One of the best ways to stay motivated, remain consistent, and have fun with fitness is to sweat it out with a buddy or loved one.  Along with keeping you accountable, working out with a partner can actually help you enjoy exercise more, according to one study published in the British Journal of Health Psychology. As for couples who work out at home together, a 2021 study found that people who exercised with their romantic partners felt more satisfied with their workouts and their relationships. 

Partner workouts on Tonal make it easy to work out side-by-side with a friend or family member and get stronger together. Since one membership gives you unlimited accounts, you’ll each be able to get personalized weight recommendations and track your progress.

How to Start a Partner Workout

Training partners and accountability buddies can be key to pushing past plateaus or achieving your next goal. From strength training and HIIT to recovery and mobility, almost any Tonal workout can be done as a partner workout (with the exception of your initial strength assessment and workouts streaming live). Once you pick the session you want to do together, it’s easy to get set up. 

1. Select a workout on Tonal. On the bottom left of your screen, you’ll see an option to select Partner if that workout is available as a partner workout.

2. Sign in your workout buddy. If they don’t have a Tonal account, they’ll be prompted to create one.

3. You’ll start with a warmup. After the first person completes the first lifting set, we’ll prompt the next person. While you wait for your turn, cheer each other on, rest, or do some active recovery. You’ll perform off-Tonal moves at the same time. 

Note: Because partner workouts include time for both of you to do all the sets, they will take longer than the stated completion time on Tonal. This will vary based on the number of on- and off-Tonal moves, but members say to expect a workout to last 1.5 times longer than the allotted time. Once you start the session, the time remaining will reflect an estimate of the length of the workout with both partners.

Benefits of Partner Workouts on Tonal

Convenience

When you’re working out at the gym with a friend or family member of a different ability level, you’ll spend a lot of time re-racking a barbell or grabbing multiple dumbbells to accommodate both of your needs. During Tonal’s partner workouts, you’ll each get personalized weight recommendations for every exercise, all on one piece of equipment. Digital weight automatically adjusts from person to person, so there’s no need to waste time changing weights.

John Wikman, a Tonal member from Indianapolis, says adaptive digital weight is a “great equalizer” for doing partner workouts with his wife Kelly. “We can both do the exact same workout, even at the same time, and know that we’re getting the same [level of] intensity,” he says. 

Amanda Gee, of Omaha, Nebraska, agrees that not struggling to swap weights between sets makes Tonal partner workouts a “game changer” for her and her husband John. “It takes so much less time, effort and frustration,” she says, compared to a similar workout with traditional equipment. 

Variety

Tonal offers workouts beyond strength training—including high-intensity interval training, cardio, mobility, and recovery workouts—and many of these can also be performed as partner workouts. If you’re stuck in a rut of doing the same type of exercise, having a partner who usually does a different modality can encourage you to try something new or push you harder than you do on your own. 

For example, Faith West, a Tonal member from Saratoga Springs, Utah, convinced her husband Wesley to try a mobility workout with her. He was hesitant at first, but now he’s hooked, and the couple does a session together every night. 

“He will say ‘not everyone does [mobility] because it doesn’t seem important, but it’s the most important part of fitness,’” says West. “Every time he says it, I chuckle and say ‘you were that person.’”

Individual Progress Tracking

Even though you’re doing the workout together, you’ll still get all your individual metrics so you can track your progress and your Strength Score. Your stats, including total volume lifted and any new PRs, will be saved to your own Tonal profile. 

A bit of healthy competition with your partner can even motivate you to work harder. Cindy Redman of Yucca Valley, California, loves doing partner strength workouts with her husband Mike and jokes, “I like when I get more PRs than him and my Strength Score goes up more points than his.” 

Houston-based pals Jhon Cuthbertson and Josh Gill use metrics in their partner workouts to spark a light-hearted battle over who can lift more. In one workout, Cuthbertson saw Gill going for additional reps in each set, so she decided to add a few of his own. “This created this competition dynamic, and I think we ended up both lifting over 40,000 pounds that day,” he says. “At the end, we couldn’t get off the ground laughing.”

Try These Partner Workouts

If you’re looking for some fun partner workouts and programs to try, check out below that Tonal members love doing together.

20-in-20: Ignite – Coach Tony Horton
Jonathan Borders and his wife Jami, Tonal members from Springboro, Ohio, are currently working through this four-week program, the latest of several they’ve completed together. Jonathan likes how the workouts are still relatively quick even with the additional time for two partners. 

Go Big or Go Home 3- Coach Jackson Bloore
Since the workouts in this muscle-building program emphasize heavy lifting with long rest periods in between, Wikman says they’re a great option for partner workouts. “It’s easier to take the rest time while the other [partner] is doing the lift,” he adds. 

Quick Fit: Back and Biceps – Coach Tim Landicho
Working through high-volume sets of upper-body pulling exercises is more fun when you have a partner cheering you along. This short workout is popular among members looking to build strength and improve their posture with a pal. 

Push-Pull: Max Variety – Coach Joe Rodonis
With a mix of rep ranges and a variety of different exercises, this program offers something for partners who love building strength and those who want to work on their endurance at the same time.

How to See Your Results After Partner Workouts

You’ll see a workout summary after you and your partner finish the session, just like in an individual workout. Tap your name at the top of the screen to toggle back and forth between your results. You can also access the workout summary from your partner workout in the activity tab of your Tonal mobile app profile.

Partner workouts aren’t the only way to make fitness social on Tonal. Try a live workout to get shout-outs from your coach and cheer on fellow members in real-time, or organize a virtual group workout to exercise with your friends from the comfort of home.

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Working out with others—whether IRL or virtually—is not only more fun, but it’s also proven to help you feel more motivated and supported than exercising alone. 

That’s why Tonal makes it easy to share your passion for fitness with the new Tonal Referral Program, which rewards both you and the friends and family you refer. For each person who purchases a Tonal, you’ll earn one month of free membership. Your referral will receive a $125 discount off their Tonal trainer purchase. It’s a win-win for everyone. 

