I’VE SET MY fair share of New Year’s resolutions. And like many who stake out a goal each January, I’ve come up laughably short on almost every single one. A rare exception was this past year, when I decided to recommit to strength training after concentrating more intently on running in 2022. To do this, I used a tool that helped me stick to my lifting routine with a more focused, organized approach.
The tool that helped me stay consistent all year was Future, a personal training app that I was given a membership to test (which typically costs $199 per month). Thanks both to my position as a fitness editor and my wide range of interests in fitness, I’ve developed the habit of jumping between workout programs—checking out all kinds of workouts is part of my job, after all. That’s how I wound up, in 2022, reviewing a PDF plan by a celebrity trainer, then immediately shifting gears to a cobbled-together lifting and running plan that resulted in a race-day blowout and hamstring injury. When I got the opportunity to test Future in January 2023, I knew that if I didn’t pick just one lane I would wind up hopping from plan to plan again—maybe I’d even do something dramatic like finally buying into CrossFit. There was a nonzero chance I would again find myself hurt and annoyed, back at square one. So I made my outlook for using the app simple: my goal was to stick to this one platform for at least six months (and building up the strength to crush a 500-pound deadlift over that period wouldn’t hurt, either). I wound up staying consistent well beyond that. I also learned some more universal lessons about adherence too—and those lessons might even help you to stick to your resolutions and healthy habits long beyond January.
Future Personal Training App
CREDIT: FUTURE
I completed 170 total workouts using Future in 2023. That means I used it for almost half the days of the year (I don’t log running on the app, and most weeks I still ran at least once). When things got stale, rather than jumping ship, my coaches and I shifted focus. I was able to transition between multiple different approaches throughout the year, and the app logged all the progress. I was even able to crush that 500-pound deadlift, too.
How Training with the Future App Works
Future, which we named one of the best workout apps and highlighted in the 2023 MH Fitness Awards, essentially serves as a portal between the user and a coach for personalized training plans. After filling out a quick questionnaire about workout experience, goals, and the equipment/facilities available, users are given the choice to pick or be paired with a coach that matches your needs based on their backgrounds, areas of focus, and interests. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and depth on Future’s roster; there was a long list of fitness pros with experience at top training facilities, D1 college strength and conditioning programs, and even pro sports teams. I’ve worked with two coaches over my 12 months on Future who had this type of pedigree.
Once connected via the service, the plan begins to take shape as the user and coach get acquainted. The whole point of the partnership is to create the best program to achieve the client’s specific goals. This doesn’t happen via survey or through an AI tool, as might be the case with other tech-first fitness programs—it happens through conversation. That’s the value that Future offers. Initially for me, those goals were general strength and athletic training, which progressed to more focused strength and performance-focused splits.
Future allows users to message coaches directly in the app, and it also has the capability to host video, which is much more convenient for me than a text or email thread to stay in touch. Every Sunday, my coach updates the training plan with the workouts for the week. When I took a trip to Portland in October and only had a hotel gym to train in or when I visited my parents with no gear at all, swapping the plan was as easy as sending a text.
After logging most workouts, I have a message from my coach waiting for me to check in on how it went. To be clear, this isn’t the same as live feedback, like some personal trainers offer clients via FaceTime or other video messaging apps. But there is a close connection. My coaches also worked with me to adjust my program as I rehabbed two different injuries over the year. We subbed resistance band work to strengthen my strained lat from my PT directly into my program so I didn’t have to do the rehab separately.
Actually using the app as I work out is the best aspect of Future for me, and that’s what kept me locked into the platform for a year-plus. During an active session, a video reel plays on my phone screen demoing each exercise, along with audio cues (helpful if you’re inexperienced, but I turned these off). Your coach can also add in audio notes throughout for more individualized guidance and cueing. This was a big help as I was working through my injuries, giving my coach a chance to remind me to limit my range of motion or to feel okay about dropping to lower weights.
I’m really good at showing up to work out, but keeping my focus consistent throughout an entire session is where I struggle. I wind up resting too much—or more often, too little—between sets. I love how Future’s app (and connected smartwatch program) keep the timer for me. Each individual session has an estimated time to complete, and starting initiates a clock that counts down to zero. Even when I’ve used other tools, I’ve never stuck to work:rest ratios so well, thanks to the helpful audio tones and Watch buzzes prompting me to start moving. I’m not immune to the lure of the smartphone during workouts, and when I train in my backyard, my dog is often out with me and raring to play. I’ve lost focus and scrolled or thrown a stick when I should be stepping up to the barbell for deadlifts plenty of times. When I was using the app, I was less tempted thanks to the prompts to get to work.
How Future Helped Me Stick to My Plan—and What You Can Do, Too
There was another basic function of Future that helped me stay more consistent with my training, but it’s not something that’s unique to this particular app. Over the past few years, I’ve been horrible at keeping any type of log to track my workouts. This is an elementary aspect of most programs and can be accomplished with little more than a paper and pen, but I rarely took the time to record what I was doing, instead working from program PDFs on my phone or building out rough outlines for my own programming in Google docs. The most reliable way to build up to a goal—like my 500 pound deadlift, for example—is to progress on a linear path. When I was shooting for this in 2022, I half-remembered and guessed at the weights I had used in the weeks before, then slapped on the plates to pull. This year, the app automatically recorded every data point for me. I was able to review previous workouts and weights and look forward to what I had coming later in the week. I felt much more locked-in and connected to my program as a whole. So when I loaded 500 pounds onto the bar to take on that lift in June, I was making the attempt with a concrete strategy and path to success, rather than just loading the weights and hoping that would be my big day.
This isn’t surprising, according to licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Rachel Hershenberg, Ph.D. ABPP, author of Activating Happiness. “The first way of changing behavior is to monitor behaviors,” she says. Rather than approaching each workout as its own event, I was able to use the app to understand where it stood in the context of the larger program. “When you start to see the larger pattern, I think that also helps too,” Hershenberg says. This was especially clear how valuable this practice can be when my Future app supplied me with a year-end report, Spotify Wrapped-style, with all kinds of stats about my training. You can certainly make progress without that level of data collation, but I really appreciated it.
Accountability is also something I was missing before this trial. Sure, I had my job keeping me involved in fitness generally, but that wasn’t always enough for me to really push through the distractions to make sure that my workouts were good. By connecting with Future’s coaches, I immediately had a second party invested in my success. This was really helpful for me, and Hershenberg agrees that accountability can be a useful driver for accomplishing goals. Again, this isn’t a concept unique to Future; whether you hire a trainer in a different context or just find a reliable workout buddy, you can introduce accountability to your routine without using the app.
All that said, Hershenberg notes that this type of pressure can be a bit overwhelming for some people who might be nervous about disappointing their coach or shy about sharing details of their exercise regimen. She suggests that those types of people opt for group classes and streaming platforms like Peloton, where there’s still a social aspect to the experience, but without the same type of demand for documenting their performance.
Should You Use Future?
Most of the features that I loved about Future aren’t unique to the app. You can log your workouts with everything from a spreadsheet to a notebook, and you can make connections with other people IRL in the gym or through more traditional trainer-client arrangements. What I particularly appreciated about Future was how it bundled the most useful elements of working out with smartphones (timers, video cues, exercise logging software) and the perks of working with a trainer (individualized training plans, scheduled check-ins) into one seamless package. Rather than cycling through different programs and apps to get my timer, form cues, and program, it was all in one place.
I’d recommend Future to anyone looking to level-up their workout program, especially if they have some strength training experience and a stated training goal. That said, the level of access you’ll get from a Future coach was enough for me, but might not be enough for those looking for a truly personalized 1:1 training experience. Beginners might find that they need more hands-on instruction, too, so if you’re ready and willing to start with in-person training, that might be a better option for you to learn the basics of form with someone watching your back IRL.
One other caveat: the cost. The $199 monthly fee will be fairly expensive for most people for an app, especially when you consider that to get the most out of the experience, you’ll need to pay for gym access or home equipment, too. There are lots of places where truly individualized, 1:1 personal training sessions are more expensive than this, but that’s not exactly what Future is offering. If you know your way around the gym already and want a program, some accountability, and a super-organized training log, it’ll be a good pick for you.
That’s essentially where I am. The app has been invaluable in keeping me consistent—I really hate the idea of lifting now without the helpful timers and program structure—but I know I don’t need it. I do prefer using it, though. I’m going to stick with Future in 2024, and using its useful, all-in-one setup, I feel confident that I’ll stay consistent and crush some more goals.
