BodBot AI Personal Trainer 12+

Edit: I really love this app. It keeps me pushing myself by adjusting my workouts based on how difficult sets were. I used to add a few pounds every couple weeks or so, and do the same routines. I was frustrated with my lack of strength improvement. But after using bodbot I saw how much I’d been previously underestimating myself. I feel much better and stronger.
What’s more, the development team really cares about you. I got in contact with them when I was having issues and they emailed me back and forth, until I no longer had problems.
Would highly recommend this app.

Original Review:

I would rate this 5 stars if it wasn’t for this one thing that keeps happening.
I’ll be in the middle of a workout, and see that I have for example, planks, coming up soon. Then when my next exercise comes up, it’s no longer planks.
I then check the rest of the workout to see that the ENTIRE routine has changed, often including duplicates of what exercise I had just finished.
I love the dynamic changing of weights and reps based on what I need, but I don’t want my whole routine changed while I’m in the middle of it.

Thank you Mimi, it's been great working with you!

Hi Mimi, please send email to feedback@bodbot.com it could be a problem with integrations. We'd love to help you get this sorted out and earn those 5 stars! Thank you!

I really like the idea of the app - using AÍ to develop a personalized training program designed to correct imbalances in your body. And the app appears to do a good job of finding those imbalances. Almost immediately, the algorithm detected I have weak shoulders and rotator cuff and correctly focused on those areas.

However, the app seems to overly focus on those specific muscle groups. I get rotator cuff exercises almost every workout (which actually led to a small overuse injury), while chest, abs, and triceps are almost completely ignored. The app had me go almost two weeks without doing a single chest exercise. I’m worried that in the long term, this could actually cause muscle imbalances/injuries rather than reducing them.

Now, I get that it wants me to focus on certain muscle groups - but that shouldn’t be at the exclusion of others. Even when I set the app to focus on chest and shoulders a certain day, it still only recommended one chest exercise. It doesn’t seem clear to me how the fitness tests translate into the recommended workouts.

The app could do with better explainability - there should be more details on why it chose the exercises it did. And it should attempt to give more well-rounded workouts. If those issues were fixed, I think it would be pretty great.

The interface is also extremely clunky, but that’s not a huge concern for me.

Hi Erik, please send us an email at feedback@bodbot.com - we'd like you to adjust your fitness tests and take a look at previous exercise history. Sometimes if data is entered accidentally it can interfere with planning going forward. As well, with some failed fitness tests it's going to proactively reduce other movements that could exacerbate an underlying strength imbalance. The insights panel generally tries to explain what each test is measuring and doing in response, but at the end of the day if it's not meeting your preferences you'll have total control with some small settings adjustments.

I like that it gives me a variety of exercises I wouldn’t normally think of on my own. The videos are all helpful, but it would be nice if instead of the static image that shows on the workout screen, it showed the video without having to go into the exercise info page and hit play. I find myself doing that a lot with exercises I am not familiar with.

Cons are sometimes it gives really bad programs for the day. Today it tried to give me 5 different variations of pull ups and chin ups. When I maxed out on the second variation, it changed the variation to the kind I had already done and struggled with before. It seems to overemphasize hitting one body part per day, when it should really spread things out more when someone is working out everyday to not exhaust that one muscle.

Also, I tell the app to give me about 60 minutes of programming a day, but I probably need to cut that down to 45 minutes or less because it vastly underestimates the amount of time it things take. My “60” minute workouts take 1.5 - 2 hours per day. 5-10 minutes of stretching, 60+ minutes of resistance training, then 30 minutes of cardio and more stretching.

If these kinks can get sorted, I think it’d be worth 5 stars.

Hi Oreganobag, please send email to feedback@bodbot.com, we'd love to get this sorted out for you. No doubt there's a conflict in the settings. We'd love to help. Thank you. Be strong, be safe.