Plus, sharing the magic of Tonal is easier than ever with the new Tonal home demo feature.

Here’s how to participate in the referral program and welcome your friends and family to the Tonal community: 

How to Make a Referral 

1. Open the Tonal mobile app on iOS or Android.
2. Go to Settings.
3. Tap Refer Tonal > Referral Program.
4. If you prefer to use a browser, visit this page to generate your referral link. 
5. Share your unique referral link with your friends and family. 
6. You may also copy your referral link and share it when ready.

Every time one of your referrals purchases Tonal, you’ll earn one month of free Tonal membership 31 days after the installation of your referral’s Tonal. You’ll receive an email with instructions on how to redeem your reward. Your referral will receive a $125 discount code for their Tonal trainer purchase. You can earn an additional one month free for each referral, up to 10 per calendar year. 

Learn more about our referral program here and get the full terms and conditions.

John Sill is just one member who’s taken advantage of the Tonal referral program to help his friends and family get fit.

An attorney from Wichita, Kansas, Sill originally bought his Tonal to regain the fitness he’d lost after having three children and falling out of his gym routine. 

“Once you get out of it, it’s hard to get back into it,” said Sill in an interview with Tonal. “Right after my daughter turned 5, she said ‘Dad, you don’t have big muscles.’That stung—and motivated me to get back into it.” 

Sill and his wife chose Tonal because they wanted the convenience of working out from home without commuting to the gym or finding childcare. He was already noticing improvements in his strength when he was encouraged to get into bodybuilding. This summer, Sill entered his first competition and won. 

Excited about his victory, Sill posted before-and-after photos on social media to show off his progress. His comments flooded with praise—and lots of questions about how he made his transformation. Everyone was impressed that he did all his strength training on Tonal, and several are now Tonal members thanks to Sill’s referral. 

Of course, Tonal isn’t just for aspiring bodybuilders: Sill’s aunt and uncle were so inspired by their nephew that they bought a Tonal of their own simply to improve their health and get in better shape. 

“They’re not doing bodybuilding,” Sill explained. “They’re retired individuals in their 60s who just want to work out.” Sill loves how Tonal is flexible enough to support all different fitness goals. 

Whether you know someone who loves yoga and Pilates, is looking to build muscle, or wants to improve their golf game, Tonal has something for everyone. 

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One of the most fulfilling parts of gaining strength is tracking your progress. Whether it’s your squat PR or body composition measurements seeing those data points improve is proof that your hard work is paying off. It’s not surprising then, that some athletes love tracking as many metrics as possible.

When you lift on Tonal, one metric you’ll see after every workout is your time under tension. It’s likely not something you’re used to measuring on your own, but this number can actually tell you a lot about your workout. Here’s how you can interpret your time under tension and use it to evaluate your progress and reach your goals. 

What Does Time Under Tension Mean?

Time under tension is the portion of your workout during which your muscles are under load (or resistance). If you’re doing a bench press set with a barbell, it would be measured from when you start your first rep to when you finish your last rep. On Tonal, time under tension (for each set) is measured from the time you turn the weight on to the second you turn it off. Add up the cumulative time for all the sets in your workout, and you’ve got your total time under tension. 

It doesn’t include rest periods between sets or the time you spend off-Tonal warming up and cooling down. Warm-up sets at a reduced weight on Tonal do count toward your total. That’s why you might finish a 45-minute workout and see you’ve only spent 12 minutes under tension. 

That doesn’t mean the rest of your workout time isn’t productive. Jenna Moore, a certified strength and conditioning coach and Programming Specialist at Tonal, explains that, especially during workouts focused on building strength, long rest periods are necessary to ensure you’ll be able to lift as heavy as possible during your sets. 

“Whenever we have a workout where we have longer rest periods, you’re going to have less time under tension relative to the total workout time,” she says. “It’s okay to only have eight minutes of time under tension in a 60-minute workout when you’re doing something that’s strength-based.” 

You can expect your time under tension to vary based on the type of workout you’re doing and your goals. Moore explains that in hypertrophy workouts (where the emphasis is on increasing muscle mass), it’s typically closer to 25 to 30 percent of total workout time. In a high-intensity session that’s all about endurance-based work capacity, she says it’s not uncommon to see time under tension be 50 percent or more of total workout time. 

Does Time Under Tension Build Muscle?

Just as your weight on the scale or Strength Score is only one data point in evaluating your overall health and fitness, time under tension is most useful when considered in the context of the rest of your workout. 

Instead of focusing on increasing this number on its own (in a 2022 study, varying time under tension had no effect on muscle size), concentrate on other variables in your workout, including volume, form, and work capacity, that will lead to a higher time under tension. 

Time Under Tension and Volume

When it comes to hypertrophy, volume increases have consistently been shown to improve muscle size and mass—and if you’re gradually raising your workout volume, your time under tension will reflect that. 

“If you lift with the same speed but increase the amount of volume that you do—the number of sets or the number of reps—you will increase your time under tension,” says Troy Taylor, Senior Director of Performance at Tonal.

As this review of studies has shown, performing 10 sets or more for a muscle group each week is optimal for hypertrophy. If you’re currently doing fewer sets per muscle group and have a goal to work up to that higher range, you’ll naturally see an increase in your weekly time under tension as you build volume. While this number is increasing, it’s really the higher volume that’s going to affect your gains. 

If you tried lifting slower to increase your time under tension, Taylor explains you’d fatigue faster and therefore end up lifting less volume even if your time under tension increased. As long as you’re lifting at a controlled tempo and not so fast that you’re using momentum or jerking the weight around, Taylor says you’re still creating mechanical tension within the muscle.

Time under tension can also be a measure of progressive overload (the gradual increase in stress on the body in the form of resistance, volume, intensity, or frequency) and will rise as your overall volume builds. “You want to watch that number slowly increase as you are progressing [and] overloading the muscles systematically from workout to workout and week to week,” says Moore.

