For over a decade, I’ve reported on health and fitness, and more recently, I became a boy mom. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, I have refused to wake up earlier than six o’clock in the morning to do my workout before I start getting my son and myself ready for school and work, respectively. It is this lack of early-morning prowess (of which I used to be so proud) that has caused my training to change.
In summer, I take advantage of increased free time to bask in cardio and weight workouts—logging miles each day and lifting weights for 20 to 30 minutes at least four times a week. Then, when fall comes, my workouts Monday through Friday consist of 20 to 30 minutes of yoga each morning, and then longer cardio sessions with a bit of weight training on the weekend. This has been working to keep me fit but not well. By the time summer break returns, I have lost some of my strength, and my cardiovascular fitness isn’t where I want it to be.
So when I was asked to try the BetterMe: Health Coaching App for 14 days, I agreed to shake up my lackluster fitness routine. I was looking for an easy way to try to maintain some of the strength gains I had made over the summer, but adding dumbbells to my small New York apartment wasn’t in the floor plan. Maybe the BetterMe app would be the school-year workout I needed? The only way to tell was to try it out.
The Setup
After downloading the app, I created my profile by stating my goal (remaining fit), what my diet is like (traditional; I eat almost everything), my fitness level (advanced, not quite pro, but I like to think I’m in good shape), my basic data (age, weight, height), and three activities of interest (I chose wall Pilates, Pilates, and yoga). I was also able to set up reminders to exercise each day (check), to read a chapter about good-for-you body behaviors and mindset (sure, why not?), and, if I wanted, to fast or eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner (hard pass).
After that, I was presented with my first workout of approximately 10 minutes. It was simple enough, and I easily completed it, but there was no wall involved. I was confused; maybe I’d start the wall Pilates program tomorrow?
Day 1
When I logged in, I was greeted with a daily plan page, and when I clicked to start my daily workout, I was prompted to start the 28-Day Wall Pilates program. This was more like it. I like knowing where I am and what I am doing. If an app is confusing, I get frustrated. I have to navigate enough mazes in my life already—I don’t want my workout time hijacked as well.
My first workout was a 13-minute full-body conditioning routine, and this time the wall was the major workout tool. Four exercises done for 30 seconds each—think mobility movements like side bends and thoracic rotations—served as a warm-up. The workout followed, nine exercises, each performed for 40 seconds, and was followed by a cooldown that mimicked the warm-up in number and duration of exercises. During all of the above, I was touching the wall in some way, either for alignment, balance, stability, or strength.
Each exercise uses the wall for stability, resistance, or balance.
At the end, I was asked whether the workout had been too hard, too easy, or just right. I had never experienced this in an exercise app, and I hoped my answer (in this case, “too easy”) would effect some change in my program, though I was not sure I would be able to tell.
Days 2 Through 7
The following days’ workouts were similar to the first. They ran between 13 and 18 minutes each, with the core-focused ones being longest. After my day-five workout, aka the “Ultimate Wall Workout,” I was finally able to rate my workout as “just right.” The repetition of the program fatigued my lower-body muscles, and I finished with my legs wobbly. This was a good sign in terms of my goal.
Each workout is summarized for you before you begin. When you do an exercise, it is timed, and the app shows you what your next move will be.
At night the app reminded me to read chapters about holistically approaching my body goals, specifically my mindset and my beliefs, and how they contribute to how I move through the world. I read the chapters as I was cooking dinner. If I had been someone new to the mind-body connection, I would have found these chapters helpful, but they were lost on someone who has been writing about this connection on a regular basis for over a decade.
Days 8 Through 15
Most of my workouts continued the same way. I noticed that my core remained strong and my shoulders and triceps were keeping their shape. As for the difficulty of the workouts, they varied between too easy and just right. I appreciated the straightforwardness of the instruction and how the design of the workouts kept my heart rate elevated—moving from standing to the floor and back again accomplishes that.
This week, while exploring the nutritional section of the app (I had been focusing my attention on the workouts), I discovered the meal plans, and felt like I had opened a portal out of the food rut that my household was in.
What made the plans so great was that they suggested variations on foods that my family and I were already eating. For instance, we eat tacos for dinner at least twice a week, and they are always the same: ground turkey, homemade taco seasoning, cheese, corn tortilla. The app suggested tacos made with chicken breast, a variation on the seasoning, and a mixture of vegetables. I realize that none of this was groundbreaking, but it was delivered at a time I needed it and wasn’t willing to seek it out on my own—so instead of spending hours meal-planning, I used the suggestions BetterMe provided. For the first time in a long while, my family and I didn’t have to dread yet another turkey burger or taco. I found myself looking forward to what BetterMe had planned for me (and us) in the weeks to come.
Your plan outlines all the different steps you can take toward your health goals, including meal plans and recipes based on your nutritional preferences.
Bottom Line
I tested the app for 14 days, despite it being a 28-day Wall Pilates Program. That was my assignment. Using the wall as a training tool was a new thing for me, and it helped with my balance, especially when I was doing deep reverse lunges. Over the last two weeks, I also rediscovered my childhood dancer’s posture, which had become hunched over a bit from years of desk work and motherhood duties. Making sure my body was touching the wall helped bring this postural awareness back into focus, both during the workouts and away from them. Because of this (as well as the meal-plan help), I plan to complete the 28-day program—and see what other surprises BetterMe adds to my life and fitness.
Take a 1-min quiz to get a Wall Pilates Plan.
