Adidas Runtastic App Review

These days, people of all walks of life are using technology to enhance physical activity. From grandmas in water aerobics to serious athletes preparing for competitions, a growing number is relying on innovative technology to maximize health and wellness. With so many app options available, fitness enthusiasts can take advantage of extraordinary capabilities without ever paying a dime.

Runtastic is a digital health and fitness platform owned by the well-known sports clothing brand, Adidas. It provides numerous outlets to keep you motivated and add variety to your regimen by allowing you to target muscle groups and create unique workouts around your schedule. From challenges and activity comparisons to achievement celebrations and more, fitness enthusiasts have plenty of ways to stay motivated and accountable.

The company was founded in Austria with a goal to produce fitness tracking apps and services. Adidas purchased the Runtastic for a cool $240 million in 2015 and completed the rebranding process to update all Runtastic channels to Adidas Runtastic by 2019.

Runtastic originally focused on popular sports including running and biking through the use of multiple apps. Adidas simplified matters during the rebranding process by narrowing it down to two apps they found to be most important: Adidas Running and Adidas Training. You can use one account to access both apps and track personal fitness growth. Together, they serve to provide everything fitness enthusiasts need to collect, manage, and analyze both strength and cardio data.

Keep reading to learn how to tap into Premium Runtastic features for free!

What You Need to Know

• You can download and use basic features for free, but premium features cost. (Keep reading for a breakdown of costs, and learn you to tap into free Premium features.)
• The Workout Creator helps you make efficient use of an extensive archive of exercises.
• Track cardio stats like time, distance, and speed, and enjoy customized voice coaching for motivation.
• There’s no need for equipment since the exercises focus on bodyweight.
• Instructional videos provide various angles to ensure correct form.

Getting Started — What Equipment Do You Need?

Runtastic is helpful in that it doesn’t add random exercises that require expensive equipment you may or may not have access to. You can perform all exercises using bodyweight only. To make the most of your training using Runtastic, it’s highly recommended to download both Adidas Running and Training.

Runtastic Running

The Adidas Running app is geared toward tracking activities and connecting with others in the community. Where the training app helps you with bodyweight strength training exercise, the Running app takes care of the cardio component. Whether you’re an advanced runner training for a marathon or a beginner adjusting to the basics, the Running app helps build the ideal training plan. Just some of the sports and activities it can track include football, baseball, boxing, cricket, ice hockey, jump rope, pilates , and even pole dancing.

While Runtastic Running focuses on cardio, you can still track basic stats on strength-building activities like powerlifting and bodyweight training. Although no equipment is required, syncing your fitness watch can enhance your workouts, and Runtastic Running is currently compatible with:

• Apple Watch
• Garmin Connect
• Polar Flow
• Suunto
• Coros

Runtastic Training

Adidas has you covered with a balanced exercise diet including cardio and strength. When you download the Training app, you’ll be asked a few questions to get your program started. Some of these include:

• What is your fitness goal?
• How active are you in your daily life?
• How often do you exercise per week?
• How fit are you right now?
• What is your height and weight?
• What days do you want to workout?

Answering these questions generates your first week of fitness programming. You’ll also be provided a prompt to supplement your training with cardio assistance through the complementary Runtastic Running app if desired. It really is as simple as that. After each workout, you’re asked to provide feedback that includes questions about how hard or easy the workout was. This allows the app to better understand your personal fitness level and make each and every workout that follows more tailored to fit your needs.

What to Expect From an Adidas Runtastic Workout

Where the Running app is more focused on tracking stats like time, speed, and distance, the Training component offers more guidance in terms of how to perform strength activities through free features like the Workout Creator, training plans, and a vast workout collection and instructional exercise videos. Just a few components it takes into consideration include your schedule, what body part you want to focus on, and ways to interact and stay motivated.

Although it’s tempting to jump right into your first workout with either app, explore your dashboard first. You’ll find it helpful as this gives you a chance to take some important preliminary steps like setting up your progress tracker and exploring critical technique tips before you start performing exercises with the wrong form. Patience is key.

Runtastic Running

The free Runtastic Running app provides a great platform for tracking your cardio exercise. Here, you can use GPS tracking to record activities ranging from running and biking to common sports and much more. When an activity is completed, the technology within the app uses the time spent and distance to figure out helpful stats like calorie burn, average pace, and average speed. This data can help you determine caloric deficit to aid in weight loss or train for an upcoming event.

As your body begins to respond to your workouts, its composition will change. Whether you lose weight through fat burn or gain through an increase in muscle mass, it’s important to go into your settings and make note of these changes to ensure your stats are accurate. For example, if you lose 10 pounds, that’s 10 fewer pounds you’re packing on each run that your tracker figures into your caloric burn.

Runtastic Training

Customized workout programming is the primary highlight of the Adidas Runtastic Training app. As you explore the features, however, you’ll discover there’s a whole lot more offered that, when properly utilized, can help you take your health and fitness to a whole new level. Just some of these include:

• Over 120 instructional videos to ensure proper form and technique
• Access to an encouraging community to help you stay motivated and accountable
• Special bonus workouts to advance in strength and overall fitness levels
• Tips to achieve nutrition tailored to most efficiently fuel the activities you’re engaging in

Before you create a custom workout, consider trying a guided program. This allows you to explore modifications and take advantage of pro tips before advancing too quickly. Also, consider combining workouts. Remember, the plan generated isn’t set in stone. Perhaps you want to do a full strength and cardio day. You have the option to do more than one workout the same day, allowing you to truly advance at your own pace.

