Future Fitness App: Experience-Based Review (2024)

Summary

A personal training service and accompanying app geared toward making your fitness goals happen anytime—at home, in the gym or on the road—Future makes remote training easy. The app connects you with a personal trainer of your choice who builds customized workouts based on your goals, needs, schedule and location. Future also tracks your progress via an Apple Watch, allowing your coach to see your heart rate and calorie burn as you move through your workouts.

What I liked:

• Customization. From coaches and exercises to timing and workout length, everything about the Future experience is tailored to you. Do you prefer a gentler coaching style based on positive reinforcement? No problem—just tell the app when you sign up. Have a bad knee that acts up when you run? Your coach will work around that, too. Hate morning workouts? Easy—work out during a time that feels best for you.
• Accountability. Your trainer is able to see when you start and finish a workout via your Apple Watch, and they can track your physical progress along the way by observing your heart rate. This component makes it hard to get away with skipping out or slacking on workouts.
• Perks. Future makes real-time tracking possible by syncing the app with your Apple Watch. Don’t have one? Future will send you a watch on loan for as long as you use the app. You’ll also receive a free Future branded water bottle as a welcome gift.

What I didn’t like:

• Out of sync. While the Apple Watch is a nice bonus and helps you maintain an active lifestyle even while outside the gym, the watch and Future app didn’t always sync as seamlessly as one would hope—at least for me. One function of the watch is to tap to the next exercise manually once one set is complete. On several occasions, this functionality didn’t work—the watch got stuck multiple exercises behind and would sometimes skip ahead too far when trying to catch up. Luckily, you can also click through and restart sets via your phone.

• Phone dependent. As Future is an app, your phone is required to view and move through exercises throughout the duration of each workout. The watch is intended to give a hands-free experience, but in the instances when it doesn’t sync or skips ahead, you need your phone to view your exercises and move onto the next set, meaning you’re attached to your phone for most of the workout. Also, if you don’t already own Bluetooth headphones, now might be a good time to invest—and make sure your workout gear has pockets.
• Only for iPhone. Currently, Future is only available for iPhone users, according to the company.

Future is a digital personal training app based on the idea of partnership. Using technology to foster relationships between coaches and clients, Future aims to integrate fitness into their clients’ lives seamlessly by creating a unique experience customized to each user and their abilities, location and activity preferences.

Founded in 2017 by CEO Rishi Mandal and CTO Justin Santamaria, Future is based in San Francisco, but due to its virtual nature, the company employs coaches nationwide. Nearly 100 coaches are currently listed on the company’s website, but that number fluctuates based on availability, as each coach takes on a limited number of clients to ensure a personalized experience for everyone. Coaches are available most hours of the day during the week and some weekend days based on their individual schedules, which are communicated with clients.

In addition to workouts provided by coaches, Future also provides its own workouts that can be added to your routine, as well as playlists to keep you motivated as you move. Users can also access the Future store and purchase Future branded apparel through the app.

You can sign up for Future on its website, where you’re prompted to complete a survey that pairs you with a coach, which includes questions about your gender, current workout habits, future fitness goals, motivation, unique interests, past fitness challenges and more. You’re also asked about your coach preferences, including their gender, personality type and intensity level.

Once you complete the survey, Future presents several coaching options, providing headshots and bios of each coach. You can select your coach at this stage or wait and move forward in creating your user profile. Future coaches are certified across a range of fields, including personal training (such as ACE, ISSA, NASM and more), diet and nutrition, CrossFit and yoga. You can change your coach at any time throughout your membership.

After you select a coach, Future connects you with them and schedules an introductory FaceTime call. I received a video message from my coach within a few hours of signing up and began messaging with her the same night. (All messaging takes place inside the Future app.) 

Introductory calls take place on the date of your choice and are used as the foundation of your training relationship. You get to know your coach and discuss your lifestyle habits, schedule, health and fitness history (to the extent that you’re comfortable), fitness goals, a workout plan and any other aspects of your fitness journey you choose to address. I chose a coach who was also credentialed in nutrition and spoke with her about my diet and how to incorporate nutrition into my training plan. 

Your Future experience is based on your personal preferences and lifestyle, including how many workouts your coach designs for you per week and what those workouts entail. As someone who usually exercises two to three days a week, I chose a five-day workout plan with two rest days incorporated into each week. I also told my coach which activities I enjoy most, which exercises I’d like to improve on and what equipment is available to me in my gym. Based on this information, my coach built me a workout schedule with a mixture of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions, spin classes, treadmill runs and sprints, weight lifting, bodyweight exercises and yoga.

Future costs $149 per month, with the option to try it risk-free for 30 days. If you’re not happy with your experience after a month, the company will refund you in full. Should you decide to move forward with a second month, your chosen payment method will be charged the next monthly fee of $149.

Future also offers prepaid membership plans, including three months of training for $405 (a savings of $42), six months of training for $760 (a savings of $134) and 12 months of training for $1,425 (a savings of $363).

