If you\u2019re anything like me, making yourself work out is hard. You set an alarm but then can\u2019t convince yourself to get out of bed. You\u2019re done with work and have your clothes and sneakers packed, but tasks that seem more pressing just keep coming up, and oh look, they just released another episode of Billions, <\/em>and do you really feel like leaving the house?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Many people\u2019s answer to this conundrum is a personal trainer \u2014 someone you meet with once a week or so who walks you through various customized exercises and shouts encouragement. If you don\u2019t show up to your workout, you probably still get billed for the session and \u2014 more importantly \u2014 your trainer will be upset with you, and that\u2019s no fun. But personal trainers can cost well over $100 per hour, which just isn\u2019t an accessible price for many people (myself very much included). That\u2019s why I\u2019ve avoided getting one for many years, even though I\u2019m sure it could be exactly the motivation I need to leave my couch and get some reps in. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you are also in this situation, I have found a good compromise, and I would like to make sure you\u2019re aware of it. It\u2019s called Future Personal Training. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n To be clear, Future is not cheap <\/em>by any means: memberships are currently $199 a month<\/a>. This is not Planet Fitness. But compared to the cost of a personal trainer at my gym in New York City, who might charge close to that amount per session<\/em>, you\u2019ll probably save. Still, you may well be in a region or part of a gym where good personal trainers are more affordable, so make sure to do some research before signing up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Future is a virtual personal training service. You download the app, answer a few questions about your fitness level and workout preferences, and are then able to select a personal trainer from a few provided options. These personal trainers are real people (no AI here), and you can scroll through their bios and qualifications to get a sense of who might be a good fit for you. One warning I will give: even if you answer the quiz questions identically, you will not be given the same set of trainer options each time. So if you see a trainer you really want, just go ahead and grab them. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The trainer I selected sent me a video greeting, and then we scheduled a video call. Here, I told her what I\u2019ve told you: I wanted to be exercising more, but it felt a bit like a chore, and I had trouble motivating myself to do it. Basically, I needed someone who could assign me a few fun workouts a week and hold me accountable for doing them. I\u2019ve been using Future for over half a year now, and my trainer has done exactly that. I\u2019ve discovered working out again, and it turns out, it\u2019s pretty fun. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s much harder to blow off a workout when you feel like a real human is waiting for you to get it done<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Through the Future app, you have an open chat with your coach. Mine will message me encouragement every so often and will check in now and again to see how it\u2019s going. She assigns me workouts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and I\u2019ll message her as I\u2019m doing them if I have any questions or feedback. Coaches can adjust things on the fly. I let my coach know at one point that I\u2019d moved to a gym with a pool, and she started building swimming into my assignments; I told her my gym had gotten rid of its foam rollers, and she swapped in replacement exercises. She gets the data from my smartwatch at the end of each workout and can use that to roughly see if the level needs adjusting. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n As time has gone on, I\u2019ve gotten to know my coach on a personal level as well. She asks me how my weekend went and sends pictures when she gets back from vacation. I\u2019m sure your mileage on this one varies by the coach you select, but it\u2019s much harder to blow off a workout when you feel like a real human, who you know, is waiting for you to get it done. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Future\u2019s assigned workouts look largely like lists of exercises complete with reps, weights, and instructional videos. When you\u2019re done with an exercise, you press the \u201cnext\u201d button. It\u2019s a bit like doing a Fitbod<\/a> workout, if you\u2019ve ever used that. But what\u2019s different from Fitbod (apart from the fact that your workouts are designed by a real human) is that your coach maintains a virtual presence throughout. A little bubble with my coach\u2019s head in it lingers in the corner of my screen during every exercise, and it really does give me the feeling that she\u2019s watching me as I squat or crunch. Irrationally or not, it makes me think more about my form as I work. There\u2019s an audio component as well. My coach records a quick but very motivating introduction to each workout that plays as I warm up and also makes clarifications about certain exercises that might be more confusing. It feels like she\u2019s kind of hanging out in my head. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The most important aspect of a workout is that I do it<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n I have to note that there\u2019s one thing you don\u2019t <\/em>get out of Future that you would out of an in-person personal trainer, and that\u2019s form correction. Your coach can certainly give you tips on your form, and you can ask them questions, but they\u2019re not actually watching you complete the exercises and won\u2019t be able to tell you if you\u2019re doing them wrong. If form correction is a priority for you, then Future probably isn\u2019t your pick. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n But that\u2019s a benefit that I\u2019ve personally been willing to give up. Because to me, the most important aspect of a workout is that I do it. And when I feel like I have someone by my side, encouraging me as I work out \u2014 even if that\u2019s not literally true \u2014 the whole prospect of doing it feels less intimidating and more like a fun, social affair. And when I know that person will be cheering me on in the chat as soon as I finish, I\u2019m more motivated to make sure I get the workout done and that I do it right. If you\u2019re someone who would benefit from something like this and Future is in your budget, it\u2019s worth giving it a shot. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n