- Brand: Future Fitness
- Price: $19 for the first month, $149/month after that
- From: future.co
Trying to become a faster, more consistent runner sounds easy — just run faster for longer right? But it’s significantly more complicated than that. We all tend to start strong out of the gate but typically lose steam before we make real, tangible progress. So we tested the Future Fitness app to see what its roster of elite coaches (a majority of whom have competed at the collegiate, professional or Olympic levels or have trained those who have) and sleek app experience could do for our running. Future Fitness coaches create customized workout plans tailored to your goals and lifestyle. We spent the week with Jelani Clyburn, former strength and conditioning coach at Maryland and Delaware State, to get a feel for all of its features and hit the ground running (quite literally) with six days of workouts tailored to exactly what we wanted.
Gear Patrol StudiosWhat We Like
After a thorough questionnaire about what your goals are and where your fitness level is, you will be matched with one of Future’s elite coaches. Our tester, who is focused on becoming a faster runner, matched with Jelani Clyburn, a former strength and conditioning coach at Maryland and Delaware State. Beyond an impressive collegiate resume, Clyburn also has an M.S. in physiology, a B.S. in kinesiology and exercise science and is a certified strength and conditioning specialist — that’s in addition to a background in track and field. Clyburn’s approach to constructing exercise programs is combining scientifically proven principles with input from each of his clients. Needless to say, we were excited to see what he put together for someone with a passion and interest in running, given his focus areas.
After matching, the process is pretty simple. Your coach schedules a Facetime meeting with you, letting you go into more depth on your goals, lifestyle and any injuries you might be working with. On Sunday afternoons, your workouts for the week are loaded onto the app, letting you take a look at what’s to come. For our tester, this consisted of a short run, lower body push, yoga flow, long run, upper body push, speed work and recovery day.
Gear Patrol StudiosThe Future app syncs with an Apple Watch (one is included in your welcome kit), allowing your metrics to be tracked and shared with your coach. The Watch also switches its workout automatically based on what’s next, so you don’t need to start a new workout when you move from stretching, to calisthenics, to your run.
The landing page in the app shows your workout with a video demonstrating proper technique, along with a timer and a preview of what’s next. This feature allows you to focus on form and pushing through your current reps without having to worry about what to do next. You can also choose a playlist curated by Future to play during your sweat session, and the app easily connects to your TV if you prefer a larger picture.
