- Brand: Future
- Price: $19 for the first month, $149/month after that
- From: future.co
If you’re unfamiliar with Future Fitness, the digital platform that delivers personal training anytime and anywhere, you are seriously missing out. We spent a week with Future focused on improving our running (check it out here), but with the vast amount of elite coaches they offer training programs with, we needed more than just a week to experience it all. This time around, we focused on strength training.
Gear Patrol StudiosThere’s no doubt that the gym can be an intimidating place, especially if you aren’t confident in what you’re doing or familiar with all of the equipment. Our tester wanted to focus on building strength without being chained to the gym — particularly with summer weather on the horizon. Luckily, Future offers the flexibility and customization that allows you to work out from anywhere. Our tester matched with Becca Mehling, a nationally ranked athlete who specializes in functional movement and Olympic weightlifting. Mehling has been competing at the national level for three years and taps into her varied experience to support clients by focusing on movement and skills to help them feel stronger in their everyday lives.
What We Like
In terms of gear, our tester had a yoga mat, mini band and dumbbells, but that didn’t stop Mehling from putting together a solid plan focused on building strength. The weekly workouts included foundational movement, power day, a midweek regeneration focusing on stretching and yoga poses (to let your body recover), total body strength and a finish strong workout and weekend run. The schedule was comprehensive, with movements that targeted each part of the body, but most importantly it was doable. The longest workout was 44 minutes and most averaged around 35 minutes, which made it pretty hard to use being busy as an excuse to skip a workout. But don’t let the short timeframes lead you on, each session was jam-packed with dynamic movements that targeted muscles while keeping the heart rate up.
A key to building strength, especially with weights, is form. The wrong position in a squat or lunge can do some serious damage to your knees. Future makes it easy to ensure that you’re using the correct form, and you feel anything but alone when doing the workouts from home. With personalized audio coaching and a video demonstration showing how the move is done, Future’s platform makes it dead simple to make sure you’re doing everything correctly. Plus, with a “record my form” feature, you can record yourself doing the reps, send it to your coach, and receive almost immediate feedback. Our tester was feeling pain in the knees during the side lunges, and after sending a video to Mehling, she was able to make sure they were using the correct stance to alleviate any pressure in the knees.
