Our Verdict:
Joggo is a personalized running app that generates daily running and strength-training workouts tailored to your current fitness level. While Joggo is intended for users interested in losing weight, the program also benefits beginner or recreational runners seeking varied workouts to improve fitness and running endurance.
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Joggo – Running Plan for Weight Loss
- Monthly membership from $10.00
- Zone 2 cardio training to help you burn calories and fat
- Personalized running plan and complete guide on running
- Includes a delicious, easy-to-follow meal plan for faster weight loss results
On Joggo's Website
Key Features
- Personalized running plan based on your current fitness level, updated every two weeks
- Nutrition tips and personalized meal planning for weight loss
- Access to a library of articles about running, nutrition and other health topics
- Offers strength-training workout plans for non-running days (for an additional fee)
Joggo was founded in 2021 by Chris Zibutis, a former Ironman competitor. The company aims to help people reach their running and weight loss goals through an app-based platform by offering beginner-level runners personalized, varied daily running plans and strength-training workouts. The app tracks runners’ progress, speed and distance to help adjust training plans as needed and can be used during treadmill sessions or outdoor runs. Joggo also offers nutrition information and personalized meal plans to help users optimize their running and weight loss efforts.
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Joggo at a Glance
- Running plan quality: Joggo provides daily workout plans incorporating varied audio-guided running workouts tailored to your current fitness level, including warmups and cool-downs, as well as strength-training tips. Workout plans are updated every two weeks based on your progress.
- App features: The app offers a variety of features to benefit runners, including GPS location tracking, distance and speed monitoring, audio guidance for all workouts, nutrition tips and a personalized meal plan, as well as access to a library of articles on running, nutrition, injury prevention and other health information. The app also features a weight tracker to help record weight loss progress and goals.
- Plan costs: Joggo doesn’t list subscription prices on its website, and the only way to determine pricing is by taking the app’s quiz. According to quiz results, subscriptions are available in two-month running plans for $60 (billed every two months), four-month running plans for $89 (billed every four months) and six-month running plans for $263 (billed every six months), according to quiz results. However, prices vary depending on user preferences, needs and features selected. Strength-training workout guidance costs an additional $1.99 per week—or about $17 for two months. Meal planning comes with the base membership plan.
How Does Joggo Work?
Before downloading the app, Joggo prompts you to answer a series of questions via the company website regarding your current running fitness level, age, gender, height, weight and preferred exercising time (morning, midday, afternoon or evening). Joggo also asks for more personal insights, including which days of the week you prefer to train, current health issues, mood, personal diet and nutrition information, and any weight loss goals.
Joggo uses quiz results to present you with a series of running plan options and give you estimates of how much time it’ll take you to reach your goal, such as a goal weight, using Joggo’s running plan. It’s important to note that weight loss isn’t guaranteed and the time frame of progress presented is simply an estimate. Once you choose the plan that best suits your needs, you’re asked to go for a test run, during which the app assesses your fitness level and further customizes your running plan.
The Joggo app assigns you a running fitness level and generates running workouts—and strength-training workouts for an additional fee—for the following two weeks. Running plans also include warmup and cool-down exercises, interval runs, fartlek runs—runs that alternate between segments of faster and slower paces—speedwork and strength training.
If using Joggo outside with the GPS tracking feature enabled, the app tracks your distance, pace and elevation gain. If you’re using a treadmill and don’t have an Apple Watch to track your progress, the app won’t collect performance data, though you can enter it manually.
Joggo running plans are customizable, meaning if your plan feels too simple or too challenging, you can update its difficulty level. You can also adjust your workout schedule and which days you choose to exercise.
When you’re ready to start your run, choose whether you’re running outside or on a treadmill, and hit the start button in the app. Joggo provides audio prompts throughout your workout, including when you begin a segment, when you’re halfway through and, during longer segments, when you have a quarter left. Joggo tracks your time, speed and distance as you run and provides videos for warmup and cool-down exercises at the beginning and end of each session.
How Much Does Joggo Cost?
Joggo doesn’t publish their pricing on their website and membership costs are only available by taking the app’s online quiz. The app offers three subscription levels, all of which include meal planning. The below prices are based on the results of a completed online quiz.
- Two-month running plan: $7.59 per week, or a total of about $60 for two months, billed every two months
- Four-month running plan: $5.29 per week, or a total of about $89 for four months, billed every four months
- Six-month running plan: $10.13 per week, or a total of about $263 for six months, billed every six months
Joggo also offers an additional strength-training workout plan geared toward increasing upper body and core strength, which costs $1.99 per week, or about $17 for two months.
