Nerd Fitness Coaching 4+

I want to be clear that this isn’t a review of the nerd fitness program as a whole–just the app. I’m loving my experience with my coach overall. The app does a really poor job with notifications. I’ll see on my Home Screen that I have one, then open the app and see nothing new in my Notification Center. Rather, the Notification Center is literally an archive of every single notification I’ve ever received from an unlocked achievement to a thumbs up from my coach in a pages-long list, and the notifications are all marked as seen/inactive. I’d like to be able to see just new notifications from the last 24-48 hours or last 3 logins or something like that, and for notifications that came up as a banner to stay active until I’ve viewed them in the Notification Center at least once. Since all communication with your coach is remote in this program, seeing new messages and notifications is key to being on the same page with them. When you see an endless list of viewed notifications and the new ones don’t stand out, it’s a letdown and barrier to feeling connected.

I’ve been using this service for a couple years now and I’ve had a great experience with my coach. I’ve hit a bunch of health milestones: flexibility, building muscle mass, being able to get off the floor without making the get-off-the-floor noise. Really nice! That’s the five stars right there.

The app itself is nothing to write home about. That’s kind of fine with me, though… the app is just a tool; it can’t do the work for me. Are there things I’d do differently? Sure! But the rough edges rarely get in the way of my workouts or communicating with my coach and they’re consistently making improvements, so good enough!

If you know how to research and vet trainers/coaches, NF is not worth $200/month. When I tried to schedule a call, I didn’t get one of the coaches but a member of a sales team who I knew was not qualified to answer specific questions I had about how to arrange a program that would work for me. I demanded she put one of the coaches on the line when I discovered this. She refused.

This is all you really need to know. The NF team doesn’t understand that by forcing you to commit before you can be matched with a coach, you basically have to go through a double consult which means there is a reasonable chance you’ll draw a coach you won’t hit off with. It also indicates that the NF team does not trust the coaches to do their jobs which includes consulting potential clients, something the team refuses to accept. You’re better off spending extra money for an in-person certified trainer and registered dietician, unless of course you’re penny pinching or clueless on how to research coaches.