ThenX App Review: Style and Substance in One Neat Little Package

The ThenX app has been around for a while, and while it never lacked content, it used to be a little too clunky for most (this reviewer included) to declare truly worthwhile.

Now, after a series of overhauls, I am glad to say that that is no longer the case.
The present ThenX is easy on the eyes, simple to use, and chock-full of goodies.

Setting It All Up

Installation is as easy and simple as it gets; find it in the store, and boom—it installs.
Kudos to the devs for making the app not only lightweight, but mindful of your machine’s integrity.
When I install something, I prefer it not trying to take over my phone—thank you very much, which is a wish the ThenX app respects.

After the app has nested within your machine, you will be led through a quick an easy sequence of creating your profile.
You will need to enter some basic information such as height and
weight
(you can choose between the metric and imperial systems, which is nice), and some not-so-basic information (how many push-ups, pull-ups, dips, and squats you can do).

ThenX App Alternatives

Before we go any further it’s important to note that despite being an impressive mobile app, we definetly recommend going for a more complete calisthenics program.

With that in mind, we’ve purchased and tested the 4 most popular calisthenics programs in the market right now.
Check out our thoughts below or read the full reviews
here.

Some other noteworthy recommendations include:

– Aaptiv
– NEOU
– Fitbod

– Caliverse

The App Itself

With those little starting steps behind you, you will find yourself faced with something like this:

Up top is the day’s featured workout (more on that later), while the bottom icons will lead you to different tabs:

• Explore/Feed. Think of Instagram, only useful, since you can peer into what other workout enthusiasts have done that day.

• Workouts. The default tab, as shown in the picture above.

• Liked Programs and Workouts, which is essentially your own personal history/scrapbook meant for later self-reference.

• Profile, where you can update information on yourself, such as tweak weight or increase your scores in push-ups, squats, and the like.
  There is also an up-close view of your own feed below.

• And finally
  Membership, which brings us to one of the few gripes I have with the app.
  Namely, some of the content is blocked behind a pay wall (as in quite a few of the more advanced courses).
  And in order to access it—you guess it—you’re going to have to pay up.
  Whether or not that ends up relevant for you will depend on how deep you plan on going with this app.

As you’ve probably assumed by now, the meat of ThenX is contained within the
Workouts
tab.
The featured one is always nice, but if you’re not feeling adventurous or want something relevant to your
current goals, you can keep scrolling down and find something like this:

The amount of content is mind-boggling.
If you can think of a workout, chances are that it exists somewhere within the ThenX database, complete with video demonstrations, segmented into components, and even separated into
Beginner, Intermediate,
and
Advanced
variants.

Navigation is extremely simple.
Find the category you’re interested in, press with your finger, and choose among what’s offered.
Not like it, or feel like browsing some more?
Go back, then head elsewhere.
It is all intuitive and easy on both your phone and eyes.

An Example Workout

So let’s say that you’ve decided to try the featured workout.
On the day this review was written, the app put the spotlight on a Tabata set of
shoulder-focused exercises. So you click on the pic taking up the topmost part of your
Workouts
tab, and you’re in!
You choose your difficulty level (let’s go with beginner for now), hit the large, animated circle that is the start button, and you’re greeted with:

The entire training session, from the warm-up to the end, can be seen by scrolling to the bottom, allowing you to mentally prepare for what is to come.
It is all very clear and elegant, and starting the actual workout is as easy as getting the timer going by pressing the button left to the
Pause
button (pictured above).

From this point on you’re in business, so place that cell phone somewhere far from danger, and get going on those reps!

Once you are done, all you need to do is press the pause button before again scrolling down to the bottom of the page, where you’ll see a big blue button with “Complete Workout” written on it.
Pressing it brings you to a simple tweak page where you can set up some minor details before posting the results on your timeline:

And there we go; workout over, both in the real world and the digital one!

Summary: The Pros and Cons

The Pros:

• A gigantic amount of information organized into various training courses

• Easy to use

• Well organized

• Takes little space on your machine

The Cons:

• The app is rather traffic heavy; the video content will eat up your bandwidth unless you’re hooked to Wi-fi, so no working out in nature

• The aforementioned pay wall blocking the most advanced content

The Verdict

As you’ve probably guessed by now, we are more than a little pleased with the ThenX app. It combines depth and breadth of content with ease of use, and shows you a kind of sincerity that is regrettably rare in today’s app market. And with the high quality of its free content, those advanced premium options start to seem more than a little inviting.