Runtastic Workout Types

Runtastic Running

When you open the Runtastic Running app, the default screen makes it easy to get straight to the point. All you have to do is press the “Start” button, and the app begins tracking the type of activity you last engaged with a default activity of running. If you need to switch the activity, you just press the settings icon to the right-hand side of the “Start” button, and you’re presented with over 90 activity options. Any time you can engage in exercise you enjoy, go for it. Keeping cardio fun improves sustainability, and the Running app gives you plenty of ideas of ways to keep exercise interesting. If you engage in exercise that you forgot to track at the time, you can go back into the app and manually add your activity to best ensure you stats reflect the actual work done on any certain day.

For most activities, you’ll be wearing shoes, and shoes wear out. Just like you need to change your car’s tires, changing your shoes every 500 kilometers reduces the risk of injury. Runtastic Running helps you keep track of your mileage. Just select the “Add a Shoe” feature, and you can select your brand and model. Runtastic will record usage through Running, Walking, Nordic Walking, Hiking and Running (Treadmill).

Runtastic Training

When you click on a workout, you’re first provided an overview of exercises to preview what lies ahead. You get things kicked off by touching the “Start” button at the bottom of the screen. From there, you have the option to do a five-minute warmup. The personal trainer in me urges you not to skip this step as a dynamic warmup is important to raise the body temperature and increase blood flow to the muscles before you put them to work. However, if you want to skip this step, you do have the option.

Each movement of the workout is guided with voice prompts that can be muted if desired, a timer, and video to guide form with plenty of views and angles to ensure you can see exactly how to perform each movement. Timed breaks are structured into the workout as well. When you’re finished, you’ll be asked how you feel about the workout. Answer this question accurately as it will help the app more effectively tailor future programming. You can then take a picture and share your success with all your friends so they can see how awesome you are.

The ease in workout planning makes the Runtastic Training app a great solution for anyone who needs to workout at home, has little time, doesn’t enjoy the public gym environment, and doesn’t have access to workout equipment. If you have specific goals and prefer to provide more details in the generation of your workout plan, the Workout Creator is well worth the extra time and effort.

It starts off by asking how much time you have ranging from seven to 45 minutes. You then get the option to pinpoint a body part you want to focus on with the following specifications:

• • Full body
  • Upper body
  • Arms
  • Abs & Core
  • Butt
  • Legs

That’s it. A workout with your exact requirements is instantly generated.

Runtastic Nutrition App

As part of their rebranding process, Adidas invested a lot of time and money into determining which apps and products offered the greatest potential. While they used to offer the Balance app that provided detailed nutritional information, optimized eating plans, and an extensive food tracking library, this was phased out in April 2021. This is unfortunate since abs really are made in the kitchen. However, Runtastic users can take advantage of a wealth of knowledge by accessing their extensive nutrition blog that provides valuable information on how to balance out carbohydrates, protein and fats for a diet that’s appropriate for your fitness style.

Our Experience with the Runtastic App

I’ve tried numerous fitness apps, and this, by far, is among the best when it comes to the provision of a way to stay on track with a complete and balanced fitness routine. It’s definitely worth using both the Training and Running apps in tandem as this provides a great way to track and manage both strength and cardio.

With that being said, if you’re the type of person who thrives in an environment heavy on motivational coaching, this may not be the app for you. Aside from general instruction through voice prompts, there’s not much in terms of coaching. Furthermore, contacting customer service is difficult. The only current option is to send an email. In my case, it took five days to receive a response.

If you try out the free version and decide you want even more of what Runtastic has to offer, you can consider becoming a Premium user. According to the app, their Premium users are four times more successful as they receive access to the following features:

• Access to all Training Plans including running plans, race preparation, weight loss, personalized goals, bodyweight training, whole-body training, and hypertrophy training
• Twelve-week, total-body transformation plan
• Advanced statistics
• Personal records
• Auto pause

A unique feature of the Runtastic platform is the ability to access premium features at no cost. Adidas offers a free membership program called Creators Club that allows members to unlock special deals the general public doesn’t get to take advantage of. Just some of the awesome benefits of being a Creators Club member include:

• Hype Access that reserves the release of certain limited-edition products to members only
• Early Access that provides Creators Club members first dibs on certain product launches
• Special events that include invitations and tickets to exclusive Adidas parties, free concerts, and even meet-and-greets with famous athletes
• Free access to Runtastic Premium features

Creators Club members also earn points that can be redeemed to unlock special offers and promotions. There are a number of ways to rack up the points. Simply signing up and creating a profile earns you points from the start as does making purchases, providing reviews, taking part in Adidas Runners events, and using your Runtastic app. The best part is becoming a member is simple. All you have to do is create an Adidas account.

Overall, for a free app, Runtastic is exemplary in the array of features offered. I really enjoyed the ease in accessing modifications, and the platform is very user-friendly. It’s an ideal solution for people of all fitness levels looking for a solution to stay fit on a busy schedule without the need for expensive gym equipment. The large array of prepared workouts keeps you headed toward your fitness goals, and each workout becomes more tailored as you provide feedback, making the app smarter with each use.

Is the Runtastic App Worth It?

So, is the Runtastic Training and/or Running app worth the download? It’s an excellent option for anyone looking for an inexpensive way to get more active since you don’t have to buy any gym equipment. When used together, the Training and Running apps arm you with everything you need for a professionally-guided, full-body workout. Unlike many gimmicky fitness apps out there, Runtastic provides a well-rounded library of bodyweight exercises compatible with all fitness levels. Best of all, with the Workout Creator, you can specify highly-targeted workouts to meet specific fitness goals with expert quality. If your focus is on hypertrophy training, the free app isn’t your best option, but the paid version will help you manage the proper balance of sets, reps, and load to achieve muscle gain. Overall, for a free fitness app, we give the Runtastic a thumbs up.