Ladder App Review: A Personal Trainer’s Honest Take

I’ve been familiar with the Ladder App for a couple of years now, but when Hilary Duff became the face of the brand recently, I paid closer attention (as did thousands of other people who grew up idolizing Hillary).

As a personal trainer and founder of the Simply Strong App, I truly enjoy trying other workouts and apps, especially when they’re super trendy. Case in point, I tried Jessie James Decker’s new fitness app, JJD Fit Club, a couple of months ago when it exploded on the market and got a good feel for the type of workouts thousands of women were instantly signing up for.

In the case of Ladder, despite the Hillary Duff promo, Ladder has become one of the most popular strength-focused fitness apps on the market - and for good reason! The Ladder app is very robust, and they have a bunch of great trainers creating workouts within their “teams” on the app.

As a certified personal trainer and the founder of Simply Strong, I look at fitness apps a little differently than the average user. I’m not just asking whether a workout makes me sweat. I want to know whether the programming makes sense, whether progression is actually built in, whether the workouts are practical, and whether the app has the features and tools necessary to help people get stronger over time.

So I put Ladder to the test! This Ladder app review breaks down how the app works, what it does well, where I have questions, and how it compares with Simply Strong.

What Is the Ladder App?

Ladder is a strength training app built around coach-led training programs that they refer to as “teams”. Instead of opening the app and scrolling through hundreds of unrelated workouts, you choose a program based on your goals and training preferences. From there, Ladder gives you a workout plan to follow.

The goal is to remove a lot of the decision-making that comes with working out on your own. And Ladder lets you switch your “team” up to 2x per month, so if you discover that you’re not loving the workouts, the instructor, etc., you can switch to a different program. I like that they allow that freedom, but also limit it to prevent too much program hopping.

Each “team” has its own training style and head coach. You get matched with a handful of options after answering some initial questions about your goals, preferences, and equipment. Once you have your options, you can explore each a bit more before locking into a program. Program options range from traditional strength training to functional fitness, kettlebell training, Pilates, and more.

The most important thing about Ladder’s approach to training is that they are promoting structured programming, not just giving users a library of random workouts. As a personal trainer who believes in following a structured program, I really appreciate this aspect of Ladder.

How Does the Ladder App Work?

1. Choose a Training Program

When you join Ladder, you’ll be prompted to go through questions about your goals, experience, training frequency, and preferences. Ladder will give you some potential coach/team options that fit your preferences, and you’ll be able to select one.

2. Follow Your Weekly Plan

Once you choose your team, you’ll be prompted to complete your first workout in the app before Ladder unlocks the full week of workouts. Once you complete the first workout, the rest of that week’s workouts will be available on your calendar in the app.

Each Ladder team publishes new workouts every week. While this isn’t my preferred approach to strength training, as I am more partial to progressive overload and repeating workouts throughout the month, some people enjoy the novelty of having new workouts each week.

3. Follow Along With Your Coach

One of Ladder's standout features is its coaching experience. Workouts not only include the form cue video, but the coach is also in your ear talking you through each exercise. This is nice for those who feel they need the extra reassurance and support during their workouts.

Personally, I prefer to listen to my audiobooks while I work out, so I am not a fan of the chatting from the coach; however, there’s an option to turn that off, which is nice. That said, once you turn the coaching off, you have the option to listen to Spotify or Pandora - I couldn’t get my podcast or audiobook to play alongside the app, which was a bummer for me.

4. Track Your Workouts

Ladder includes a workout tracking feature where you can record your weights and reps and look back at your training history. Honestly, it took me a few minutes to figure out where this feature was and how to use it. Tracking, logging, and being able to view exercise history are crucial for strength training, so I’m very glad they have it, but wished it were a little more prominent and easy to access.

While it’s great that you can track your exercise weights and reps, the fact that the workouts change every week doesn’t present as many opportunities to apply progressive overload - so the tracking and your progress will be a little more sporadic than if you were repeating workouts for weeks at a time.

5. Swap Exercises When Needed

Another useful feature is exercise swapping. If an exercise doesn’t feel right to you, you don’t have the equipment for it, or you just want to do another exercise, Ladder has an exercise swap feature that allows you to make changes so you can find an exercise that suits your needs and preferences.

This is another feature that I value highly as a personal trainer, as it’s very common for people, especially those working out at home, to run into equipment availability issues, and it’s important to have available swaps so clients don’t feel discouraged.

My Experience Using Ladder as a Personal Trainer

I was honestly really excited to give Ladder a try. It’s one of the fastest-growing strength training apps for a good reason; it’s got something for everyone.

Once I got the app downloaded, I noticed that it allowed me to get started with a free 14-day trial without putting my credit card in, which is rare and a nice perk for those who want to try things before they commit. One thing I will say about offering such a long free trial and no commitment is that a lot of people will sign up with the best of intentions and never even open the app or try their first workout, which is always a bummer.

I liked that they led me through some questions to help match me to a team. It was a quick process that went smoothly. Once I was finished, there were probably 5-6 potential matches. I was excited to see that two of my favorite Ladder coaches, who I follow on Instagram, were identified as possible matches for me. I ended up choosing the one that I felt was the best fit for me. Each “team” has a name, and it’s easy to find out more information about the coach and their training style before selecting that team.

