Over the last few years, I’ve seen a lot of people on Instagram promoting The Gym Nurse’s fitness app. If you’re not familiar with “the Gym Nurse,” she’s a 40-something mom, trainer, and fitness influencer who shares her story of going from overweight and under muscled to achieving the body composition and relationship with food of her dreams.
The Gym Nurse, aka Shannon, shares a ton of great resources on Instagram for her followers and a lot of what she shares is very aligned with my personal approach to fitness and nutrition. As a fellow personal trainer and macro coach, I like to keep an eye on the space and support other trainers.
About a year ago, I decided to give The Gym Nurse’s app a try. I enjoy her content about building muscle and progressive overload and wanted to give her program a try. Here’s my feedback!
My Experience with The Gym Nurse Training App
When I tried the Gym Nurse App, I was already familiar with the app that she white labels to host her app on (I use the same one!), so I was familiar with the format and how to use it. As a side note, 99% of the time, I follow the exact workouts that I share with my clients in the Simply Strong App, but every so often, I like to try other trainers' methods and let someone else program my personal workouts.
The Gym Nurse app has 3 different program options each month with 3, 4, or 5 days per week designed to be done at the gym (using gym equipment) and then a 4-day per week home program that uses dumbbells and and bands. I workout from home exclusively, so I chose the 4-day home workout program as it had exercises in there that I could do with the equipment I have readily available.
I liked how the workouts were structured with 2 upper body days and 2 lower body days, I use a similar approach for my 4-day program. I also liked that most of the workouts contained single exercises vs a lot of supersets and circuits. I prefer single sets where you’re doing the same exercise for the prescribed number of sets and then resting before moving on to the next exercise in the workout.
The exercises are the basics, which again, I love and vibe with as that’s the approach I take in my programming as well. You can expect to see all the basic, most effective exercises programmed for 3-4 sets each with moderate rep ranges. Every exercise has a form video along with detailed form cues and instructions for making the most of each exercise.
The app platform itself is really user friendly and advanced as far as workout progression, tracking, and logging goes. I noticed that there are alternatives listed for any exercise that might need a modification, but there weren’t many in the home program. I took a a peek at the gym program and there seemed to be more alternatives listed there as gym equipment access can be a bit tougher to navigate. The workouts took me between 45-60 minutes to complete, which is a tad longer than I prefer at this stage.
The Gym Nurse app has programs that run for 8 weeks at a time, but she uploads new programs every 6 weeks in case you’re ready to switch before 8 weeks is up. You repeat the same workouts each week for 6-8 weeks with these programs with the goal of progressive overload.
I personally prefer to switch up my programs every 4-5 weeks tops (which is what I do in the Simply Strong App). I find that around the 4-5th week, the moves start to feel a little stale and boredom kicks in, so we do new programs monthly. There’s no right or wrong way to progressively overload, whether you do a program for 4 weeks or 8 weeks, there are plenty of opportunities for growth and improvement. Plus, when you keep your exercises to the basics, you’ll be repeating them (or very similar versions of them) often anyway.
I completed a full 6 weeks of the Gym Nurse and liked it a lot. I do think that I would like the gym workouts better, but since I don’t go to the gym, it wasn’t really an option. This app is very clearly marketed and designed for women who want to build a lot of muscle. Personally, I’m more at a maintenance phase of muscle building at this point as I’ve been doing this for years and am very comfortable with the amount of muscle I have now (not really trying to add more, to be honest).
Overall Opinion and Final Thoughts
I’m really happy that I gave the Gym Nurse’s app a try. I definitely resonate with her training style and already enjoy the app platform that she uses, which made my trial even easier and more enjoyable. If I had someone ask me for a recommendation for a good gym program that’s focused on progressive overload, I would definitely recommend this app.
If you’re comfortable with repeating the same program for 6-8 weeks at a time and have a goal of building as much muscle as possible, this app is probably going to be a great fit for you.
On the other hand, if you’re like me and love and appreciate the concept of progressive overload but also like a bit more variety, I would recommend giving the Simply Strong App a go.
We publish new workout programs every month and focus on more than just muscle building (although, we absolutely do that, too!). Every workout in the Simply Strong App includes a warmup, a cooldown/stretch, and exercises that help you become stronger, leaner, and more athletic as you age. Plus, every program is designed to be done from home in 30-45 minutes.