Fitbod review: who it's worth paying for

Fitbod against its closest alternatives

Pay for Fitbod if you want each session written for you; nothing else here plans around recovery the same way. If you'd rather run a fixed plan and have the weights worked out, Alpha Progression and RIRLift do that for less, and RIRLift does it free.

What decides whether Fitbod is worth it

• There's no free tier, only a trial

  The 7-day trial starts when you pick a monthly or yearly plan, and it turns into that plan unless you cancel. After it ends you can still see past workouts, but logging a new one needs a subscription: $15.99/month or $95.99/year in the US. Duo and Family plans cover 2 or up to 5 people, billed yearly.

• How a workout gets built

  You set a goal, experience level, equipment, split (full body, upper/lower or push/pull/legs) and a length. Fitbod fills the session with exercises for the freshest muscles, from a 0–100% recovery score per muscle that takes up to a week to refill, and normally skips a muscle at 0%. Runs, rides, rows, hikes and swims from Apple Health count against it; other sports you adjust by hand.

• Why the weight sometimes goes down

  Fitbod varies load and volume on purpose, so some days are higher reps at a lighter weight. A muscle that hasn't recovered, or a break from training, also lowers it. Every so often a lift gets a Max Effort Day: ramp-up sets, then two sets of as many reps as you can. You can hide one, not turn them off.

• Effort is one number per exercise

  Fitbod asks for reps in reserve once, after the last set, and suggests rating your hardest set. RIRLift asks after every set, so a set that felt easy can raise the next one in the same session.

• Variety, with some structure if you want it

  Exercises rotate by design, and you can turn variability up or down. Focus Exercises repeat on a four-week cycle, and you can build and save your own workouts. What you can't do is have Fitbod run a fixed program week after week.

• Where RIRLift is different

  RIRLift keeps the lifts you chose, the same ones each week, and works out every weight from the set you just logged. Tap any weight to see why. The rules.

  

Fitbod and the alternatives in two real weeks

A long run on Sunday, legs on Monday

You lift Monday, Wednesday and Friday and run 10 miles on Sunday with your Apple Watch. What does Monday look like?

App	What it does here	For this lifter
Fitbod	Reads the run from Apple Health and counts it against your leg recovery, so Monday's workout leans on fresher muscles. A soccer game it wouldn't read; you'd lower the scores yourself.	A good fit if you want the app to plan around your cardio.
Alpha Progression	Keeps the plan you or its generator made, and shows the weight and reps for each set from your past workouts.	Fits if you want a fixed plan, including on Android.
RIRLift	Monday stays leg day unless you move it. If the run left you flat, log what you actually did and the next set adjusts to it.	Fits if you'd rather decide the day yourself and have the weights follow.

Fitbod's recovery model earns its price when your week outside the gym changes a lot.

Trial over, one lower day for three weeks

Your Fitbod trial ended and you didn't subscribe. You picked a four-day upper/lower plan in RIRLift and have run the same lower day three times.

Exercise	You logged	Next session	Why
Belt Squat	Set 1: 180 lb × 10, 4 left	Set 2: 185 lb × 10	14 reps to failure against a planned 12, so 180 × 43 ÷ 41 ≈ 189 lb, but a set goes at most one step past your heaviest belt squat, 180, so 185 lb.
Stiff-Leg Deadlift	155 lb, 12 / 12 / 12 reps, 2 left	160 lb × 8	Every set at the top of 8–12: one 5 lb step, reps back to 8.
Dumbbell Split Squat	40 lb, 10 / 9 / 8 reps, 2 left	40 lb × 9	Not every set reached 12, so it holds. The weakest set got 8 against a target of 9, so the target stays at 9.

Three lifts, three different answers, each from that lift's own sets.

Plans for a lifter leaving generated workouts

• The best workout routine for the days you can train

  4 days a week: upper/lower

  The upper/lower split from the example, inside RIRLift's 4 free routines.

  4× a week · 68 sets a week · ~40 min

  Add to RIRLift

  Add to RIRLift

  Scan with your iPhone camera to add this plan.

  See the plan

• The best workout plan for muscle gain, for where you are now

  New to lifting, 3 gym days a week

  If Fitbod was your first app and you want the same lifts long enough to see them climb.

  3× a week · 44 sets a week · ~50 min

  Add to RIRLift

  Add to RIRLift

  Scan with your iPhone camera to add this plan.

  See the plan

Make it fit you

• Start fresh, not from zero

  RIRLift imports CSV exports from Hevy, Strong and FitNotes, not Fitbod. On a lift it hasn't seen, it gives a light starting weight and asks for one set of max reps, then works from that.

• Ask Coach for the plan Fitbod used to write

  Tell Coach your days, goal and equipment. The plan arrives as a preview, and nothing changes until you apply it.

• Set up your equipment

  Your equipment list keeps every exercise and swap inside what your gym has, the way Fitbod's equipment settings did.

• Pick Ask first if you want the final say

  With Ask first, next session's weights wait on the recap until you confirm them.

When a different app fits better

• You want a new workout written every session. Fitbod. That's what it does best, and the recovery model is the reason to pay.
• You're on Android or Wear OS. Fitbod, or Alpha Progression for a fixed plan. RIRLift is iPhone and Apple Watch only.
• You want a video for every exercise. Fitbod, with 1,000+ exercises on multi-angle video.
• You sync with Strava or Fitbit. Fitbod connects to both.

Questions

Read next

• Fitbod alternatives, free and paid

  Ranked, including free ones and the ones that also write your workouts.

• Fitbod vs Hevy

  Generated sessions against a free logbook.

• Gravl vs Fitbod

  The closest alternative that also writes your workouts.

• Fitbod vs Strong

  If you'd rather run your own program.

• FitnessAI vs Fitbod

  The other app that sets sets, reps and weight for you.

• SmartGym vs Fitbod

  If you want workouts written and run from the Watch.

• Fitbod on Apple Watch, and an app that runs on the Watch alone

  What the Watch app does without the iPhone.

• How RIRLift picks your next weight

  Where the 185 lb came from.

More ways lifters use RIRLift

• Fitbod alternatives, free and paid

  Seven apps that do Fitbod's job, ranked: who writes the workout, who sets the weight, what's free.

• Fitbod on Apple Watch, and an app that runs on the Watch alone

  Fitbod's Watch app needs the iPhone to start and swap. RIRLift starts, swaps and sets weights on the wrist.

• The AI workout planner that keeps planning after day one

  A plan built for your goal, gym and week, with every weight set from what you actually lifted.

Every lifter and goal