Well, I finally did it: after years of the readers singing the praises of the BBG and then the Sweat App, I finally signed up.
And, as always, you guys were right — it’s awesome.
Here’s a mini-review, particularly if you’re wondering how the Sweat App compares to NROLFW, Fitbod, or other lifting for women programs.
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As a bit of background about the app –– it was started by influencer Kayla Itsines after her hugely popular “Bikini Body Guide,” which — if memory serves — was originally a short workbook with exercises. (Her guides are still available for $53-$93 if you prefer that!) As part of the app she’s now joined by numerous other teachers, including people who specialize in weight lifting, cardio, and yoga.
To be 100% honest I haven’t tried the entire app, but the three programs I’ve started run similarly — you pick a program, and then you get 3-4 workouts a week in addition to suggested additional workouts like HIIT or LISS. You can hunt around on the app to find workouts outside of your program if you want to. Each workout also has a recommended, but optional, warm-up and cool-down sequence.
{related: I still love my adjustable dumbbells!}
The workouts each take 30-40 minutes. I’ve only done BBG and the “Lifting at Home” program (and I just started the LAH challenge track yesterday), but the workouts in each were similar — when you start the timer you start a set of 2-3 exercises, complete with gifs of the exercises and further explanations if you want to click on it. (This was one of the things I LOVED about the FitBod app.) They either recommend how many exercises you should do, or there is a timer for how long you should do the exercises (generally 30 or 60 seconds). You’ll cycle through these same 2-3 exercises for 3-4 laps, then move onto a second set of exercises, then a third, and then a fourth; the fourth is generally a set of ab exercises.
I started out doing BBG 1.0 but then decided the exercises seemed too easy (lots of resistance band exercises), so I’ve moved on to Lifting at Home with Stephanie Sanzo — everything is very doable.
Big pros to SWEAT: There are a ton of multi-week tracks to do — I think the BBG one I started with was 9 weeks, and the LAH track I was doing was 15 weeks. I love that there are gifs of the exercises. While there are tracks that are designed to be done at the gym, there are also ones designed to be done at home or, in fact, anywhere.
Big cons to SWEAT: None, really?
Minor notes for improvement: While there’s a place for “notes,” I wish they had a cooler way to track how much weight you’re lifting, like Fitbod did. I also wish that the weeks didn’t all necessarily begin on Monday. I also liked that the Fitbod app highlighted which muscles you were supposed to be working, which I thought helped me with form.
Comparing Sweat to Other Lifting Programs for Women
SWEAT App vs. Fitbod App: They’re similar apps in that they’re great for all levels of strength training, and they show you gifs of the exercise. But SWEAT is much more of a guided experience, with multi-week programs designed by specific instructors. (There’s also a SWEAT forum where lots of people talk about the different programs, and do challenges, and so forth.)
Furthermore, as much as I love the Fitbod app (read my full review here), I always felt like I wanted more leg exercises. To the extent that if I wanted to do a “leg day” I’d have to completely create my own program. While the program had an extensive menu of exercises, they were missing things like curtsy lunges, plie squats, and sumo squats that I thought were kind of basic. On the flip side, though, Fitbod was great about suggesting which weight to use and how many reps to do — and the algorithm came up with new muscles to exercise so if I felt like doing more than 3 workouts a week I could easily do them. They’re both great but they’re very different apps, for sure.
SWEAT vs NROLFW: I’ve done the first few weeks of exercises from The New Rules of Lifting for Women SO MANY TIMES that I feel like I’ve got them memorized. Still, there are some exercises in the first few weeks that were too difficult for me (something about a jackknife with an exercise ball comes to mind), and ones that were too difficult to recreate at home (no matter how many resistance bands I added to my door anchor I still never felt like a cable chop was working any muscles.)
(Other lifting programs I’ve tried, of which I still think NROLFW was the best for lifting at home: Strong, Strong Curves, Thinner Leaner Stronger, and newer versions of NROLFW. Back in the day I’d purchased programs from Stumptuous, Girls Gone Strong, and Nerd Fitness Academy. For any book or guide, though, it’s really hard to beat the gifs of the exercises in the apps.
When I was paying for Beachbody I tried a few of their weight-lifting programs and they were either beyond my skill level, too full of testosterone, or mind-numbingly dull.
{related: the best streaming workouts to do at home}
I’m still a big fan of the Body Pump classes at Les Mills on Demand, though, but felt (at least 4-6 months ago) that they were beyond my current fitness level — I could probably do them now, and might pick them up in the future if/when I get bored with the SWEAT workouts.
SWEAT is $19.99 per month, or $119 per year. They just started a bunch of 6-week challenges on Monday (and it’s not too late to join in if you feel like it).
What are you doing for strength training these days, ladies? Do you have any favorite apps, streaming trainers, books or other programs?
(*Full disclosure on the affiliate stuff: We’ve included our standard affiliate disclosure note in this post because there are Amazon links to the books I’m mentioning, as well as to our standard closer with workwear sales. However, as of this writing we have no affiliation with the SWEAT App itself, nor have we received any copies for review or anything. I’m just a paying customer.)
Workwear Sales of Note (as of 1-12-21)