Time Under Tension and Form 

Lifting with proper form in your full range of motion will also naturally increase time under tension. “You’re getting more time under tension through the fullest range of motion, which is exposing those muscles to the most stress possible,” says Christian Hartford, Senior Performance Manager of Applied Sports Science at Tonal. “It’s less about the time and more about the mechanical stress and the actual load that you’re putting onto the body.” 

On Tonal, features such as Form Feedback and Smart View evaluate your form in real-time during your workouts and give you tips on how to improve. Additionally, if you want to increase your range of motion, try mobility sessions that are geared toward helping you move better in all your lifts. 

“It’s not the slower, the better,” says Hartford. “It’s the more controlled, the better. More controlled, full range of motion reps, with better muscular contraction, will enhance time under tension, therefore enhancing mechanical stress and muscular strength development.” 

Zeroing in on form ensures you won’t be repping it out too fast or too slow, but rather at just the right tempo to challenge your muscles appropriately.

Time Under Tension and Work Capacity 

Since time under tension measures the density of your workout (how much work you do in a set period of time), it may be a more useful metric if your goal is to improve fitness or lose fat. “If you’re not decreasing volume, but you’re increasing time under tension, then you’ll get more work in a lesser period of time so you can increase efficiency,” says Taylor. On Tonal, you’re more likely to see higher time under tension readings with Get Lean programs and workouts, according to Wilking 

This efficiency, or increased work capacity, may also help your strength gains. As data on Tonal members has shown, spending more time lifting within a workout is linked to greater strength improvements. Improving your work capacity is a sure sign you’re getting fitter and gaining muscular endurance.  “People who generally pack in a lot of work, with appropriate but not excessive recovery, get stronger than people who don’t pack in a lot of work,” says Taylor.

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You can read all about Tonal and its features, but to really feel what it’s like to lift adaptive digital weight in a workout personalized just for you, you need to experience it for yourself. 

That’s why Tonal offers interactive demo sessions led by Tonal experts at showrooms and Nordstrom stores across the country. At all of these locations, you can try out Tonal, get all your questions answered, and even complete a short workout session during your demo. 

You can find Tonal showrooms in Short Hills, New Jersey; Tysons Corner, Virginia; Los Angeles; Dallas; and, most recently, Boston Seaport. Additionally, Tonal is available to try at Nordstrom stores in cities including San Diego, Denver, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Austin, and Seattle.

When people try Tonal (even professional athletes), they are often surprised by how smooth the adaptive digital weight feels, says Tonal expert Val Zulali, who manages the Tonal showroom in Short Hills, New Jersey, and has been leading demos since 2019. 

“People see our commercials and our amazing partnerships, but they truly want to see how Tonal works and feels,” adds Zulali “It’s great to walk them through how the arms move, how the Smart Accessories work, how easy it is to navigate through our content, and how Tonal’s founder Aly Orady really was able to bring the whole gym to your wall.”

There’s one moment in every Tonal demo that Zulali always looks forward to: “It’s the look of shock and excitement when people finish their last rep and can turn the weight off with a click of a button on the Smart Handles,” she explains. “It happens in almost every demo, and it’s always that ‘wow’ factor when they see how it’s possible that we can literally turn the weight off.

Enter your zip code here to find your nearest location and book a Tonal demo.

Here’s What to Expect When You Book a Tonal Demo

Ready to give Tonal a try? Here are the answers to a few frequently asked questions about the demo experience. 

How does a Tonal demo work?

Once you book a demo, you will receive a confirmation email from your local Tonal expert with important details about your demo. They will ask you a few questions to get to know you better and make sure you get the most out of your visit.

Once I arrive for a demo, what happens?

Each demo is unique and tailored to your specific needs and questions. The Tonal expert will show you how to adjust the arms, guide you through different movements, show you the variety of content, and more. You can even get set up to do your strength assessment, which will establish your starting weights on Tonal. If you’re trying out Tonal at a Nordstrom location, you’ll first locate Tonal’s shop-in-shop experience in either the Women’s or Men’s active department and be greeted by a Tonal expert. 

Who will lead me through the demo?

A Tonal expert will guide you through every step of the demo—all you have to do is show up.

What if I’m new to strength training? Will I be completely lost in the Tonal demo?

Many of our members are new to strength training, and Tonal makes it easy to get started. Your local Tonal expert will walk you through the basics from moving the arms to navigating through the workouts and programs. By the end of the demo, you‘ll have a solid understanding of Tonal regardless of your fitness level or prior knowledge.

Will I be able to do a workout on Tonal during the demo?

Absolutely! If you prefer to experience a full Tonal workout, your Tonal expert will take you through your strength assessment to get you set up, and from there, you will be able to choose a short workout to try. We also invite folks to come back a second time to do a full workout after their initial demo if preferred. 

If I like the Tonal experience, can I purchase one onsite?

Yes, you can purchase a Tonal onsite at a showroom or Nordstrom store. Your Tonal expert will walk you through the ordering process and provide you with all the information you need to complete the purchase.

What are my options if I want to try Tonal but can’t do an onsite demo?

If you don’t live near a Tonal showroom or Nordstrom location, you can book a free virtual demo in which a Tonal expert will give you a personalized one-on-one demo via video call. You’ll get a chance to ask all of your questions and see Tonal in action without leaving home. Tonal experts are prepared to make sure you get the most out of your virtual experience, whether that’s showing you the variety of content offered or showcases moves you’re interested in exploring. 

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Active recovery is an essential part of any effective training program. That’s why Tonal offers Active Recovery features that will help you maintain your momentum (and your Strength Score) without overtraining. “The goal is to shift your mindset to ‘What can I do to continue to improve even if I’m fatigued?’” says Christian Hartford, Senior Performance Manager of Applied Sports Science at Tonal. “And chances are, you’re going to come out of an active recovery workout feeling better.”

What Is Active Recovery?

