Aaptiv Review

About Aaptiv

So much of the fitness industry is focused on visuals. Mr. Olympia is all about how big you look and how defined your muscles appear and social media is flooded with six-pack abs and pulsating glutes. It’s enough to make someone pine for a little bit of privacy. You can see why strongmen competitors train in private.

Aaptiv, the #1 rated fitness app, flips this script by focusing on audio. Their app houses thousands of guided workouts set to music that’ll get you moving. There’s no need to sit in front of a screen trying to replicate the trainer as they’ll coach you through their pre-recorded workouts through your earbuds.

Aaptiv holds hundreds of thousands of positive customer reviews across multiple platforms, has more than 100k Instagram followers, and has been praised by massive publications like Cosmopolitan.

Before you rush off to start working out with them, read through my Aaptiv review first. You’ll learn all the essential pieces of info like its history, how workouts work, how much the app costs, who the app is for, and what customers think about it. After reading all that, you should have all the details you need to make an informed decision.

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Overview of Aaptiv

Aaptiv began in 2015 as a new take on personalized fitness. Personal trainers are expensive, and it’s annoying to stare at a screen while you follow along with a workout.

The company’s solution was simple: make audio workouts people can listen to as they exercise. Everyone is already playing music anyways, may as well load some instructions on top of those tunes, right?

Aaptiv earned a fair number of members in its early years with that idea. Their original marketing slogan was: “trainer in one ear, music in the other.”

Studies^[1] shows that listening to music while exercising cam improve your workouts, modulating heart rate, catecholamines and muscle activation, while also improving psychological and psycho-physiological responses to exercise.

They’ve held that slogan tight to their chest as their workouts have expanded. They now offer thousands of workouts in 13 different categories, which is more than nearly every other fitness app on the market.

These workouts vary in terms of time, intensity, and difficulty. You can do them at home, at the gym, or outside. Heck, there are even some meditation-based workouts to give your brain a bump, which can only benefit your Wordle scores.

As such, Aaptiv caters fitness to users rather than the other way around. There are just as many beginners using the app as there are seasoned veterans, and they can earn break as much of a sweat as they want.

Before I break a sweat getting into the details of my Aaptiv review, allow me to summarize the brand’s highlights.

Highlights

• Rated the #1 audio and visual fitness app
• 7-day free trial
• More than 200k members
• Over 2.5k workouts
• Workouts are updated weekly
• Workouts can be performed anywhere

Aaptiv Features Review

The app stresses fitness from any location, something that’s evident in the workouts and its functionality. Their workouts are designed for the gym, your home, and anywhere in between. Granted, there are some limitations (i.e. you can’t do a barbell workout from home if you don’t have a barbell), but that should be obvious to anyone reading my Aaptiv review. 

What may not be obvious is how Aaptiv workouts actually work. They are, for the most part, audio-only. You won’t need to follow a video in order to reap the rewards. These audio workouts guide users through the motions and tell them what to focus on with regard to their form.

Each one features a certified personal trainer encouraging you through the workout and giving you tips. For example, if you’re doing a running workout, then the Aaptiv trainer will remind you to run on the balls of your feet.

However, if you are newer to working out and need a video to reference some of the movements then Aaptiv have you covered. You can access video libraries for some workouts that require technical instruction.

Some of the workouts you can choose from include:

• Stretching
• Treadmill-based fitness
• Strength training
• Running
• Yoga
• Pilates
• Barre
• Meditation

They also have equipment-specific workouts for the elliptical and stair climber. With some of these workouts, you can choose full-body routines or ones that target specific body parts. The workouts vary in length as well, meaning that anyone can fit one into their schedule.

Speaking of fitting in a workout, you can also download workouts to keep them on hand if you’re in an area with minimal-to-no coverage.

The sheer quantity of workouts Aaptiv offers is astounding. At the time of writing my Aaptiv review, there are more than 2,500 guided workouts courtesy of the app’s in-house team of personal trainers.

And if you don’t want to do any of their workouts that week because they don’t appeal to you then no worries. There will be a fresh crop of workouts available in the next week for you to sink your teeth into.

Seeing as how Aaptiv is an audio-focused workout app, it’s vital that their audio is good. It doesn’t have to be (and probably shouldn’t be) ASMR-type content, but you’d want to at least enjoy what you’re listening to. Thankfully, that’s where Aaptiv thrives. I’m not just talking about the quality of their audio workouts.

Aaptiv allows you to select from 15 different genres of licensed music for your workouts. These genres include:

1. Pop
2. Hip-hop
3. Rock
4. Throwbacks
5. Ambient
6. Country

You can skip a song up to 6 times per hour so if there’s a song that’s really grating on your nerves then you can fly by it. Since these playlists are filled with licensed music (as in, they’re from real musicians and not stock music) you’re more likely to feel energized to push yourself during the workout rather than counting down the seconds until it ends.

This all sounds great, but it doesn’t amount to much if the app isn’t up to snuff. That’s why I’m going to look at how the app functions in the next section of my Aaptiv review.

Aaptiv App Review

Here’s what one user wrote about the Aaptiv App in comparison to another common fitness application, Peloton:

“I prefer to have the trainer talk through the moves (like in Aaptiv) and view the moves if needed so I don’t waste my time waiting for the trainer to do the exercises with me. So I went back to Aaptiv because I prefer their approach and interface that’s straightforward and uncomplicated.”

That sums up what the Aaptiv App does well. Its clean interface is catered to your goals, eliminating the clutter so you don’t feel overwhelmed by all the options. The app can also connect with Apple Health or Strava so that you can easily track your results over time.

Speaking of tracking results, the app has a community function that can keep you motivated. Users can post inspiring messages and speak directly with trainers. This function can deepen your investment in the app and further excite you to work out.

Speaking again of tracking results, Aaptiv can send you push notifications to remind you to keep improving your results and working towards your goals if you need extra encouragement. Fortunately, there’s always the option to shut off this feature if you don’t like it.

How Does Aaptiv Work

The process for becoming an Aaptiv athlete (if that’s how you’d like to refer to yourself) is simple. You inform Aaptiv what your long-term fitness goals are, selecting from options like:

• Losing fat
• Building muscle
• Running a race
• Reducing stress

I love these options because they touch on many of the underrated benefits of exercise. They allow you to train for a competition down the line or just to clear your head a bit. You can combine these goals too if you want to, let’s say, gain strength while losing fat.

After that, Aaptiv will recommend workouts based on your answers. You can select one by looking through the trainers, duration, intensity, and music genre.

The only thing left to do is to move your body! The workout begins as soon as you plug in your headphones, so there’s no sense in waiting around.

Aaptiv Cost

Formerly, Aaptiv had a 30-day free trial period, though that’s no longer the case. Now they only have a 7-day trial, which is obviously much shorter, but within that time you should be able to pick up whether you like the workouts or not.

The Aaptiv cost per year is $100 and the app automatically enrolls you in that once your trial period ends. You can turn this off beforehand but it’s not something that Aaptiv outright tells you, which is a bit sneaky but commonplace.

There’s also a monthly subscription fee that may be more attractive to some people reading my Aaptiv review. Monthly, you can pay $15 and receive the same benefits as the year-long subscription.

Who Is Aaptiv For? 

Anyone who wants to follow set workouts or gain inspiration should consider the Aaptiv app.

Aaptiv Reviews: What Do Customers Think?

Seeing as how I’ve already mentioned a couple of times that Aaptiv is the #1 rated fitness app, it’s worth seeing why that’s the case. I’ve looked through plenty of customer reviews to figure out what people loved and didn’t like about Aaptiv. Here are some average scores from a few websites.

• Apple App Store: 4.7/5 stars after 55.6k reviews
• Google Play Store: 4/5 stars after 10.8k reviews
• Trust Pilot: 2.9/5 stars from 957 reviews

During my research, I found an informative Aaptiv review from a woman on YouTube named KeeshNicoleTV. You might think that Aaptiv sponsored her to make the video, but she claims that isn’t the case.

