Work out at home with Nike Training Club
With a wide range of workouts on offer, you may never step foot in another gym.
If there’s one thing we’ve learnt this year, it’s that working out doesn’t have to be limited to the gym. With lockdown forcing the closure of gyms across Australia, people were forced to find alternate forms of exercise that didn’t involve a barbell or a cross-trainer. Nike Training Club is an app with over 100 workouts, many of which you can do from the comfort of your lounge room, equipment-free. Coming from the creators of the also popular app Nike Running Club, this app has been designed with all users in mind, offering a wide range of workouts focused on strength, cardio and mobility. In this guide we’ll walk you through the setup process before highlighting the different features of this great app.
The basics
Creating an account. To get started, download the Nike Training Club app from the Google Play or Apple App Store. If you’ve previously used Nike’s running app, then you can login with that account. Otherwise, tap Join and enter your name, email address, password and a username. The app will also ask for your gender, plus the number of workouts you tend to do each week.
Browsing. Once set up, you’ll be taken to the main area of the app, organised into a series of tabs located at the bottom of your screen. In terms of workouts, you’ll find them all in the tab labelled Workouts. To access the complete list of what’s available, tap Browse to see workouts organised by muscle group, focus or equipment required.
Starting a workout. After finding a workout you like, tap it to see its description, duration and intensity. Also on this page is a list of exercises included in the workout – pick one to see a video demonstration. You can also mark workouts as favourites for easy reference at a later date by tapping the bookmark icon in the top-right corner of the screen. To begin a workout, tap the download icon and then once ready hit Start. You can play some tunes by tapping the audio icon and choosing a playlist from Apple Music (or alternatively, open up Spotify). During the workout, a voice will guide you through the different exercises, while videos for each movement will be displayed on the screen. You can pause, rewind and skip exercises using the on-screen controls.
Step it up a level
Filters. While browsing for workouts, you can apply filters to help find exactly what you’re looking for. From the Browse screen, tap Filter in the bottom-left corner to reveal a page where you can then limit results by intensity level, workout focus, equipment or duration.
Collections. In addition to filters, Nike Training Club offers curated collections of workouts designed with a particular goal
Coming from the creators of the also popular app Nike Running Club, this app has been designed with all users in mind, offering a wide range of workouts focused on strength, cardio and mobility.
or occasion in mind. For example, there’s one for building stronger abs, and another with workouts perfect for when you have limited space to move around. You’ll find these in the Workouts tab under the section labelled Collections.
Activity. You can keep track of the workouts you complete from the Activity tab. It’s here you’ll find a complete history of logged workouts, sorted by date. Tap one to see a summary of your efforts, including the duration and calories burned. For each workout you can also specify the level of difficulty, plus record the location where you did it – either at the gym, at home or outdoors.
Achievements. As you workout more and more, you’ll be rewarded in the form of virtual trophies for reaching new milestones and breaking records. Located on the Activity tab under Achievements, you’ll earn awards for streaks of three, four and five workouts in a week, plus after exercising at different times of the day and year.
Going pro
Airplay. Feeling limited by the small screen of your smartphone? If you own an Apple TV, then you can beam your workout onto the big screen
– simply swipe up and turn on screen mirroring. Android users also have the option of wirelessly streaming to a Google Chromecast (note that Chromecast is not supported on the iPhone app).
Apple Watch. Readers in possession of an Apple Watch will also appreciate direct integration with the Nike Training Club App. In addition to keeping track of your heart rate, you can play, pause and skip exercises, plus control music directly from your smartwatch. To set it up, tap the profile icon in the top-left corner of any tab and select Settings >
Workout Settings > Apple Watch.
Training Plans. While the app is great for finding workouts on the fly, you can also sign up to a training plan designed to achieve a particular goal. Included in the app are plans for building strength, endurance, plus overall general fitness. Accessed from the Workouts tab under Plans, simply select your desired program and answer a series of questions, including how often you want to train each week.
The app will then put together a personalised training schedule which you can then tweak to your needs.
Premium. You may not know it, but there’s a whole lot of additional features and workouts hidden within the app. Nike Training Club Premium unlocks new programs and workout formats, including classes run entirely by an on-screen trainer, plus educational videos. Normally requiring a paid subscription, at the time of writing, Nike has made it free to all as a result of COVID-19. The catch? It’s only available in the US, but you can gain access to it simply by changing your country in the app – just visit Settings > Country/Region and select United States.