Active recovery is defined as low-intensity exercise following a more strenuous effort. If you’re normally lifting heavy weights, an active recovery workout might involve bodyweight exercises or lifting at a reduced weight. 

What Are the Benefits of Active Recovery?

Gentle movement promotes blood flow to sore muscles, which aids in lymphatic drainage of excess inflammatory byproducts of exercise. Reducing inflammation alleviates sore and tight muscles and primes them for your next big effort. That means more progress, gains, and Power PRs in the long run.

Why Is Active Recovery Better than Passive Recovery?

There’s nothing wrong with taking a complete break from exercise on occasion. For example, if you’re recovering from a bone, muscle, or joint injury or an illness (like Covid-19), your body will likely benefit most from taking time to heal. In those cases, exercising too soon could actually set you back, so don’t feel guilty about spending more time on the couch. 

However, if you’re otherwise healthy but just feeling a little post-exercise soreness, active recovery is your best bet for loosening up and getting ready to crush your next workout. By strategically using light movement instead of complete rest on recovery days, you can bounce back from heavy training bouts stronger than before. 

3 Ways to Incorporate Active Recovery on Tonal

1. Do the Same Workout With Less Weight

Skipping a sweat session when you feel sore or fatigued might actually stall your progress. Now instead of opting out, you can toggle on the Recovery Weight feature before any Guided or Custom workout to reduce the weight to around 50 to 60 percent of your one-rep max for all exercises.

This research-backed recommendation is consistent with what professional and collegiate sport coaches use for deload training, a common strength and conditioning practice during which you intentionally reduce the overall load placed on your body. The best part? Using the Recovery Weight feature won’t negatively impact your Strength Score.

When you should use this feature depends on how ready you are for your workout, both physically and mentally. A lighter load workout is ideal to do between heavy-load programs, if you didn’t sleep well, or if you’re feeling really stressed or sore. But resist the urge to toggle it on for every workout. Your body adapts to the stress you put on it, so active recovery is the perfect complement to those challenging muscle-building workouts.

2. Take Coach-led Active Recovery Workouts

If you really want to focus on movement quality over quantity, check out Active Recovery classes, specially programmed with recovery moves. These classes give you the ability to work out with your favorite Tonal coaches for a lighter workout instead of taking a rest day. “They’ll feel a little less demanding with a slower pace and a reduced intensity so you can fit in a workout even when you’re not feeling 100 percent,” explains John Christie, Director of Curriculum at Tonal.   

You can expect shorter warmups so that you can jump right into a rejuvenating workout without the normal prep needed before an intense session. The lifts in each Recovery Workout class will automatically be set to around 50 to 60 percent of your one-rep max.

These workouts also help you improve your range of motion with added mobility and stability, which research shows offer major boons for strength over time.

Active Recovery workouts are a great opportunity to focus on improving movement patterns and movement quality by encouraging muscle memory for when you are pushing heavier weight. Form Feedback and Smart View cues are your secret weapon here.

Try one of these active recovery workouts the next time you’re feeling sore:

Lower-Body Recovery – Coach Tim Landicho

Squats and lunges might sound like the last thing you want to do if you’re sore from heavy lower-body lifting, but in this workout, you’ll do all the exercises with reduced resistance or just your body weight to help loosen up achy muscles. You’ll also practice deep stretches to aid in recovering tired muscles.

Just Enough Active Recovery – Coach Ash Wilking

Ideal for the day after a tough full-body workout, this session includes squatting, hinging, pushing, and pulling movements, all done at a reduced weight. You’ll finish feeling refreshed and limber.

Full-Body Deload – Coach Kristina Centenari

Restore blood flow to stiff muscles with a combination of on-Tonal moves and off-Tonal stretches in this full-body recovery session. Putting in the work at a lower intensity will prep you for your next challenging workout.

3. Tailor Your Workouts Based on Muscle Readiness

You’ll now find your muscle readiness avatar showing you which muscle groups are fresh, recovering, and fatigued based on your recent workouts in more places. In addition to the filter on the Explore page, you can now view your avatar before you start a workout and on the home screen of the mobile app.

“Muscle Readiness is a useful tool that objectively illustrates how a Tonal athlete might feel on any given day,” says Hartford. “You may wake up and feel your quads are super sore from a workout a day or two days before that. With Muscle Readiness, you can confirm those feelings with the objective visual based on how much you’ve been loading that muscle group.” 

The Muscle Readiness feature is based on your total volume of load on that muscle group over the course of the previous four days. For example, if you worked out three times in the past four days and two of those workouts included lower body with emphasis on the quads, you’ll see your avatar’s quads highlighted in light blue (still recovering) or red (fatigued) on the home screen.

A muscle group is considered “fresh” when you’ve completed approximately five sets or less, and “recovering” when you perform between five to 10 sets of exercises in the last four days. Once you’ve hit more than 10 sets for a muscle group, the muscle group goes into the fatigued zone indicating more recovery is needed. 

You can use Muscle Readiness as a guide: Either work on a different muscle group or, if you still want to hit that muscle group, take it easier with the Recovery Weight toggle or opt for an Active Recovery class. Once the muscle group is fresh again, it’s time to get back to it. While Muscle Readiness gives you a snapshot of the past four days, research shows you should complete 10 to 20 sets per week per muscle group to build muscle and achieve strength goals.

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To understand the unique experience of lifting digital weight, sometimes you have to feel it to believe it. That’s why describing your experience only gives friends and family part of the picture. Tonal’s new demo feature makes it fun and easy to share the experience of working out on Tonal in as little as one minute. If you’re hosting guests, they can try Tonal in the time between dinner and dessert, or even during a commercial break. 

Accessible right from the log-in screen on your Tonal, the new demo feature offers two ways to try Tonal: a one-minute demonstration with a single move, and a taste of a Tonal workout with three moves. The on-screen guidance will lead your friend through the demo, so you won’t have to do any backseat driving, but will have plenty of time to share your own experience. 