Experience The Joy Of Running
Whether you're a seasoned marathoner or just starting out, Joggo's expert trainers and state-of-the-art gear will help you experience the joy of running like never before.
What Experts Say About Joggo
Joggo is a great app for beginners or those who need extra support and motivation to get back into fitness, says David Mason, a certified personal trainer based in the U.K. and founder of Barbells Abroad. “The fact that it begins with a short assessment run to check the starting fitness level of the user is a great feature, and I’ve found it to be pretty accurate,” he adds.
An additional benefit of Joggo is its plan variety, which is an important factor in training, says Carleton Perry, a youth track and field coach in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and former track and cross country athlete. “The last thing runners should do—though it’s exactly what many do—is repeat the same workout over and over again,” he adds, also noting the app’s user-friendly, simple instructions.
Mason finds Joggo’s meal plans less useful. “Plans are based on your current weight and your target weight but aren’t really able to take into account eating for other fitness goals,” explains Mason. However, he notes the meal plans do offer inspiration for healthy recipes.
People who are new to fitness or struggling to get back into fitness will get the most benefit out of Joggo, according to Mason. It works well for keeping people motivated and on track, but it’s less useful for experienced runners who require more tailored workouts and customizable meal plans, he adds.
The Joggo Experience
I’ve been a runner for many years but with virtually no formal training or coaching. I reviewed the Joggo app while attempting to resume running after recovering from a knee injury. I noted these details when taking Joggo’s online quiz before signing up for the app, specifying that I could comfortably run two miles and selecting “fitness” as my overall goal.
I had some technical issues during my initial assessment run and accidentally ended the workout before completing my run. Unfortunately, the app didn’t allow me to restart the assessment run, though I did complete a free run—a run that doesn’t follow a specific workout plan and tracks your time, speed, distance and location free run—hoping the app would use my performance during this run to create my running plan.
Joggo assigned me to the Level 6 Beginner running plan —a level for runners who can run a distance of 1.5 miles—which seemed consistent with my answers in the initial questionnaire. Joggo running levels range from Level 1 Walker, which assumes you can walk fast at 100 steps per minute pace for 10 minutes, through Level 14 Pro, which assumes you can easily run more than 6 miles and are looking to improve your speed and distance.
My personalized plan projected I’d be running 13.2 miles in four months. It also estimated I would lose percentages in my body measurements, even though weight loss wasn’t my overall goal.
In one of my first workouts, Joggo instructed me to run slowly for 20 minutes as a warmup before beginning a fartlek run/walk as my workout. This felt daunting, as 20 minutes of running in my current state of fitness is often my entire workout, not my warmup. However, I appreciated that Joggo pushed me beyond what I would’ve done without the app, and my running fitness and strength has certainly improved during my training.
I paid the additional fee for a strength training plan, so on non-running days, Joggo assigned between 5- to 15-minute bodyweight workouts consisting of exercises like jump squats, double leg donkey kicks, planks, lunges and push-ups. The app provides videos for each exercise and audio cues when it’s time to move on to the next exercise.
Joggo did well creating varied exercise plans, whether I was running outside or on my treadmill, and it helped me explore outside of my usual routine of only running for 30 minutes.
Joggo offers virtual trophies for completing workouts, which motivated me to stick with my plan. However, the app doesn’t offer much motivation during the workouts. During some segments, the only form of encouragement was a computerized voice stating pre-programmed phrases, such as, “You’re halfway through. Keep going.”
I also found the Joggo software to be glitchy at times. The app shut down in the middle of my workout, causing me to restart, and in instances when I skipped ahead to another section of my workout accidentally, I wasn’t able to go back to the previous exercise.
In regards to my nutrition plan, although I noted that I wasn’t interested in weight loss in the app’s online quiz, Joggo recommended a nutrition plan that was about 500 calories lower than a person my age, height, weight and activity level should be consuming for weight maintenance, according to research.
I appreciated the resources Joggo provided, such as running advice, food and nutrition tips, and health and safety articles, which were interesting, easy to understand and science-based. From articles explaining how to breathe correctly while running to proper arm position and why recovery is crucial, the information was enlightening to a runner like me without any formal training.
Overall, Joggo helped me improve my running fitness, made my workouts more interesting and well-rounded, and improved my strength.
