The 12 Best Workout Apps for Muscle Gain in 2025

Most apps have quizzes to gauge your fitness level and goals, so I also considered how detail-oriented each quiz was, and looked at what programs or workouts the app served up to me (if any), based on my answers. If your main exercise goal is to get toned—or, perhaps, shredded—Shred is the app for you. It offers a wide range of customizable workouts for every part of the body, with options to filter based on the type of movements you want to do and the equipment you have available. Daily Burn has a vast catalog of almost every kind of workout you can think of—strength training, HIIT, barre, pilates, yoga, outdoor and treadmill running, and more. Most are available in video formats, but many, like the running workouts and meditation classes, are in audio formats. Whether you’re hitting the weights in the gym or at home, a workout app is a great way to guide you toward your fitness goals.

Premium Strength Equipment for Every Training Space

The setup process is a breeze, earning a perfect score of 5 out of 5 from our tester, Senior Staff Writer Caine Wilkes,OLY, CNC, USAW-L1. The Fitbod App is a high-tech AI-powered fitness platform that personalizes workouts and adapts them over time based on your progress. Although there is not a free version, the subscription is affordable madmuscles app and allows you to workout with whatever equipment you have.

Plus, if you want to build muscle fast, you can’t just go with any old app. But with so many different workout apps on the market, finding the right one can be overwhelming. A study published by The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research analysed the training recovery of men after they completed exercises to failure and concluded that 24 hours rest wasn’t enough.

Caliber

This speaks volumes about how well-rounded this platform is, as you get top-notch instruction, a user-friendly interface, and ample workout variety. Plus, we particularly appreciate the flexibility when it comes to equipment. The Training Intent Filter — the three-question framework that routes users to the correct app category before they compare individual options — is the tool this guide introduces because no competitor offers it. The most common mistake isn’t choosing Fitbod over Hevy; it’s treating them as comparable when they solve fundamentally different problems. Getting the category right first makes the individual app choice obvious.

All in all, the workouts are decent, but there are better options out there. There’s a lot to like about Obé, the pastel-hued fitness app that you may have seen on your Instagram feed. Obé offers at least 10 live classes each day and more than 10,000 classes in total—most are 28 minutes long, though there are options from 5 to 60 minutes.

Rotational Decline Weighted Sit-up

I’ve seen many other types of multi-weight dumbells and have never seen any that are as reliable, adjustable and easy to use as Powerblock. I recently dropped one of mine and the elastic cord that holds the adjustment piece in place broke. PowerBlock dumbbells are more than just weights — they’re the foundation of a fully adaptable strength training system. With the ability to attach EZ curl or Straight Bars, you can instantly shift into presses, rows, or curls.

Shifting weight

The platform’s strength lies in its simplicity and focus on proven methodologies. You select a program that aligns with your goals, whether it’s novice linear progression, powerbuilding, or a body-part split, and the app lays out every workout for you. It includes built-in progression schemes, rest timers, and a plate calculator, removing common points of friction during a gym session.

Harvesting Health: Eating Seasonally for Peak Nutrition

• This ensures you are always training in the optimal zone, pushing hard on good days and pulling back when recovery is low.
• WeGLOW is currently the app most directly aligned with that clinical evidence base.
• The app also gets a progressive overload score of 5 out of 5 for its emphasis on volume and built-in de-load weeks.
• You can follow your own route or explore Strava’s massive network of roads and trails, built by millions of athletes worldwide.
• In addition to fitness coaching and personalized workouts, you’ll also receive nutrition guidance and data-driven stats to track your progress.
• Our newest addition, Muscle Booster, earned high scores in those categories.

This community aspect adds a layer of accountability and discovery that many other pure-tracking apps lack. The focus is less on AI-driven plans and more on user-generated content and personal progress, supported by detailed charts and personal record tracking. A month of weekly personal training sessions can cost about a few hundred dollars, depending on your trainer’s rates. The higher end of workout and lifting apps comes in at about $200 per month, meaning most apps will be cheaper than an in-person trainer. According to the Michigan Fitness Association4, hiring a personal trainer costs between $300 and $600 a month. Although $199 per month still beats the cost of in-person personal training, it’s still an expensive training app.

Best For Body Positivity: Obé Fitness

Instead of broad workout templates, it helps you build a highly customized plan based on your specific goals. It even rates exercises based on their effectiveness for targeting specific muscles, allowing you to fine-tune your routine with insights from modern training research. This makes it an invaluable tool for intermediate and advanced lifters focused on breaking through plateaus. The app automates the entire process, telling you exactly which exercises to do, how much weight to lift, and when to increase it. This removes all guesswork, allowing beginners to confidently embrace progressive overload. Its simplicity is its greatest strength, offering a clear path to getting stronger without the complexities of more advanced programming, which is also a core principle of strength training for weight loss.

Best Weightlifting App for Beginners: Muscle Booster

Pliability isn’t just an app—you can also stream its content on your computer—but iPhone users can access all of the content natively on their device. If you want more than just workouts, the Alo Moves app has a plethora of mindfulness and wellness classes, from breathwork and meditation to Reiki and nutrition. The advanced search function on the Alo Moves app and webpage is a key feature, allowing users to quickly and easily filter for the style of workout, difficulty, intensity, and duration of class they’re looking for. To use Apple Fitness+, Apple’s workout app, you must have an iPhone, but you’ll get even more out of it with a paired Apple Watch Series 3 or newer. Depending how deep into the Apple universe you are, that’s either good or bad news. That said, I found some of the strength and cardio video classes a little hard to follow.

Advanced Bird Dog

JuggernautAI costs about as much as the average workout app, however you’re not working with a real coach, and there aren’t any workout options that focus on cardio, cycling, or other activities. Because this is a powerlifting program, it may not be a surprise that you’ll need a squat rack, bench, barbell, and weight plates to complete your workouts. It will also be helpful to have access to dumbbells, kettlebells, and resistance bands for a handful of different exercises. Boostcamp offers better features than the average workout app in nearly every category, which is why we consider it to be the best app for strength training. For those needing a solid program for strength training, we highly recommend Boostcamp.

The best app for lifting weights will depend on your fitness level and goals, along with any specific mode of strength training you wish to pursue. That said, our best pick for most users is the Shred app, which allows for customizable workouts based on the equipment you have on hand, tracks your progress, all while being a fairly inexpensive workout app. Bland, boring workouts will often lead users to abandon their fitness routine. The best weightlifting apps offer a blend of strength training routines, though some repetition may exist. Apps with extensive variety and fresh workouts that keep users engaged and excited earn a 4 or 5.

Key Features & User Experience

“I’d almost argue that personal training apps are more advantageous for beginners, because when we’re first starting out and forming habits, we need more accountability, personalization, and support,” says Felton. In fact, many people spend months trying to figure out training plans on their own which can ultimately slow progress, she explains. Luckily, personal training apps eliminate the question marks and set you up for success.