In the single-move demonstration, your guest will do one exercise, and Tonal will automatically calibrate the resistance to their ability level, just like in your initial strength assessment. This lets someone who’s new to Tonal feel how the weight adjusts in real-time—and see how easy it is to have Tonal dial in the appropriate resistance so they never have to guess what weights to use. 

If you have more time to show off Tonal, try the longer demonstration. Your friend will choose one of three mini-workouts (an upper-, lower-, or full-body session) and do three different exercises in 5 to 10 minutes. The first move serves as a strength assessment, with the weight adjusting in real-time, and the next two moves use recommended weights based on that short assessment. They’ll be able to see how Tonal uses personalized weight recommendations for a customized workout experience. 

Even your most dedicated gym-going friends will be surprised by the unique feel of lifting digital weight on Tonal, and they’ll love how each workout is totally personalized. 

After either demo, they’ll view a mini workout summary and get to see their total volume lifted, time under tension, and how much their strength could improve from working out on Tonal. It’s just a preview of all the progress-tracking metrics you know and love on Tonal. 

Now, if your friends and family are curious why you’re so enthusiastic about Tonal, you can let them see for themselves what all the hype is about. With the home demo feature, it’ll be easy for your loved ones to understand how Tonal can help them crush their own goals.

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It’s easy to kick off the new year with healthy habits. The hard part is sticking with those habits all year long. 

This January, jumpstart your fitness journey with Tonal’s Four Week Fast Track: Fresh Sets challenge. You’ll start the year strong and establish exercise and nutrition strategies that’ll see you through the rest of 2023—and beyond. 

The month-long challenge combines a four-week, on-demand Tonal program (choose from beginner or intermediate/advanced tracks) with nutrition tips, healthy meal prep recipes, and guidance on how to set goals, establish habits, and create lasting change. 

Doing the same boring workout and eating the same bland meals every day is a surefire way to burn out and give up too soon. That’s why this year’s challenge is all about variety. 

You’ll mix it up and improve your overall fitness with fun and engaging workouts led by six different coaches. The programming alternates weekly between a focus on hypertrophy and endurance so you can build muscle and shed fat. In between program days, you’ll have the option to do active recovery and mobility sessions so you can feel and perform your best. By the end of the month, you’ll be stronger, more powerful, and ready for your next challenge. 

Each week, you’ll also get delicious meal prep recipes that allow you to cook one big batch of food and remix it multiple ways, so you can enjoy fresh meals while minimizing prep time. These easy recipes align with the workout focus of each week and are sure to become part of your regular rotation.

And you won’t be alone in the journey: Tonal’s expert coaches will guide you through the month in the Official Tonal Community, where you’ll find support and motivation from other members taking on the challenge.

Keep an eye on your inbox for weekly emails with more info, and check back here where we’ll be rolling out new recipes and helpful tips each week. 

Get excited and get ready for fresh workouts and real results.

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If you use a digital or paper calendar for your work responsibilities or social events, you know that it’s easier to follow through with your plans if you schedule them in advance. 

You can do the same thing with your fitness routine. Exercise is much more likely to slip through the cracks on a busy day if you only have the vague idea of “working out” at some point. Instead, planning for a specific workout at a specific time can help you keep that commitment. 

“When something is a standard scheduled event, it’s a lot easier to build that habit and make it part of your life,” says Christian Hartford, Senior Performance Manager of Applied Sports Science at Tonal. 

Tonal now allows you to schedule your programs and workouts in advance, view your workouts for the upcoming week, and receive notifications on the mobile app when you have a session planned that day. Here’s how to plan your routine on Tonal and why taking advantage of these new features will set you up for success.

How to Plan Your Workouts on Tonal

With the Tonal mobile app, you can now plan your workouts weeks in advance. When you join a program, Tonal will give you the option to select the recommended workout schedule  (for example, Monday/Wednesday/Friday for a three-days-per-week program) or choose the days that work best for you. Those program workouts will then be automatically added to your calendar. 

If you see a standalone workout you want to do, simply tap the “+” sign in the top right corner and you’ll be able to choose a day to schedule that workout. You can also schedule custom workouts. Simply search for the name of your custom workout in the Explore tab on the mobile app or filter workouts by Type->Custom Workouts. Once you’ve selected your custom workout, tap the “+” sign to schedule.

Now, when you open the app or turn on your trainer, you’ll see the workout you have scheduled for that day. If there’s no workout scheduled, Tonal will suggest one that complements your current program or, if you’re not enrolled in a program, a workout that fits your goal and level. Sign up for push notifications in the app, and you’ll get a daily reminder whenever you have a workout planned.

Benefits of Planning Your Fitness Routine

Train Smarter

Whether you prefer programs or standalone workouts on Tonal, planning your sessions in advance helps ensure your weekly routine is balanced and effective. 

Each program on Tonal has a recommended schedule, or the days of the week you should complete each workout. “We’re setting the routine to make sure that our training isn’t random. It’s not done on a random cadence, it’s done on a set cadence that gets you closer to your goal every day,” says Hartford.  

Tonal’s coaches and programming experts set these schedules to give your body the right amount of recovery in between workouts and make sure you’re lifting an appropriate volume each week. When you join a program on the app, you’ll see the suggested schedule. If those days don’t work for you, you can also modify the schedule at that time. You can also change the schedule at any time during your program. From the program summary screen on the app, tap the “…” in the upper right-hand corner and select “Program Schedule.” 

If you choose a new one-off workout each day, you might pick a jumping-heavy cardio session, forgetting that you just did a heavy leg workout yesterday. By planning your workouts in advance, you can take the time to preview your routine and make sure you’re balancing different muscle groups, different modalities, and allowing your muscles time to rest in-between workouts.

Establish Habits and Improve Consistency

Motivation comes up a lot when we talk about fitness—how it’s important to “know your why” and how to spark your enthusiasm by working out with a friend or trying a new class—but we can’t always rely on motivation to keep going. That’s why establishing good habits is essential. 