If you don’t own an Apple Watch Series 3 or newer (which also requires an iPhone 6S or newer updated with iOS 14 or later), Future will lend you one to use throughout your membership as part of its welcome kit, which also includes a Future-branded stainless steel water bottle. You’re charged a deposit fee of $199 for this welcome kit.

A Future membership can be canceled at any time through the app. Memberships can also be paused for up to three months, reserving you a spot with your coach and stopping charges. Memberships cannot be paused for less than one month. Should you require short-term changes to your workout plan or schedule, simply message your coach.

After your introductory FaceTime call, all communication with your coach happens through the Future app via messaging.

Workouts are dropped into the app every Sunday night and are based on the information provided to your coach in the app and during your FaceTime call. The time you choose to complete your workout each day is up to you, though coaches can see when you’ve started and finished your workout. During the workout, you receive voice recordings from your coach  scattered throughout the session—typically at the beginning, in between each section and at the end. These recordings range from short motivational pep talks to instructions on how to prepare for the next exercise.

Video recordings are also used to enhance your performance. Each exercise features a video demonstration to clarify form and technique. If you experience difficulty with an exercise or have questions or concerns about your form, you can record a video of yourself during a training session and send it directly to your coach in the app. They will then send feedback, ensuring you’re doing the exercise properly to avoid injury. You can also take photos in the app and use them to help further personalize your workout. For instance, when one of my cable machine exercises required an attachment my gym didn’t have, I sent a photo of all the available attachment options to my coach and she was able to help me choose a substitute attachment.

When you complete a workout, you have the option to leave feedback for your coach. Feedback is highly encouraged, as it’s how coaches are able to gauge what you enjoy and what works for your body. In my experience, this feedback has been the main form of communication throughout my membership. I left my coach feedback after every session, letting her know what I enjoyed and what was challenging. I also shared if I needed any adjustments or if there was something I wanted to see more of or have replaced. When ski jumps caused a pain in my calf, for example, I mentioned it in my feedback and my coach subsequently removed them from my routine.

After three weeks, your coach will schedule another FaceTime check-in to discuss your progress. Similar to the introductory call, this FaceTime meeting can be used to supply your coach with any additional information they might need to help you reach your goals. If you’ve already started seeing progress—which is not uncommon—this call might serve as a means for celebration and maintaining focus.

FaceTime calls, however, aren’t the only place you can share your wins. Future’s in-app messaging makes it easy to send coaches notes throughout the day, even after your workout is done. For instance, when a pair of pants I haven’t been able to button in months finally fit, I shared the news with my coach right away and received a congratulatory response. Coaches are happy to discuss other aspects of your fitness journey through messaging as well, including nutrition. My coach sent me several documents full of healthy recipes (including my new favorite breakfast smoothie), photos of her favorite protein powder recommendations and diagrams about what to eat after workouts, all through the app.

Messaging is also a convenient tool for life’s more inconvenient moments, such as when you’re not feeling well and need to reschedule a workout. Simply send a message and consider your session moved. If traveling presents a problem, enter your trip dates into the app and leave your coach the details of your lodging. If you want to keep your workouts going while you’re gone, they’ll design a plan to make it happen. If it’s intended to be a vacation from the gym altogether, that’s not a problem, either. Your life, your plan.

I’ve been training with Future for one month now, and I have no plans to stop. It turns out that with the right coach and a workout routine shaped to my lifestyle, goals and interests, I can have those toned arms I’ve always wanted. I can be that person who looks forward to early mornings and gets excited about their time in the gym.

In one month of training, I’m seeing results I haven’t seen in months of working out on my own. Pants I thought were destined for Goodwill finally button again, and a jumpsuit that hasn’t zipped in two years now closes with ease.

But the results aren’t strictly aesthetic. I’ve increased my treadmill speed, and the 30-minute spin classes that used to leave me breathless now require a little more resistance to get the same reaction—though they still have me pouring sweat by the end. I even held my first crow pose in yoga. I haven’t worked out this often, this consistently or with this much intensity in years, and it’s been just as long since I’ve felt this good in my skin.

At times, the app can seem redundant. The exercises can feel repetitive and the thought, “I could do this on my own,” might cross your mind. But will you? In my case, I never pushed myself the way my coach does, and I never knew about half the exercises she’s assigned. I do, however, know having that extra set of eyes on my workouts and exercise data is the reason I haven’t missed a workout since my membership began—and the price tag offers a good amount of motivation, too. As for redundancy, that’s an easy fix—a quick message asking your coach to switch up your routine will likely do the trick.

Fitness isn’t a one-size-fits-all journey, and Future understands that concept. The app serves all fitness levels and provides coaches for every personality type. Whether you’re looking to lose weight, build strength, tone muscle or simply add more activity to your day, Future gives you the opportunity to experience personal training without the budget-breaking cost or need for a gym membership, and with the same customized feel and outcome.