Daily Burn - Fitness

[Jondagcl]

Daily Burn is a web based workout program that you've probably seen commercials for on TV.  It's got the person on the iPad doing yoga on the beach and then that one guy exercising in front of a giant fireplace.  You know, the usual places you exercise.  I sort of went from laughing at the commercials to watching one a few weeks ago and then downloading the app and checking it out.  Hope this helps you out if you've been thinking about it.  I was inspired by Golyspy Dave's fitness reviews to write this up.

 

Background on me

I'm not trying to lose weight.  I exercise 4-5 times a week, I've also done other program style workouts - P90X.  In fact I've done P90X twice (except for the yoga part because I just can't get into that.  I always subbed out yoga for running)  I also have a mini home gym with bench, dumbbells, full mats on the floor, box for jumps, pull up bar, resistance bands.  It's by no means a full gym, but I have enough things to vary exercises.  I am approaching the Daily Burn as a new thing to potentially add into my rotation, not a lose weight quick thing.  But if this is your thing, it does have programs for that as well.

 

How does it compare to P90X?

P90X is very polished.  It's been out forever and is disc based (at least when I did it).  I also used an app for my iPhone to track workouts (which was incredibly helpful) calendar out exercises, reschedule workouts that I missed, enter rep numbers etc.  The app wasn't always perfect, and was updated a few times.  In the end it was pretty dang good – and a lot of thought and effort went into an iPhone app that supported the program extremely well.  But P90X takes a TON of your time, the exercises can get long and somewhat tedious, the app makes you feel bad that you skip yoga because it knows what you skipped then sends you alerts, and the program is pretty expensive.  Once you do the math on the 3 installments and shipping you are at like 140 bucks.  But it is indeed a great exercise regimen if you stick with it.  I did it twice and would do it again.

 

Things you will need to do Daily Burn

-A TV – unless you want to do this on the beach like the girl in the commercial

-iPad or iPhone (probably works on a droid but I have not used that, step into 2014 grandpa and get an iPhone)

-Apple TV.  Yes you can use your smartphone or do it on the iPad itself.  Go ahead and give that a shot and let me know how following an instructor on a tiny screen goes for you.  If you travel it's a cool option in a pinch – as your default position get an Apple TV and stream it.  You might consider the Apple TV an extravagance, but you'll see how much you use it if you don't have one already.  Plus it's 99 bucks, that's cheaper than the fancy head cover on our putter.

-Dumbbells (I use power blocks because I have a home gym and do not want a rack with a million dumb bells)  You don't need a lot, probably a set of 10's and 20's or 15's and 25's.  You definitely need at least a “light” and a “heavy”

-Mat – a yoga mat or those interlocking foam floor tiles

-box to jump on (go to home depot and get a step in the ladder section (10 bucks) and save money from buying a “plyo box” which is like 40 bucks. 

-space – you need room to stretch, run back and forth like 3 strides

 

 

What exactly does Daily Burn do?

Since it is web based there is a site that you can go to and check it out.  I found the site to be lacking in basic details about what you would get.  Perhaps I should have looked at all of their videos – but I didn't.  I logged in and wanted a few drop downs to find out what programs they had and was left with a ton of questions.  Maybe this is the point, because the 30-day trial is free, and you can cancel before it starts hitting your account with $10.00 a month fees (which is pretty cheap – that's 14 months of P90X).  So I guess the idea is to drive perspective users to the trial.  It worked, I bit.

 

Aside from that one day 5 minute interaction, I have never gone back to the site.  I downloaded the app to my iPad and checked it out – I have interfaced with this through the app from that moment forward.  There are a ton of programs from beginner to advanced, from a person that wants to work out 15 minutes all the way to longer workouts.  From a person that wants to lose weight to a person that wants to get lean, or put on muscle.  All in all I counted 14 programs – prenatal yoga, dance, cardio, strength, and intense high-energy type programs like one called Inferno.  It's pretty diverse.  Inferno is the one I am doing and I like it a lot.

 

After using it for a couple of weeks here are my thoughts

-The actual program is way better than the site leads on.  Kind of like buying an item in a poorly marked box and then opening it and being blown away by how good it is.

-The exercise videos, particularly those in the Inferno program, are produced well and have quality exercises that make the 30-45 minutes fly by.

-I run the entire program as an app from my iPad that I stream to an Apple TV.  The app is very limited, you just hit play on a workout and it starts queuing them up for you in order for the set amount of days the program is supposed to run.  I don't work like this, I like to do the workouts then arrange them myself, I may also miss a workout and want to reschedule.  Also, if you and your spouse share this, then only one program is set as the default, and the other person will have to manually select the ones they want to do.

-If you stream it on Apple TV it has an awesome “double screen” feature – where you watch the streamed program on TV and the iPad turns into a graph that charts when is coming up next and where you are in that particular exercise.  It also guesses your calories and makes you feel awesome, because it's probably showing you WAY more than you are actually burning.  (so I find that feature useless)

-The lady that does the Inferno workouts is 100 times more enjoyable to look at than the P90X guy. 

 

Is this better than a gym, or P90X or any other program?

It's different, and it keeps you coming back for new stuff.  I never do any exercise regimen for more than 6 months, and if I'm being honest probably 3 months.  You could theoretically cycle through 5-6 programs on this thing and never go to a gym, but there are many things a gym offers (some tangible some intangible) that being in front of a TV will never give you.  You may also counter that after 14 months P90X pays for itself, I'd argue back that you don't sit there doing P90X over and over again.  So it's not exactly apples to apples.  To be clear, I have P90X and I like it.  I figured for 10 bucks a month I'd do Daily Burn as long as it stayed fresh, when it got boring you cancel the subscription.

 

Final Grade

B+/A-  Great program, the interface needs to be improved, multiple users should be supported.  Desperately needs a more intuitive calendaring option.  The app needs to be way more than a way to simply press play on something you want to watch.

 

Hope this helps some of the fitness guys out there, it's a legit program and at least worth the 30 day demo. 

[whiskey golf]

Nice review, very imformative. I personally don't use exercise programs such as this or P90X, I prefer a normal gym.