Think about brushing your teeth in the morning. You probably don’t jump out of bed excited and motivated to pick up your toothbrush—you do it because it’s a well-established part of your routine. Fitness works the same way. Motivation ebbs and flows over time, but it becomes less necessary when you lock in your habits.

If you’ve had trouble with motivation in the past, planning ahead may be even more effective. According to one study, creating a daily action plan increased physical activity among participants who had “weak habits” in the past even more than among those who already had strong habits. 

“Building a habit requires establishing a routine,” says Hartford. Planning your routine in advance on Tonal allows you to use another proven habit-forming skill: cues, or triggers in your environment that signal you to complete a task. Studies have shown that people who use cues are much more likely to hit their physical activity goals. When you plan your workout on Tonal, you’ll get a mobile push notification each day you have a workout scheduled. 

Ultimately, habit-building is key because it keeps you consistent with your workouts, and consistency is what creates results. “The actual achievement of physical outcomes is easier when you have routine training,” says Hartford.

In one study of new gym members, it took six weeks with four workouts per week to establish an exercise routine. With Tonal’s multi-week programs, it’s easy to hit this target with just a couple of programs. If you’re doing programs that are only two or three days per week, fill in the additional days with recovery or mobility sessions. You won’t just be supporting your strength gains, you’ll be reinforcing your exercise habit and boosting consistency.

Plan for Flexibility 

Even the most carefully planned routines can get thrown off track if you wake up with a cold or nagging injury, or your day fills up with other obligations. 

Instead of throwing your whole routine out the window in these situations, modify your plan to fit your new reality. With the ability to reschedule a workout with a few taps on your phone, Tonal simplifies the process of dealing with an unexpected interruption. When you’re signed up for a program and miss a workout, Tonal will automatically move it to the next day in your program schedule and shift all your program workouts to accommodate the change. 

Combining pre-scheduling workouts with the ability to be flexible on Tonal allows you to build habits and train consistently while allowing for realistic adjustments for those inevitable hiccups in life. 

“This feature allows you to have more ownership over your fitness routine,” says Hartford. “Treat it just like you treat your personal calendar.”

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Working out at home has come a long way from the days of step aerobics VHS tapes and exercise bikes that inevitably became clothes hangers. Back then, if you wanted to do effective resistance training and not fill your garage with heavy dumbbells and weight plates, you had to go to a commercial gym.  

However, with today’s smart home gym equipment like Tonal, it’s possible to create a home gym that’ll make you want to cancel your gym membership. When you can work every muscle group with the guidance of an expert coach from home, joining a gym and dealing with commuting or waiting for machines doesn’t seem so enticing.

If you’re on the fence about a home gym vs. gym membership, read on to see how home gyms compare when it comes to convenience, effectiveness, motivation, and cost. 

Home Gym vs. Gym Membership: Convenience

Home gyms have always had a leg up in terms of convenience for obvious reasons. When you work out at home, there’s no need to drive or take public transportation, arrange childcare, or struggle to find an empty squat rack during your gym’s busiest hours. 

“You’ll have access to work out whenever you want and don’t have to share the space and equipment with anyone else,” says TJ Mentus, a certified personal trainer and member of the Garage Gym Reviews Expert Panel. “It will save time in your schedule since you won’t have to drive back and forth from the gym. This can be a great option for someone who doesn’t have an ideal gym close by.” 

Between your job, family obligations, and social life, devoting time to your fitness can seem difficult and even arduous. If you work from home, you can even squeeze in a short workout between meetings. According to one study, it only takes three 13-minute sessions of resistance training a week to build strength. Since it might take you more than 13 minutes to just commute to the gym, it makes more sense to complete these workout “snacks” from home. 

If you like taking classes at the gym but finding one that fits your busy schedule feels like an impossible game of Tetris, Tonal makes all your favorite group fitness modalities—such as yoga, Pilates, and cardio bootcamp—accessible anytime. Want to knock out some 2 a.m. Tabata intervals? At home, you can, without even starting the car. 

Best of all, you don’t need a giant space in your home to create a fully functional gym, especially if you choose Tonal as your all-in-one home gym. Tonal takes up minimal wall space so it’s ideal for small homes and even rental apartments. You’ll get 200 pounds of digital weight to lift without any dumbbells or barbells taking up precious room at home. 

Home Gym vs. Gym Membership: Cost 

Whether you’re paying for a gym membership or buying home gym equipment, you’re investing in yourself, which is always worth the money. But if the gym is charging your credit card each month and you’re not showing up (which let’s be honest, happens more often than we’d like), that money isn’t helping you reach your goals. 

According to an industry study, the average price of a monthly gym membership in 2019 was $52. This varies based on location—for example, the average price in New York City is just over $100—and high-end gyms charge even more. A class at a boutique studio will set you back an average of $34 (more in major cities or at a big-name studio) and that likely doesn’t include necessary extras like renting cycling shoes or boxing gloves. If you want an hourly session with a personal trainer, that’ll cost anywhere from $35-$120. Again, this could be much more based on your location and your trainer’s experience and certifications.

In contrast, Tonal has a monthly membership fee of $59.95 plus applicable sales tax* for unlimited workouts. If you purchase your Tonal with financing, you’ll pay as low as $144* per month for your membership and equipment, or about the cost of one weekly boutique fitness class.

Think about the cost of a home gym vs. gym membership if you’re just starting to work out: In one study of new exercisers, it took six weeks with four workouts per week to establish a fitness routine. Zooming in on that first month, if you did 16 workouts at a boutique fitness studio, you’d pay $544, or slightly less with a bulk class discount. On Tonal, those same 16 workouts led by expert trainers (plus any additional classes) will only cost around $60.* If you join a gym and pay for just one personal training session per week (even at the lowest end of trainer costs), that’d be $192.  

If a family member wanted to join the gym with you, all the numbers above could double, but Tonal’s costs stay the same. Unlike a gym membership, Tonal’s monthly membership includes unlimited profiles for all members of your household so everyone can get fit together while doing their own favorite workouts. With a Tonal membership, you’ll also get access to an ever-growing library of programs and workouts across all modalities. There are hundreds to choose from already with more added each week. Check out Tonal’s membership cost calculator to learn more. 

