Workout Showdown: Sworkit Vs. Nike Training Club
Maybe you can’t go to the gym. Maybe you don’t want to go to the gym. Maybe the gym is damn expensive. The good thing is that you can start your workout right away with your phone. But which app gives you the best workouts? We’ll find out today.
Applicants
There are many workout apps out there, but these two are popular and versatile and are available for both iOS and Android. They don’t require any setup or subscription to get started, so you can practice with each one for five minutes right now . Or you can just read these descriptions:
- Sworkit is a longtime favorite of Lifehacker . You can choose the duration of your workout from five minutes to an hour, and the app will fill that time with the type of exercise you want (strength, cardio, etc.). For a fee, you get workout plans and more workout variety. In addition to the full Sworkit app, there are seven other apps, each offering you several specialized workouts: upper and lower body apps, for example, as well as the Cardio app and the kids version.
- Nike + Training Club is a training partner of Nike + Run Club , one of our favorite running apps. NTC offers a huge variety of workouts, from yoga to gym workouts, and always offers a new workout named after a famous athlete. Nike sells shoes, not app subscriptions, so everything, including workout plans, is free.
Both have a variety of workouts that you can do without equipment in the living room, and they have options for everyone from beginners to real monsters. Let’s take a look at them.
Sworkit gives you workouts you can do right now in beautiful clothes
Imagine this. The writer sits alone in her home office, her eyes dim from the clock as she stares at the screen for hours and writes about life hacks. She should really try to work out, but it’s the middle of the day, she only has five minutes and wears a sweater and jeans, not workout clothes. Which app is right for the job?
It didn’t take me long to become a character (Lifehacks: check! Watchful eyes: check!) So my first task was to install Sworkit. I started with the Butt app just because it’s called Butt. Unfortunately, the “Rump Roaster” workout in the screenshots in the Play Store has been removed (or perhaps just renamed), so I chose the “Brazilian Lift” instead. The training really challenged me. The gluteal bridges burned nicely, the leg raises were challenging, and the 30-second break in the middle was briefly relaxing. But I didn’t sweat, so I felt great in my work clothes. I even ate crackers with a few lunges. Success!
Later I noticed that the full Sworkit app even has a workout called Move Without Sweating, which you can do for 5 to 60 minutes. Svorkit understands me.
The NTC failed this test miserably. When I tried to view the workouts, only one was listed as five minutes. I recognized this workout, my longtime benchmark “Nemesis Bodyweight Only”.
I remember the Body Weight Only test last summer. Indeed, it is imprinted in my memory. In total, it requires you to do 50 full push-ups, 50 burpees, and 50 squat jumps. When I tried this last year it took over 20 minutes and almost killed me. So I skipped that and chose the Startup Test of 6 minutes instead.
It was good! I did it in five minutes. It was a few rounds of jumping, squatting, lunging, and knee push-ups. This isn’t the best sweater workout, however, unless you want to literally sweat it out.
Nike wins serious training
Okay, now I have changed into my workout clothes. Which app is the best for serious workouts?
Let’s start again with Sworkit. The full version of the app, not Butt, gives you the choice of strength, cardio, yoga or stretching. Scrolling down brings up other options, including beginner-only workouts. Most of the harder and more fun workouts are locked, but there are many more free. I chose a cardio workout called “Inspired Boot Camp”.
You can choose the duration of the workout, so I asked for 20 minutes. I touched the musical note at the top and found several playlists, three for Apple Music and 12 for Spotify. (NTC has no music linked through their app, although you can find their Spotify playlists on your own if you like.) I blew up one called Throwback Jams and got to work.
I went through the 30-second pieces of Svorkit’s exercises, taking 30-second breaks from time to time. I thought I would get bored, but it was nice to have a predictable workout rhythm. There were jumps, and exercises for the press, and push-ups. At first I was not sure how someone should do half a minute of star jumps, but then I realized that the point was to just use 30 seconds to do as much as possible. So I took a few jumps, rested a few breaths, and took a few more. (I admit that towards the end I skipped a series of dive bomber push-ups and instead just danced to the music.)
Moving on to Nike + Training Club. The first thing you’ll notice is the variety of workouts. You are not limited to movements only with your own weight; there are workouts that require the use of dumbbells, pull-up bars, or plio-boxing. And instead of cycling through a library of movements, the workouts are designed with a specific structure. Some of them have athlete names, such as one from Serena Williams and one from decathlete Ashton Eaton, with movements that match the way they train for their sport.
I did Game Changer, a high intensity workout that starts with some bodyweight warming up movements and then has lower and upper body weightlifting segments. It ends with quick leg work and some stretching during recovery. The other day, I did Fresh on the Circuit, a bodyweight workout in timed sections, which seems a little more like Sworkit to me. It starts with stretches and simple warm-up movements, moves on to various types of lunges, and ends with another set of stretches.
Bottom line: Nike has a range
If you just want a five minute workout in jeans, download Sworkit and stop reading here. Seriously, you would spend more than five minutes reading my report and drafting Sworkit’s defense in the comments. Just run the app already.
Okay, so those of you reading by now should be interested in more than just five minutes of Rump Roaster. For us, Nike + Training Club is the app to choose.
Nike workouts are better thought out and you have more variety in the types of movement. Sworkit has a few more specialized workouts, like the skater workout in its Sports Conditioning section, but those are only available to premium subscribers. The subscription costs $ 7.99 per month.
With Nike, you can get a workout plan for free. And you get an up-to – date plan , written in a calendar, not just a list of workouts and FAQs from a trainer. I use NTC whenever I need a real workout and can’t get to the gym and I know that if I pick the right one, it will kick my ass.
Now I wear Nike shoes too, so I may have been brainwashed. And I admit that with Sworkit you can still get a good workout, but there is no variety in structure (these are always those 30 second nuggets) and the details are robot dice. So I’m awarding it with the NTC, but I’m going to do Nike workouts for the Sworkit playlists. Do not say.