Once I selected my team, I was brought to the first workout that I was required to log before moving forward. I don’t think I necessarily needed to do that workout right then, but it was required before unlocking the rest of the program.

Once I started the workout, it took me a minute to familiarize myself with the app’s interface and how to use it. It’s very robust - which can be a good or a bad thing. I’m used to using the Simply Strong App, which has many of the same features but operates a bit differently. But overall, what matters most is the training itself. Here are some of the questions I asked myself as I was navigating the workouts:

Does the programming actually make sense?

I thought the workout split that was given to me was a bit interesting. The team I chose had the following schedule:

• Full body
• Upper body
• Lower body
• Full body
• Full body

Typically, a 5-day training program is broken down into muscle-group-specific workouts (2 lower body days per week, upper body push, upper body pull, and 1 full body), so this was very intriguing to me. This told me that the programming was less focused on hypertrophy training and more on general strength, which is completely fine.

The workouts themselves did a great job of covering the basics. The exercises within each workout were very similar to what I would program in my app, and the rep ranges and order made sense to me.

Is progressive overload actually happening?

I’m a big believer in progressive overload, especially for women over 35. Progressive overload isn’t just doing a progressively harder workout; it’s giving your body an appropriate reason to adapt over time. This means that you need to repeat exercises for at least a few weeks at a time with the intent to increase your weights, reps, sets, range of motion, time under tension, control, form, etc

Ladder gives users new workouts every week, which means the exercises are different each week, which makes true progressive overload difficult to achieve. Yes, you can still see results with different exercises each week, but it’s not as optimal for muscle growth and strength (in my opinion and from my experience).

Are the workouts practical?

I have found that the sweet spot for most women when it comes to workouts is 3-5x per week for 30-45 minutes each session - this is where women see results without feeling overwhelmed and as if their lives are determined by their workout schedules.

From the workouts that I tried and tested in the Ladder App, I found them to be very practical for busy women. Workouts ranged from 30-60 minutes. There are 5 workouts per week on the schedule, which can be difficult for busy women to maintain, but you can definitely shave off a workout or two.

How much coaching is actually helpful?

One feature of Ladder workouts that people either love or hate is the coaching. Personally, I don’t want to hear a coach walking me through things, as I can navigate myself and would rather listen to my audiobooks. But some women really enjoy and appreciate the extra coaching and support. I think it’s helpful for beginners and those who want to feel more connected to the workouts. It’s also nice that Ladder allows you to turn that feature off.

What I Like and Dislike About the Ladder App

Honestly, Ladder is really impressive. But I wouldn’t expect anything less from a large fitness company that’s quickly becoming one of the best strength training apps available. There are a ton of great features and plenty of variety to suit just about anyone’s needs and preferences.

I like that Ladder is primarily a strength-focused app and that you can choose from a bunch of different programs and teams to find the training style that best suits your needs. And as I mentioned above, I actually really like following a handful of their coaches, as they have such a realistic and motivating approach to training that I deeply resonate with.

The main thing that I don’t love is that Ladder issues new workouts every week. Yes, it’s great for those who love novelty and fear boredom, but it’s not the most optimal way to build strength. I also think that, while it’s great to have a lot of programs to choose from, that concept can also promote program hopping. Ladder limits your ability to switch teams to two times per month, but still - there’s a lot of temptation to check out other programs, which can lead to inconsistent training.

Finally, I personally don’t love the in-ear coaching aspect as I’d rather watch the form cues, read the notes, and go along at my own pace while listening to whatever I want in my headphones. I like that you can turn the coaching part off, but I couldn’t get my audiobook to play with the app, which was a big bummer for me.

Ladder vs. Simply Strong

Simply Strong is my app, and I take a different approach to strength training for women, despite the fact that Ladder and Simply Strong both focus on strength training. Here’s how Ladder and Simply Strong match up.

The biggest philosophical difference, in my opinion, comes down to how you want your training to progress. Ladder gives you a coach-led experience with new programming each week. Simply Strong takes a more intentionally repetitive approach, giving you enough exposure to movements so that you can practice them, track them, and progressively overload them without constantly reinventing your workouts. In Simply Strong, new workouts roll out on a monthly basis, rather than weekly. Neither approach is inherently better, just different.

Wrapping Up

I really enjoyed trying the Ladder App. It’s a very robust app with a lot of great features and options. I was just giving this app a try and don’t plan to use it long-term, but I can absolutely see why people do.

I’m obviously partial to Simply Strong because it’s my app and my programming. I am also very invested in my members, personally connecting with them daily - something that just isn’t possible with a large app. While Ladder does have a community feature, you aren’t able to connect directly with the coach of your team on a regular basis.

If someone were to ask me whether I thought Ladder was a good strength training app, I would say absolutely, especially if you like novelty, lots of program options, and exercise coaching. But if you’re looking for an app that focuses more on progressive overload and has a more close-knit community feel, I think those are the aspects that make Simply Strong stand apart from Ladder.

If you’d like to explore Simply Strong’s approach to strength training, take my quick quiz!