Most of you know that I am a personal trainer with my own training app (FHM+), but I didn’t always have my own app or do my own workouts. In fact, I spent a good number of years testing and trying other people’s apps and programs. Honestly, it was from all of this testing that I was able to get clear on exactly what kind of program I wanted to bring to the market.

Sadie Active was one of the apps that I’ve used in the past. I spent 3-4 months using the Sadie Active App, following the strength training workouts consistently. Let’s chat about my experience!

Why I Chose to Try Sadie Active

I had seen several people talking about Sadie Active on IG and ended up following her. When it came time to mix up my workout routine a bit (I had been doing Madeline Moves for a couple of years), I decided to give Sadie Active a try. 

I liked the message Sadie shared on her IG, and the style of workouts she offered seemed to be in alignment with the type I was looking for. At this stage in my fitness and strength training journey, I was still looking for a program that changed up the workouts every week, and that’s exactly what Sadie’s program offered. 

From a pricing perspective, Sadie offers one of the lowest monthly prices for her strength training programs at just $10/month. Sadie doesn’t host her app on a classic workout platform (most of us white label apps), I believe her husband built the app out, which is pretty cool - this helps to keep the cost down.

My Experience

There was a 7-day free trial on the app, which is always nice because it gives you the ability to test the workouts out before committing to the monthly membership. I signed up and downloaded the app, and I'm excited to get started. 

When I first tried the app in 2022, there were only a couple of programs available in the app, with the weekly workouts being the most popular program. Now, there are several programs to choose from: the regular weekly workouts, the beginner program, the prenatal program, bands only, and bodyweight only. Her prenatal program is new to the app and a great option for pregnant and new moms. 

I did Sadie’s regular weekly program. She added the new workouts to the app every weekend to prepare for the upcoming week. When I was doing the workouts, there was only a 5-day per week option, however, you can now choose a 3-day plan as well. 

The weekly training split looks like this:

• Monday: Lower body
• Tuesday: Upper body
• Wednesday: Abs + conditioning
• Thursday: Lower body
• Friday: Back + biceps

You can choose between home and gym options by changing your settings in the app to reflect the place you work out from most. You can also choose whether or not you want your workouts to include warm-ups and cool downs - this is another new feature that wasn’t available when I was using the app. 

My experience using Sadie Active was great. I liked the exercise selection and workout flow. The workouts are not follow-along workouts, meaning it isn’t a video that you follow along to, it’s a series of exercises that include a short video demonstration along with written form cues to help you get your form right. I prefer this style of workout to a follow-along video as it allows you to go at your own pace.

There’s space for tracking your weight, reps, and progress in the app, which is nice. However, since the workouts are different each week, it’s hard to judge when the next time will be that you’re completing a certain exercise, which makes it hard to apply progressive overload. Sadie often addresses the progressive overload concern on IG, stating she applies it in different ways (using different exercises each week that work the same muscle groups). It’s a bit controversial, but I respect that that’s her approach.

Why I Stopped Using Sadie Active

I ended up using Sadie Active consistently for a few months before cancelling my membership. I enjoyed the workouts and think she offers an amazing product for the price, however, I was looking to start focusing more on progressive overload in the traditional sense, repeating the same workouts over the course of a month or more.

I feel like I graduated from needing the novelty of new workouts each week to keep me “interested” to a more serious approach to weight training, where I wanted to start to see, track, and feel my progress with each lift. My experience with Madeline Moves (Moves App) and Sadie Active helped to lead me to this desire. I felt as though my progress had stalled quite a bit and was ready to switch up my training routine - basically, I wasn’t seeing any new body composition changes.

Overall, I think Sadie’s app is very well thought out and provides a very high-quality workout experience at an awesome price. She has hundreds, maybe thousands, of users, which is incredible. I love seeing women in this industry succeed, especially those who keep it real and don’t do a lot of “spammy” content to get new followers/members.

My Personal Fitness Transition

After spending years strength training using workouts that changed every week, my progress had stalled. I wasn’t seeing any new muscle or body composition changes, and I often felt like I was doing too much. I wanted to simplify my training and be more intentional about progressive overload (repeating the same exercises for multiple weeks to increase strength and efficiency). 

Around this time, I renewed my personal training certification (I used to teach group fitness classes before having kids), I got my macro coaching certification, and began diving deep into the world of efficient and effective training. I started programming my own workout plans that I would follow for 4-5 weeks at a time, tracking my progress with every lift and always pushing myself to add progressive overload (more reps, more weight, better form, etc.).

I kept the exercises simple and effective in nature, choosing the basics in rep ranges that made sense for my goal, which was to see body composition changes (decreased body fat, increased muscle tone). I started programming rest times between each set to ensure I was properly allowing my body to recover from one set before jumping into the next. Resting between sets also allowed me to put forth my best effort in my next set. Rest times are something that often gets lost in a lot of programs that do a lot of circuits.

I started to see some incredible improvements in my body composition, finally dropping fat and seeing new muscle definition at the same time. I also became obsessed with this simplistic style of training. As a woman in my mid-thirties, I don’t have the desire to be jumping around from exercise to exercise, dripping sweat, and feeling totally gassed after every workout. Instead, this new approach I was taking led me to feel strong, empowered, and confident in myself.

I realized that it’s not about the calorie burn on your watch or the amount of sweat you leave on the gym floor - those aren’t good measures of progress. Instead, I’ve learned that putting forth your best effort into every exercise, resting, and giving your body the right amount of stimulus is the true key to seeing results.

I have since taken my exact approach to fitness and shared it inside my very own app, FHM+, where hundreds of women train alongside me each month.

More About the FHM+ App Workouts

Inside the FHM+ App, you’ll find 3 workout plans each month: 3, 4, or 5 days per week. Each day, you have the option to choose between a 30 or 45 minute workout, all of which I test for time to ensure we’re hitting right around that mark (I respect your time and know how frustrating it can be to not be able to finish your workout due to time constraints!).

Here’s what my weekly workout schedule looks like for the 5-day plan:

• Monday: Lower Body I
• Tuesday: Upper Body Push (Shoulders, chest, triceps) + Core
• Wednesday: Upper Body Pull (Back, biceps)
• Thursday: Lower Body II
• Friday: Full Body Conditioning + Core

My workouts are simple, straightforward, and all designed to be done from home with minimal equipment (dumbbells, bands, and a step, bench, or sturdy surface). 

If you’re looking for a workout plan that keeps things simple, efficient, and effective while remaining realistic for busy schedules, I invite you to join us for a free trial!