Sponsored App Review: Muscle Up

Muscle Up is an Android app that wants to give users all the right tools to plan, learn and tone up their body no matter what it is they want to work on. It has all sorts of different workouts available, and they can all be sorted by what equipment you have on offer, what part of your body or physique you want to work on, whether you’re at home or in the gym and so on. It even allows users to listen to their own music playlists right from within the app. If you’re looking for an app that makes it easy to keep track of your workouts – including keeping to a schedule on a calendar – or just something to point you in the right direction of muscle workout, then Muscle Up looks like the app for you, let’s find out whether or not it is, shall we?

Those looking to get in shape with Muscle Up will be able to download the app for free from the Play Store, but there is a paid version which gets rid of ads, too. Either way, new users will need to agree to the app’s terms and conditions.

Once they’ve done that, Muscle Up will ask new users their sort of fitness goals, which helps users tailor the default options to their sort of goals and such.

I chose to lose weight and gain muscle, which ended up with a sort of mix between building muscle and burning fat with cardio work. These are pre-configured workouts, and users do have some sort of choice of which set they want to do. These are then put into the calendar for users (but they can change these workouts and their schedule whenever they want).

Muscle Up seems to require people to sign in or sign up for a new account as well, but thankfully new users can just sign in with their Google accounts, which of course speeds the whole thing up.

Muscle Up allows users to choose from one of their assigned workouts, or choose from Home, Gym or Sport workouts. This is a great touch for those that are either just starting out without the gym or find themselves away from the gym and so on.

Workouts are broken up into reps and such, and the pre-configured ones do a good job of offering a wide variety of workouts for different muscles while also being focused on a particular choice.

When users complete and finish a workout, they’re given some XP points as well as the option to share their progress, both things that those starting out should respond to positively.

For advanced users however, they can create their own workouts, and choose from a wide range of different workouts, here, I’ve searched for some curl workouts, for example.

Each of these workouts has a picture or two to go with them, which makes it nice and easy to try out something new.

For interval trainers and those looking to just time their on-the-spot workouts, they can do so with the smartwatch and timer part of the app as well.

On top of all of this, Muscle Up gives users the ability to listen to their playlists from within the app, created by their favorite music app.

As someone that has recently turned to lifting weights as a way of not only getting a little muscular but also to become fit and lose some weight, Muscle Up is the sort of app that I wish I had months a go. It makes creating a workout that works all parts of your body nice and easy, and even if you’re not willing to commit the time and such to creating a proper workout, Muscle Up has a lot of really great workouts already available. These are generated quickly and can help users that aren’t sure what they need to do to reach their goals gain a little guidance and what to do and why. The built-in calendar will give newcomers such structure to their new endeavors, while experienced workers will be happy to see such a feature, and will probably use it to create an excellent and focused workout plan tailored to just them. Meanwhile, the playlist feature is one that modern users will really appreciate, and is something that Spotify fans and such will really appreciate, too.

Ratings

Speed (4/5) – Everything in Muscle Up runs nice and smoothly, and it’s quick and easy to get up and started with.
Theme (4/5) – Interface wise, this is something that will please average users as well those a little more advanced, too.
Features (4/5) – There’s a little something extra for everyone here, as well as running theme throughout of a great core experience that delivers well on its promises.
Overall (4/5) – With a lot on offer for all sorts of users from the novice to the more experienced, Muscle Up is an app that delivers on its promises and gives users a hell of a lot to work towards with some great tools.

Pros

Users can listen to their own personal playlists within Muscle Up, no matter which particular music app that they use.
Lots of different workouts available in a rich and varied database that users can use to create their own workouts with.
Calendar feature can help novice users keep to a schedule and gives experience builders a way of creating a new and perhaps more focused routine overall.
Allows all users – whether they’re at home or at the gym – ways to work out and also gives different goals different types of workouts.

Cons

Pre-determined workouts for new users might be a little confusing at first.
Spotify integration would make for a killer app that would draw in a huge amount of users as not many use local music any more.

Muscle Up is the sort of thing that new users will find a lot of value in, and it will also appeal to those experienced builders out there that are looking for a better way of keeping track of their workouts and such. It has all the right boxes ticked and gives users a wide variety of workouts and such to make sure that they’re getting the best out of their workouts.