skill development. 

The purpose of this step is to help the application comprehend the aspects that will form the foundation of the plan, such as your current capabilities and current skill level, among other things. 

3. Structure And Organisation

The “workout interface” of this application is perhaps one of the easiest that you will come across. And the first thing to know in this regard is that your entire plan will be divided into 3 workout groups, namely:

• Fundamentals- comprising basics like handstands, dips, pull-ups, etc.,
• Intermediate- one step up, comprising workouts like headstands, back planks, etc.
• Advanced- the topmost level, comprising workouts like muscle-ups, levers, etc.

As you may have figured out, users complete one level before progressing to the other. But no matter which level you’re on, each movement will be broken down into 6 steps, which consist of smaller movements that help you progress.

• Warmup- simple movements to get your body ready and progress safely
• Skillwork- simple movements that will translate into the main workout
• Strength- techniques to build strength 
• Muscle- precise movements and techniques for building muscle
• Endurance- repetition of sets or reps to enhance endurance
• Cooldown- relaxing the worked-out muscles to prevent injury

Once you click on a particular step, you will find the ‘manual’ to perform it and other crucial details like the time involved and equipment required. Moreover, you can edit the default time frame and equipment list if required.

4. Progress Tracking

The Movement Athlete app offers guidance to perform over 100 callisthenics moves, and you can track your progress (measured in percentage) for each movement you perform across the 3 levels. Naturally, your progress will depend on how diligently you complete the sets by following the steps for each. 

Further, after completing each set, you will be asked to rate the difficulty of performing the said movement on a scale ranging from ‘very hard’ to ‘very easy.’ Simply move the slider to the desired direction, and the app will further customise the plan according to your response.

For instance, if you choose ‘very easy,’ the program will add a couple more reps to the next step. Likewise, sliding the bar towards ‘very hard’ will take off a few reps.

5. Downloadable Videos

Each workout is accompanied by a complete video tutorial recorded in high-definition, and there are more than 1200 such videos to assist users while exercising. What’s more, you can download them on your device to access them at home or the gym, even when there’s no internet connection.

6. Flexible Pricing Plans And Money-Back Guarantee

Users can pay for the app’s subscription by opting for any one of the following plans according to their convenience:

• Monthly plan- costs about £19
• Quarterly plan- costs about £41
• Yearly plan- costs about £132
• A lifetime one-off payment of £417

Each of these comes with a 7-day free trial, during which unsatisfied users can cancel the subscription without incurring any monetary loss.  

Moreover, every plan has a 60-day money-back guarantee, so you don’t have to worry about losing money if the plan doesn’t help you meet your specific goals. And should you choose to continue, you can switch from the monthly to the quarterly, yearly, or lifetime plan at any time.

What’s Not To Like About The Movement Athlete Program?

There are a few things that you should be aware of before signing up for this app.

Firstly, the tutorial videos are just visuals without any audio, meaning you’ll have to constantly keep your eyes on the mobile screen while working out, which can be inconvenient for many. Besides, this Callisthenics program misses out on nutritional or dietary guidance- something you will find on quite a few other similar apps.

You should also know that the app doesn’t facilitate live fitness tracking but depends on manual responses to record your progress. There’s no way for the app to verify if you’re actually completing the workout sessions or simply moving on to the next ones by clicking on a button.

Final Verdict

So, is the Movement Athlete application worth your time and money?

In our opinion, it can be a good starting point for people looking to build the basic skills for performing callisthenics or those who want to improve their overall fitness with professional guidance. As such, the application can assist them in losing fat and building muscles in a healthy way.

However, it isn’t very suitable for advanced athletes or more experienced athletes who want to improve their skills to progress in their careers. If you want to try out this app, we’d strongly recommend availing the trial policy before committing to it.