Dumbbell Home Workout 4+

Simple to the point

This app gives a simple, customizable workout plan, with a graphic to illustrate each exercise, and timer to set rest intervals.

I’ve tried a bunch of other vendor workout apps - most try to add too much and then cripple their app and charge ridiculous amounts to subscribe. In this case, simple is better.

I’d like if each set flowed into the rest/next exercise instead of making me click done after every set. An option to choose either time (like in the tabata app) or # reps for each exercise would be fantastic.

It doesn’t sync workout stats between iPhone and iPad for the same account if you jump between them. ...BUT now that I’m using it only on the iPhone, I’ve found that it syncs wonderfully with the Apple health stats, and even records the calories burned into the My Fitness Pal app. Forget iPad, and just use your phone.

In addition, it’s simple to jump between tabata, weight loss, dumbbell & bodybuilding to pick the workout I want.
Because of this, I’m changing my review to 5 stars.

The daily total body workouts are fairly short; but it’s easy to increase weight or reps, repeat a workout, or find another workout.
I use the Tabata app for a quick warm up before jumping to the dumbbell app for my main workout.

You can add your own custom exercises that’s worth the small one-time upgrade cost.

All in all, this provides a solid plan to follow for beginners rather than keeping a list on paper. Check out their related exercise apps too!

Developer Response ,

You can add your custom workouts

Good app, needs some basic feature adds

Great all around app, but definitely needs some feature updates that are fairly normal for anyone weight lifting. These are extremely standard & even should be expected:

1. Once the exercise starts, you can adjust reps +/-, but you cannot adjust the weight # lifted. Only way to do this is to exit, edit, adjust weight, save, start again. *add feature which allows you to adjust weight +/- once the exercise has begun*.
2. If you create a custom exercise & you want to adjust the ranking order of the workouts…you can’t. You only option is to delete everything and re add in the order you want. *add feature allowing you to adjust order of exercises by drag/drop*.
3. Super set doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to. With super sets, you will traditionally do 1 rep of bench followed directly by 1 rep of dumbbell row. Rep 2 would start this order over. Repeat. In the app…it only allows you to finish all 3 sets of the workout it’s already in, then you move into the next exercise (superset) to do those 3 sets. That completely defeats the purpose of supersets. *add feature which changes back/forth between the main exercise and the superset for each individual rep*.

Easy Interface, Simple Display

This is a really good app that is simple to use and has a design that is very easy on the eyes. The workout editing is very intuitive—easy to follow. The mid-workout display provides a helpful animation to demonstrate how the exercise is executed. I’ve only just begun the full version, so I can’t speak to the stats feature yet. Optimistic though. The only suggestion would be to have an available blurb or description of the exercise in addition to the animation. Perhaps cautioning against common mistakes or tendencies that lessen the exercise’s effectiveness.

Update: Stats feature is great. But it made me realize that there are no ab exercises in the full body routine, and it can’t be edited. (Similar note: planks are not an available ab exercise in the Custom Workout builder.)