While a budget gym is an effective option, you’ll still be trading off the convenience of working out at home without the benefit of expert guidance from certified personal trainers  and multi-week workout programs. 

Home Gym vs. Gym Membership: Effectiveness

Any gym is only as effective as the workouts you do there—and the same goes for a home gym. 

However, if you’re committed to getting big results and crushing your goals, you will need the right kind of equipment. With dozens of different machines and racks of free weights, traditional gyms typically have an edge over home gyms in the home gym vs. gym membership debate when it comes to hardware. 

At home, bodyweight strength exercises are great if you’re just getting started or need to get a workout in when you’re traveling, but muscle growth and strength depend on progressive overload, or a gradual increase in intensity that forces adaptation. 

Without some type of external weight, you’ll eventually hit a plateau with your strength training at home. “[One] disadvantage may be not having access to all the machines and equipment that is at the gym,” says Mentus. “This just means that you will have to find creative ways to replicate those movements. Invest in pieces of equipment that have multiple uses which will also help if you’re limited in space.”

There are plenty of options for home gym equipment, and trying to decide which ones to buy—without converting your entire living room into a gym—can be tricky. Tonal solves this problem by replacing dumbbells, squat racks, and plenty of other gym machines with one sleek piece of equipment. With digital weight and the ability to adjust Tonal’s arms in many different positions, you can deadlift, squat, bench press, and do a lat pulldown or seated row (plus hundreds of other exercises) without having to bounce between machines at the gym.

Additionally, unless you hire a personal trainer or have a lot of exercise knowledge, you might not know what to do with all those machines at the gym. Tonal’s coaches are expert personal trainers in your living room, guiding you through workouts that are designed to help you reach your goals faster. Tonal’s Smart View feature uses cutting-edge video technology to let you see yourself lift and improve your form in real-time. Tonal also offers multi-week programs that build in difficulty week-over-week and ensure you’re balancing your training and recovery. 

Tonal takes the guesswork out of what weight to use, too. Based on your initial strength assessment and your performance in each additional workout, Tonal suggests an appropriate weight for every exercise. As you get stronger, those weights will go up. If you go to the gym and always pick up the same dumbbells for your strength circuit, you won’t see the same gains. 

If you’re worried about lifting heavy without a gym partner, Tonal’s Spotter Mode will automatically reduce the weight when you’re struggling, making it safer to work out on your own. Spotter is just one of Tonal’s dynamic weight modes that can enhance your strength training and supercharge your results. There’s also Eccentric Mode which adds weight to the lowering phase of an exercise (a proven method for building strength) and Burnout Mode which reduces the weight during a high-rep set so you can keep pushing through the finish. Even at a gym, it’d be difficult to duplicate this type of lifting without specialized equipment or a trainer to help. 

As you’re getting stronger and building muscle, you’ll also want a way to track your progress. You can do this on your own in a notebook or on your phone at the gym, but Tonal automatically keeps track of every workout, down to each rep. Tonal will let you know when you’ve reached a milestone (like 1,000,000 total pounds lifted) or a strength PR in a particular lift, and you can watch your Strength Score (Tonal’s unique measurement of overall strength) increase over time so you know you’re training effectively. 

Home Gym vs. Gym Membership: Motivation 

Studies have shown that working out with others can motivate you to work harder and even make that tough sweat session feel more enjoyable. 

While a communal environment can be motivating for some, others might find the big crowds at the gym intimidating or feel self-conscious working out around others. Waiting to use machines in a crowded gym or being unsure how to use the equipment may also be discouraging. In that case, the home gym vs. gym membership decision may be easier. 

“Working out at home could get lonely if you need social interaction,” says Mentus. If you do prefer exercising together, Tonal offers several options for getting friends and family involved in your workouts. You can do a side-by-side Partner Workout or connect with friends across the country in a Virtual Workout. If it’s the energy of group classes that motivates you, try a Live Workout. In one of these coach-led live-streaming sessions, you’ll feel the support of other members as you lift. 

By removing much of the friction that comes with a gym membership—commuting, crowds, scheduling—a home gym might make it easier to establish a workout habit. Studies have shown that cues, or triggers in your environment that remind you to complete a habit, are very effective in building a consistent routine. Seeing your Tonal in your bedroom when you wake up or in your living room when you’re sitting down to watch TV, is a pretty reliable cue to do that workout. It’s a lot harder to make excuses when you can exercise at home.  

What’s Right For You? 

There’s no denying that working out with a home gym vs. gym membership creates different experiences, each with its pros and cons. In the end, the best option for you is the one that will keep you engaged, challenged, and exercising consistently; that might be a home gym, a gym membership, or some combination of both.

*Membership price depends on the date of your activation, which occurs as early as the date your Product is installed: $49/month for memberships activated before 2/21/2023. Beginning on 2/21/2023 membership price is $59.95/month.

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A fitness goal—whether that’s building muscle or training for a marathon—is a lot like a cross-country road trip: You need a carefully-designed route to get to your final destination.

“Random workouts would be an unguided drive, where you’re just going to random cities until you get to your end destination—if you ever get there,” says Christian Hartford, Senior Performance Manager of Applied Sports Science at Tonal. “With a program, you put that destination into your GPS and trust that it’s going to get you there.” 

Read on to learn why targeted programs are your best bet for big results—and how one-off workouts can strategically fit into your plan, too.

What Are Programs?

When you work with a personal trainer at the gym, your trainer will design your workouts based on proven exercise science principles to help you reach your goals. The workouts will build on each other in a calculated method, allowing for the ideal balance between work and recovery to get you the desired results. Programs on Tonal work the same way.

Each Tonal program is crafted with a specific outcome in mind. Depending on the program, this end result may be hypertrophy (muscle growth), increased strength and power, shifts in body composition (more lean muscle and less body fat), improved movement patterns, or better endurance.