I wanted to highlight her Aaptiv review because it highlighted the simplicity of the app. She says that the app’s audio-only workouts set to music were great for her because they broke up the monotony.

She’d used all the equipment and machines and was bored with the gym. As anyone who’s bounced around fitness programs knows, the one that you stick to is the one you enjoy the most.

She said that the simple act of giving her directives with music playing in the background was enough to get her moving. What kept her moving was the hands-off approach the audio trainers took to improving her performance. They offered tips and reminders (albeit pre-recorded) to help her improve her form over time. This was what inspired her to come back and improve her performance.

Another customer wrote: “This is the best app for audio coaching I have ever tried. You can have a trainer (in your ear) with you at the gym, on your runs, walks, or in your home. The coaching is fabulous and so motivating. Noticed the results very quickly! Thank you for bringing back the curated music or allowing us to use our own, great feature. Love this app!”

The audio-only structure of Aaptiv is adored by users. They enjoyed the freedom it gave them, allowing them to focus more on their workouts than on what was happening on a screen. To go deeper into that point I’ve included a customer review from the Google Play Store:

“Overall I like the app. I like the concept of an audio-only workout app (less time spent trying to find somewhere to put my phone or tablet where I can see it). That said some of the instructors have better cueing skills than others but overall the workouts are quite doable.”

Aaptiv was great at retaining customers. Many believed that this was due to the constant influx of new workouts and the app’s ability to provide workouts that suited users’ long-term goals. People felt like they were making progress rather than spinning their wheels in the gym.

One buyer wrote: “Have been a member since 2017 and use the app daily. It’s been an absolute savior during COVID lockdowns in isolation when gyms have been closed. Yes, the app does renew automatically. So if you don’t like it email the support to cancel. Or login to their website to cancel.”

The only complaint that cropped up in multiple Aaptiv reviews was that the company automatically signed customers up for a year-long membership if they didn’t cancel their free trial before it ended. There are no two ways around it, that’s a little shady. However, I found one humorous customer testimonial that painted that shady move in a good light:

“I accidentally spent 99 bucks for a year subscription. So I had to force myself to use it. I’ve been using it four days a week since October. It did change my outlook on the gym. I love it and it’s very challenging.”

Well, every challenge offers you an opportunity to look at things positively. Just like in the gym. This seems to be the only complaint about Aaptiv, with many customers loving the service and the motivation it has given them.

Is Aaptiv Legit?

As I said in the last section, it’s a bit sketchy that Aaptiv isn’t upfront about its autorenewal policy. Many companies and services work that way now, which is disappointing. However, if you know that’s the case beforehand, then you can remind yourself to cancel the membership before it auto-renews, removing this complaint altogether.

Is Aaptiv Worth It?

When you consider that a yearly Aaptiv membership costs as much as one month at some commercial gyms, then it becomes apparent that it’s worth it.

The fact that the app delivers workouts that are tailored to your long-term goals, rather than making you sort through everything yourself, is another reason why I’d recommend it over similar fitness apps.

Aaptiv Promotions & Discounts 

If you are a Weight Watchers member then you can receive a free 45-day trial of Aaptiv. You can access all of Aaptiv’s content through the WW app if you already have it on your phone.

How To Sign Up on Aaptiv

You can sign up for Aaptiv on their website, the iTunes app store, or through the Google Play Store.

FAQ

Who owns Aaptiv?

Pear Sports owns Aaptiv.

Is Asptiv eligible for HSA, FSA and health insurance?

It is not.

What is Aaptiv’s Privacy Policy?

You can manage which information Aaptiv tracks through the settings on your phone.

How to cancel Aaptiv?

You can cancel your subscription through the app or on the brand’s website. You must cancel it 48 hours before the auto-renew period begins otherwise you will be charged for the next period.

How to Contact Aaptiv

You can speak to the trainers about any Aaptiv workouts directly through the app. However, if you want to contact the company directly, you can fill out a customer contact form on their website.

Reference:

1. Ballmann, C.G. (2021). The Influence of Music Preference on Exercise Responses and Performance: A Review. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, [online] 6(2), p.33. doi:10.3390/jfmk6020033.

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