Looking for a home fitness innovation that does a lot more than make you tired and sweaty and obligated to come back tomorrow to feel tired and sweaty again? Bowflex has one. It can set you up with your own virtual trainer, turn your exercise into an exotic escape, and merge your training and leisure time – all of this in a fashion that makes every workout the most productive possible. It’s called the Bowflex JRNY™ app.
What is JRNY?
Bowflex JRNY is an easy-to-use fitness-focused artificial intelligence app that shortens the distance between you and your goals by learning from your capabilities then adjusting with an individualized experience.
It’s available on the Bowflex Treadmill 7, 10, and 22, as well as the first indoor bikes with leaning capability – the Bowflex VeloCore 16” and 22”. The Max Trainer M6 and M8 cardio machines run the JRNY app in conjunction with their Max Trainer® app, which shares several features. All of these machines offer connectivity via Bluetooth® technology and/or Wi-Fi, so you can make adjustments then track and review your progress on a provided touchscreen or via your own smart device.
You can acquire JRNY as a free or subscription service. The free version is a strong start, but the subscription service delivers the complete JRNY Experience – making it an outstanding value for anyone serious about creating an exercise regimen worth maintaining. It keeps users up to date on exactly where they stand in relation to their goals. Bowflex offers free trials of the full service just to let you get a feel for what’s possible, but we can go over the differences here.
Free Service
You don’t need a subscription to use the JRNY app. The free version offers an array of features designed to motivate you, keep you on track to succeed, and celebrate your milestones, achievements and personal bests. These include access to free workouts, free videos, Journal, and Awards. For instance, on the M6 and M8 Max Trainers, you’ll be able to access your initial fitness assessment, the Max 7-minute, 14-minute and 21-minute intervals, manual workouts, and all workouts associated with free videos. You’ll be able to track time, calories burned and other metrics to the invigorating rhythms of Bowflex Radio – or stream other music apps like Pandora and Spotify.
As great as that sounds (and it is great), JRNY has so much more to offer, and you can unlock it all with a monthly or yearly subscription.
Subscription Service (AKA the JRNY Experience)
The big difference between the free and subscription service is the quantum leap you’ll take in individualized tracking and workout customization. Whether you’re a beginner or advanced user, the subscription service provides:
- A comprehensive analysis of your current fitness capabilities
- Tailored workouts in various formats
- Scrupulous tracking of your progress
- Intuitive workout adjustments to maintain the shortest distance between you and your goals – weight loss, greater endurance, strength building or any combination of these.
Your workout options are updated daily, designed to facilitate your best possible progress and remedy those plateaus that can quickly stale a self-guided workout regimen.
Subscription Service Features
• Dynamic Coaching – This informative, encouraging direct-contact feature coaches and motivates you through personalized workouts via graphics, voice and audio effects. Bowflex ingeniously employs visible but unobtrusive graphics to keep you aware of when you’re in the prescribed calorie-burn range – along with other vital information like your time, heart rate, etc. You’ll also hear audio cues like bells telling you when to pick up the pace or cool down. - PLUS the friendly, encouraging voice of your virtual coach challenging you to power through and cheering you on when you hit milestones in your training. Separate audio track controls allow you to mix your voice, SFX and music to your individual taste.
• Customized Workouts – You’ll get unique, personalized workouts adapted to your fitness level, based on a continually updated analysis of your performance. Once you’ve completed your initial fitness assessment, JRNY posts your first set of recommended personalized workouts. The home page features a time slider that allows you to alter the length of a workout. If you want to adjust the intensity of your exercise, you can select “easier” or “harder” (or just stick with “recommended”). This will change the target burn rate for a workout. Your performance informs JRNY how it can best adapt to your current fitness level, determine what your next session should accomplish and offer new workouts customized to help you hit that target. You’ll get a new workout every 12 hours or as soon as you complete a recommended workout. Your old workouts will disappear as new ones are issued to keep you on track for constant improvement. You won’t be able to re-do old workouts, but you will be able to re-take the assessment to get you started again at the proper spot.
• Trainer-led Workout Videos. Bowflex has a fresh take on trainer-led videos. High pressure’s out. Engaging encouragement is in. The company’s hired friendly but knowledgeable experts you’ll enjoy spending time with because they make every moment count. Although they have those qualities in common, this is a diverse group, with each trainer bringing his or her unique attributes to their session. You can pick your favourites, and JRNY will remember your preferences as your new individualized workouts are selected from an ever-growing library of trainer-led videos.
• Explore the World. You’ll also have a chance to take your workout worldwide via the Explore the World™app. This virtual experience allows you to transport your Bowflex exercise regimen to exotic global trails based on the machine you have. Destinations include the Swiss Alps, Scottish Highlands or the French Riviera
• Bowflex Radio. Nothing turbocharges your workout like the right music. Bowflex Radio offers your choice of real hit songs performed by the artists who made them famous in 10 great formats - pop, rock/alternative, top 40, hip hop/rap, EDM/dance, country, 90s, 80s, international pop, or international EDM. It adds to the pleasure of your Explore the World adventures and allows you to choose which songs will accompany your trainer-led workouts.
• Access to Popular Streaming Services. If you subscribe to popular entertainment streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and Disney , most JRNY-enabled machines can bring them up on your screen. Access is also available on the Max Trainer M9, coming soon to Flaman Fitness. It’s a great way to keep up with your favourite series or catch exciting new movies without losing valuable workout time on the couch. Be sure they’re correctly synched to your machine so you can jump on and enjoy.
You can sample all that the subscription offers with a special free preview of the full JRNY experience. Our Flaman Fitness experts can fill you in on the duration and details for any JRNY-enabled machine.
How the JRNY Experience Works
Whether you go with the free or subscription service, you’ll find the JRNY app isn’t just all kinds of fun. It’s also easy to use, thanks to a user-friendly interface. There might be slight variations from machine to machine, but the experience is always straightforward.
- Creating your profile. You’ll be asked to select three fitness goals before taking …
- Your Initial Fitness Assessment. Available on both the free and subscription version of JRNY, this single, short (about 14 minutes) workout is the starting point of your fitness journey. It provides the app with important information about your fitness level and capabilities that it will use to design your first workouts. You can do it during or after your setup process (you’ll find it under the “Just for You” tab) and re-do it if you want. It starts with a warm-up, followed by an adjustment to whichever resistance level feels natural to you. You’ll be asked to do a short burst at 100% effort, then slow down and recover. The warm-up is followed by three phases in which you determine how long you can maintain 90%, 50% and 75% of your maximum effort (in that order). These phases are indicated by colour-coded onscreen graphics and separated by rest periods. Press STOP to complete.
Find the right JRNY Experience for you at Flaman Fitness.
Like the JRNY app, our in-store experts excel at understanding your needs and guiding you to ideal fitness solutions. They’re ready to answer your questions about Bowflex machine options, free JRNY trial periods, and how the app can keep your health goals on track. Drop by your nearest Flaman Fitness location to start planning your JRNY fitness journey.