When Tonal’s coaches, who are all certified personal trainers, create these workouts in collaboration with a team of renowned fitness programming experts, they draw on tried and tested training protocols that have been proven to support these goals. By altering rep schemes, rest periods, exercise order, and exercise selection, coaches are able to design different resistance training workouts around specific outcomes. 

In addition to fine-tuning each set within a workout, Tonal’s coaches and programming experts make sure the workouts in a program link together like rungs on a ladder to drive toward an end goal. That means you may see more advanced movement patterns in the latter weeks of a program that build on foundational moves you mastered in earlier weeks, or see higher- and lower-intensity days following each other to balance work and recovery. 

You can trust that each program is informed by the scientific principles of exercise and backed by the latest research. Here are the top benefits of programs according to experts, Tonal members, and scientific studies.

Programs Get You There Faster

Since buying his Tonal in 2020, Joseph Mapa of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, has lost weight, built muscle, and even lowered his once-high triglycerides to a more manageable level. “After a few months on Tonal, my doctor was so impressed with the results,” says Mapa. “Objectively speaking, I’m so much healthier.” 

To reach his goals, Mapa specifically chose to follow Tonal’s expert-designed, science-based programs—he’s completed 18 in two years—instead of bouncing between one-off workouts. “The coaches are world-class and know what they’re doing,” he says. “I really don’t know what I’m doing in the gym, and having coaches I trust [lead] challenging programs is a game changer.” 

Hartford explains that, on Tonal, the workouts within a program are tied together by a common thread to help you reach your goal. In most cases, this thread is the principle of progressive overload, or the gradual increase in stress on your body during resistance training that’s necessary to gain strength.

“Intensity drives adaptation,” Hartford explains, so once you become more comfortable and confident with an exercise, you need to up the intensity to drive change–such as increased muscular size, strength, or power.  

“A lot of our programs follow a simple, linear progression scheme, which means that week-to-week, you’re either increasing your volume [in terms of reps] or the weight is increasing,” says Hartford. “Incrementally, as you go through a program, you’re exposing your body to a slightly increased amount of stress, but still within the threshold to accomplish it.” 

While a program might get more challenging as you’re lifting heavier or completing more reps, the linear progression scheme ensures that you’re ready for that challenge. There won’t be a sudden spike that your body isn’t prepared for—instead, you’ll be exposed to just the right amount of intensity to drive change. 

Programs Keep You Consistent

No matter what your goal is, being consistent in your workouts is the fastest way to get there. On Tonal, members who follow programs are 55 percent more consistent week-over-week than those who only do one-off workouts. There are a few reasons, both psychological and physical, that may explain why.

If you’ve ever designated a half-hour to exercise and spent the first 10 minutes deciding what workout to do, you know that decision fatigue is real. Besides cutting into your workout time, one study has shown that decision fatigue actually increases ratings of perceived exertion during exercise—making your workout less enjoyable. When you sign up for a program on Tonal, you know exactly what’s next on any given day.

Completing a program also taps into your sense of self-efficacy or your confidence in your ability to complete each step in achieving your goals. As one recent study suggests, process- (or learning-) based goals are more likely to set you up for success than specific outcome-based goals. Ticking off each workout in a four-week program helps you celebrate each step in your journey. 

Even though you’re working out on your own, knowing that hundreds or thousands of Tonal members are doing the same program can be highly motivating. 

Mapa says the support he’s found in the Official Tonal Community on Facebook keeps him consistent. “Tonal is the vehicle that gets me to get in shape,” he says, “but I’m not alone in this journey, and that helps tremendously.” 

From a physiological standpoint, programs are designed to be balanced so you won’t sabotage your progress along the way. 

For example, programs are often divided up between upper- and lower-body days or by push-pull splits. “That’s ensuring you’re not overloading any one muscle group to the point where it’s going to be excessively fatigued or where you can’t perform what you need to perform,” says Hartford. “It’s structured in a way that puts you in a position to succeed.” 

With standalone workouts, you run the risk of overtraining one muscle group which can lead to excessive soreness and fatigue, making it less likely you’ll start your next workout.

Programs Are Varied, Not Random

Programs may be methodical, but that doesn’t mean they are monotonous or dull. Small changes week-to-week keep the workouts engaging so you don’t get bored.

As you work through a program on Tonal, you’ll notice that even if exercises stay consistent in a program, the prescribed number of reps may vary to stimulate a different adaptation. This could mean increasing the number of reps in the second week of a program to boost endurance, or lowering the rep count but raising the weight to build strength. 

Even if the exercises and rep range remain the same week-to-week, you’ll get stronger over the course of a program and Tonal will increase your recommended weights for certain exercises. This means you’ll be lifting more volume in the last week of your program compared to your first, a sign you’re making progress through progressive overload.

When to Do One-Off Workouts

While programs are key to smashing your goals, that doesn’t mean there’s no room for one-off workouts in your routine. It’s all about planning them strategically to contribute to—not distract from—your main focus.

When doing a strength training program, adding gentle mobility, yoga, or Pilates on your off days will support your lifting without overtaxing your tired muscles. If you want to add a day of cardio conditioning to your week, that’s a good option as well; just make sure you won’t be doing a workout with lots of jumping the day before a lower-body lifting session.  

You know that your GPS might alter your route if there’s any unexpected traffic or roadblocks. In fitness, these unplanned detours could show up as injuries, illnesses, or even a stressful few weeks of work that throw you off course in your program. In those cases, squeeze in a meditation or a short Quick Fit workout to stay consistent before you can get back on track. 

There’s also nothing wrong with taking a break from programs for a couple of weeks and trying new one-off workouts during that time for a change of pace. You’ll maintain your level of fitness and have fun trying new modalities or working with new coaches before you jump back into programs to push forward. 

Ready to try programs but not sure where to start? Check out the Ultimate Tonal Program Guide to find the perfect program for your goal and experience level. 

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