So Close... – Keelo - Strength HIIT Workouts Review

Update 11-21-17: Keelo responded to my original review. The TL;DR paraphrase version is ‘Barbells are super awesome. Machines and any substitutions for barbells, like you tried, are bad. Nothing is as good as barbells. Here’s some barbell science. Use barbells or use nothing. That’s why.’ Ugh. I didn’t write a review to argue the merits of using a barbell (or to get criticized for improvising), I was specifically noting that this app requires barbells for 25% of every-single-workout. We get it, Keelo kids love their barbells. But if you are like me and don’t have access to any barbells (no matter how super legit next-level awesome they are) then you will never be able to do the strength workouts in Keelo, which make up a 1/4 of each workout in this app. And by the sound of it, Keelo doesn’t have any intention of that ever changing. I suppose I’m back here writing a response to theirs because of how close Keelo came to meeting my needs. For a moment I was very passionate and excited about it, sharing it with others. But now that I’ve shared my feedback with them from a customer standpoint, and seen how unwilling they are to even consider the idea of providing alternative strength workouts for those without barbells, it gives the clear impression that Keelo puts their vision of how it should be above all else. This Apple ‘we know best’ approach will work for everyone who has all the equipment, and I’m confident they’ll be huge fans, but what about everyone else? Best of luck to Shana and the Keelo team. Original review: I really like this app. Honestly, I do. Of all the workout apps I have tried thus far, this one suits my needs best. The workouts are challenging, I love using the daily routine when I don’t want to think about what to do, there are warm ups and cool downs, the variety is refreshing, their mission is inline with mine, and the polish on the app is cherry. However, after using it exclusively for the entire two week trial, I cancelled. Why? For me, one main reason: I don’t have a barbell. This app would be PERFECT for the solo gym member, because a gym provides all the equipment you need to do every exercise in Keelo. For me, I use workout apps for working out with restrictions. Little time, no gym nearby, or limited equipment at home/hotel/small community fitness center. In Keelo, if you don’t have access to a barbell, you can’t do the strength training portion of every daily workout. The app provides no substitutes, variations, or alternatives, so you miss out on 1/4 of every workout (warm up, strength, conditioning, cool down). That’s a bummer, because there are plenty of strength exercises that can be done with other equipment. It also has me wondering how long before the daily barbell routine recycles exercise patterns and gets old. One other issue I had was the app not remembering my set weights. I repeated a strength workout (twice I tried substituting barbell with a multipurpose cable gym, ?) and it did not remember/save what weight I used when I did the workout previously, so it started me back down at low weights to work back up. Not a huge issue, but it seemed unintuitive. If this app added alternative strength workout options I would throw myself into Keelo ?. But for me, paying full price for the membership and only getting 3/4 of the value from the app makes me feel like I’m not getting all the benefits, and so I sadly have to pass. Strong work by the Keelo team! If I see a 25% discount or strength workout alternatives I will definitely be back.
Review by BMartFM on Keelo - Strength HIIT Workouts.