The Future of Fitness in Retirement: A Look at the Restart! App's Upcoming Features
Published by
Jeff White
on
It's almost time to restart your fitness journey with the Restart! app! We're so excited for the app to launch soon, we couldn't help but give a sneak peek at everything that's coming—both current and Phase II app features. Keep reading for a look at the future of fitness in our crystal ball 🔮
Our first phase is all about our initial target audience of our folks nearing or in retirement age who are looking for an easy, accessible way to get more active more regularly. We're starting out with minimal data collection to get you onboarded: name, birthday, and gender.
The app then walks you through your first workout to get a baseline measurement of your fitness level and adjusts subsequent workouts according to your in-app feedback on each exercise. Our exercise library has been curated by Ben Dreyer, our resident exercise expert, to hit all the Primal Pattern Movements (motions everyone needs to be able to do, e.g. sit, stand, push, pull, rotate, etc.).
Each exercise has an accompanying video and description to guide you through proper form, as if Ben were right there with you. Rate each exercise based on how easy or difficult it was for you to complete to help the app understand where we're starting from and create a personalized plan to progress you forward.
Each Restart! workout is designed to be completed anytime, anywhere, with no extra equipment required. All you need is your bodyweight and 20-30 minutes of free time.
Last but not least of the starting app features—an incredibly accessible price point. At $25 per quarter (three months), if you workout 4 times a week, that breaks down to about $1.98/workout. Compared to $120+ for a session with a personal trainer, or $25 for a drop-in Pilates or yoga class, the Restart! app is a fantastic value.
Looking Ahead
So what's coming in Phase II? Even more personalization, more exercises, and more use case possibilities.
Tell Us What Ails You
Our Phase II onboarding process will be robust, offering you the opportunity to give us important information about any physical ailments, chronic pain, or other limitations your Restart! training app should be aware of when tailoring your workouts. You'll also be shown a series of exercises to swipe through (kind of like a dating app!) to indicate which ones you feel like you could do, which ones you're not sure about, or which ones you know you hate (we won't force burpees on you, we promise). Love squats? Swipe right! Got a shoulder issue keeping you from doing push-ups right now? Swipe left!
How Ya Feelin'?
Building a new exercise routine is hard enough without giving yourself an impossible goal of perfection. There are going to be days that you're just not feeling it for whatever reason. Maybe you didn't get enough sleep, you've got a cold coming on, or you're adjusting to a new time zone while traveling. At the start of each Restart! workout, we're going to check in with you so we can adjust your workouts on those days. That way, you get an alternative way to stick to your new workout habit without making yourself miserable by pushing through the original routine, or feeling guilty by skipping it. The only thing that matters is that you show up; we'll take you as you are.
How Much Time Ya Got?
Similar to the "feeling it" check-in, you'll also get a chance to tell us how much time you have for a workout that day. If you've got 45 minutes, amazing! Only 20? No problem. Again, the important thing is to show up in the app each day to help create and maintain the habit.
Sanctioned/Forced Rest
We know there are some eager beavers out there who start a new program and go all in right away... only to lose steam or get disheartened when life gets in the way of their perfect starting streak. We want all our Reclaimers to know that rest days are a necessary part of any fitness routine! And the Restart! app Phase II will intelligently suggest those rest days after you've completed two or more workouts in a row. Take a walk around the block on those days for some active recovery, and come back to your Restart! workout the next day feeling refreshed and ready to go.
Expanded Accessibility Features
There's no shame in making the text on your phone so large they could read it from space 🚀 And you need to be able to read your Restart! exercise descriptions! So the in-app font will be adjustable according to your eyes' needs. Plus, we plan to add Spanish so you can workout en español.
More Workout Structures, Options, and Categories
Phase II will see even more refinement in our exercise progressions, with defined warmups, main sets, and cool downs and transitions in between clearly indicated during the workout. You'll get indications of when you're halfway through and encouragement to keep going, and congratulations on workout streaks to bolster your habit with some well-earned praise.
Plus, we'll have increasingly intelligent algorithms for exercise progression based on user feedback. Our goal is to ensure that we are always keeping our Reclaimers in mind and progressing them logically, without advancing anyone too fast or holding someone back.
You'll also have the ability to remove an exercise (even if you "swiped right" on it in your onboarding) if you no longer feel comfortable with it or just plain dislike it. Or if you love a certain type of exercise, like yoga- or Pilates-type movements, you'll be able to save sets of your favorites in your own exercise library.
Helpful Reminders
Sometimes you need a little help to remember to complete a new habit when you're just (re)starting. Phase II will offer notifications to prompt you when it's been a while since your last workout (while allowing for those rest days, of course!).
Rehab Collab
If you've ever been prescribed physical therapy to recover from an injury or medical procedure, you may be familiar with the printed sheets of exercises your therapist has handed you to do on your own at home. If those print-outs are currently gathering dust and coffee stains in a forgotten corner of your desk or kitchen counter, we can assure you you're not the only one. But what if instead of those sheets, your therapist could load up a workout routine in your Restart! app that you could follow instead, with video guidance and text descriptions, and an algorithm that can progress you as you recover? Pretty sure a sheet of paper can't do that 😉
Beyond Phase II
At Reclaim Lifestyles, our passion fuels big dreams and sky-high goals for the Restart! app. We're envisioning a social network component so you can share your progress and encouragement with your friends in the app. We know some folks like listening to music to pump them up during a workout, so we're looking at ways to integrate access to your music library via the Restart! app so you can start your exercises with your favorite tunes all from one place. We're also thinking deeply about how to account for the different challenges different communities face in maintaining their health, and considering ways to make Restart! as inclusive as possible no matter what your ethnicity, culture, career, or ability.
Get Ready to Restart!
Want to know when the Restart! app is available for download? Get ready to reclaim your health as one of our very first Reclaimers and sign up for notifications here: