From sign-up to muscle-up, I share my experience with this popular calisthenics training app, including pros and cons.
We may earn a small commission on some links at no extra cost to you. Learn more.
Calisthenics is having its moment – with data showing a huge surge in popularity since the pandemic.
If you’re one of those bodyweight warriors looking to master new calisthenics movements, it’s more than likely you might turn to an app to help provide the structure, guidance, and support to enhance your workouts.
In this review, I share my experience with one of the most popular calisthenics apps in the app stores.
In a hurry? Here’s the bottom line… The Movement Athlete is a fun app that uses gamification and linear progression to boost motivation and keep you engaged. It guides you through the journey of calisthenics and creates custom workouts based on your current skill level.
If this sounds like the type of app you’re looking for, The Movement Athlete is also well priced for the value you get.
THE MOVEMENT ATHLETE
Progressive calisthenics training, gamified app experience, unlock new skills, customized training plan to suit your level.
TMA Scorecard
- Ease of Use – 4.5/5
- Exercise/Workout Quality – 4.5/5
- Performance Tracking – 5/5
- Technical/Support – 4.5/5
- Price – 4.5/5
- Overall Rating – 4.7/5
Learn more about our review scorecards as part of our editorial review guidelines.
The Movement Athlete – TL;DR
- Pros – Gamified experience, customized training plans, designed specifically for calisthenics.
- Cons – Video quality is average, no audio cues.
- Best For – Those looking to progress with calisthenics.
- Less Ideal For – Those who like lifting weights or who like doing the same exercises each workout.
Why Trust This Review? Methodology Explained
What I Liked About The Movement Athlete
Easy-To-Follow Workouts
The workouts are easy to follow, with the app displaying what you need to do.
It also shows a small preview of the next exercise, helping you prepare for what’s to come.
Gamification
Ultimately, this is where The Movement Athlete really excels.
The app is filled with features that make it feel like you’re progressing through a video game.
This helps boost motivation and keep you engaged.
Track Progress
The Movement Athlete is a great app for tracking your progress and understanding where you are within your calisthenics journey.
It uses simple graphics and calculations to help you understand when you are ready to progress to the next movement or when you’re better off sticking to the exercise you’re currently working on.
My only issue with the tracking is that it often defaults to say that your goal is 3×30 reps of an exercise… which I find quite high – 15/20 reps is more than enough to suggest you’ve mastered a movement in my opinion.
Some Flexibility in Unlocking Exercises
As I previously mentioned, some of the recommended targets for mastering a skill include quite a high number of repetitions – however, you can still manually mark it as complete.
This flexibility means you can somewhat tailor the app experience to suit your individual preferences.
Unlock Skills and Movements
The need to unlock skills and movements definitely boosts engagement compared to just displaying a big list of exercises, like most fitness apps do.
I found myself more determined to work through the app to get specific skills unlocked.
Preview Movements and Skills
The Movement Athlete does a great job allowing you to see where you currently sit within your overall journey.
This means you can practice movements that you haven’t unlocked yet and make sure you’re progressing.
Customize Workout Settings
The Movement Athlete offers a lot of customization including workout settings.
During the onboarding, I answered a few basic questions (like most fitness apps do these days) and this will naturally customize workout recommendations.
On-Demand Workouts
As well as your custom training plan and working through the calisthenics skills, you can also follow on-demand workouts.
I really wasn’t expecting to have on-demand workouts included so that’s a really useful feature if you want more workouts to try.
The workout preview page includes all the useful info you need to know, helping you decide if it’s suited to your goals and fitness level.
THE MOVEMENT ATHLETE
Progressive calisthenics training, gamified app experience, unlock new skills, customized training plan to suit your level.
Things to Consider
Upper Body Dominant
Something to consider with most calisthenics programs and training is that they tends to be quite upper body dominant.
There are simply more ways to engage your upper body by doing these sorts of bodyweight exercises.
As a result, I’d recommend trying to master a lot of the lower body movements, so you’ve got more options to train your glutes, hamstrings and quads.
Video Quality
The video quality is a bit lower than I would have liked. The background is quite dark, and I think The Movement Athlete could have done a better job at filming different angles and really demonstrating how to do each exercise with perfect form.
Interestingly, they’ve uploaded some great exercise demonstrations to Instagram recently, so maybe the app will get some updated exercise demonstrations soon.
No Audio
Similarly, the exercise demonstrations don’t include any audio cues.
I find audio cues and explanations can be really useful for movements you’re not familiar with.
Bottom Line
Ultimately, I think The Movement Athlete is a fun app that is perfectly positioned to help you learn and improve calisthenics.
The progress tracking features and gamification make it quite a unique fitness app and different from most I’ve tried before.
THE MOVEMENT ATHLETE
Progressive calisthenics training, gamified app experience, unlock new skills, customized training plan to suit your level.
Related Articles