JRNY App Review – 2024

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Last Updated: December 20, 2023

JRNY is a newer connected fitness app that is found on cardio equipment from Bowflex. JRNY is a very personalized platform that adapts its workouts to you, and it also lets you stream from popular apps like Netflix and Hulu. Plus, you can even explore locations around the world while you work out. In this JRNY review, we’ll go over what you get with a membership, what we love, and what we don’t love about this connected fitness app.

The “Explore The World” feature lets you do just that.

The library of on-demand studio classes led by an instructor and scenic workouts are continually being added to and they let you choose how you want to workout. You definitely have choices when it comes to JRNY.

Why You Should Trust Our Review Of JRNY

Nowadays, there seems to be a new fitness platform being launched almost weekly. Okay, maybe not that often, but in recent years when we review products, a large portion of our reviews and testing process goes into how the subscription content performs and functions.

Just like when we test equipment, we explore the features, classes, and content a fitness app offers. We then use our expertise as fitness instructors to give a full constructive review. This way, when you buy a home workout machine, you’ll know what the content is like as well. Trust us, the content can determine how much or how little you use your equipment. We want you to want to use it.

Who JRNY Is For:

• Home fitness enthusiasts who want or have Bowflex equipment.
• Users who want to take on-demand workouts and stream content from third-party apps on their home fitness equipment.
• Households with multiple users who want to use fitness equipment and a fitness app.
• Users who want workouts that are tailored to their unique fitness level and goals.
• Users who want to stream entertainment directly from the screen on their equipment.
• Athletes who want to explore outdoor locations virtually, without an instructor.

A Brief History of JRNY

JRNY is owned by the company Nautilus, Inc. which was founded in 1986. Nautilus launched JRNY in 2019 and they also own Bowflex which they acquired in 2002. Their headquarters are in Vancouver, Washington.

What You Get With A JRNY Membership

Membership Price Options

• JRNY Annual Membership: $147 per year
• JRNY Monthly Membership: $19.99 per month

JRNY Membership features:

• Access JRNY content on Bowflex equipment and through the mobile app
• Unlimited user profiles are available on all products except the Max Trainer M6 (2 profiles) and M8 (4 user profiles)
• Stream from preloaded apps like Netflix and Hulu on Bowflex products that have attached screens
• Cancel anytime

In-depth Review of The JRNY App

Adaptive Workouts

JRNY’s adaptive workouts make your workout experience unique and tailored to you. These workouts are preprogrammed, but they’re designed to fit your fitness level based on your fitness assessment. The fitness assessment is where you follow along with audio guides for about 14 minutes as they take you through a workout on the enabled equipment and Bluetooth-connected equipment.

After the assessment, the adaptive workouts literally adapt to your fitness assessment. You can take the assessment at any time, and once you start progressing, these workouts will evolve with you.

All of the adaptive workouts are different, and they let you pick what you want to watch and listen to while you take them. You can take a scenic route and listen to music or stream from one of the preloaded apps. I’ll be getting into more about these features below.

You can also simply track your metrics and stay dialed into your adaptive workout by viewing this screen.

We like that these workouts are personalized to fit your intensity and that you can choose how you want to take them.

Trainer-led Classes

JRNY offers classes led by a trainer and filmed in a studio. They’re of fair quality and are only available on-demand. The instructors are knowledgeable and motivating, and they offer guidance throughout the class.

The studio is well lit and the camera offers multiple angles of the instructor.

JRNY has these classes on equipment and off. For example, when you’re on the Bowflex Velocore Exercise Bike, JRNY’s trainer-led indoor cycling and mat classes are available. JRNY has trainer-led classes for their other equipment, as well that are displayed when you’re on the respective machine. Trainer-led classes from indoor cycling, treadmill, elliptical, yoga, strength, Pilates, and core are available at JRNY to keep your workout routine well rounded.

In the mobile app, you can access whole body trainer-led workouts too, so you can keep working out with JRNY on the go. You can also connect the app to compatible equipment through Bluetooth to access more classes through the mobile app.

JRNY regularly adds to the library of pre-filmed classes and has over 30 instructors. They feel like other studio classes, however, there are no live classes or a leaderboard. You can also pause your class at any time, but you can’t skip forward.

Explore The World Workouts

JRNY is also consistently adding to their “Explore The World” workouts, too. These are workouts that are filmed in scenic locations around the world. They currently offer over 50 scenic routes through parts of Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America. These workouts are not physically led by an instructor.

The camera is pointed ahead on the path making it feel like you’re there.

To make these feel even more realistic, the camera will speed up, slow down, and stop when you do. That way when you’re at a certain pace, it will really seem like you’re moving through the real-life location yourself. This feature is subtle, but I really appreciate it.

If you do want some guidance in these workouts, you can take ones that have audio-coaching, or take an adaptive workout while you explore a location like Valley of the Gods in Utah. The virtual coach scenic classes are nice because they feature just the trainer’s voice for guidance. You also have the option to mute the audio.

They’re also of high quality. The camera is steady and the graphics are clear. We can’t wait to see what areas JRNY lets us explore next.

Entertainment

One of my favorite things about JRNY is that you can stream from popular apps that are preloaded on JRNY-compatible equipment. This makes your treadmill or elliptical function a bit more like a TV. There’s Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, and Disney+ already loaded and ready for you to log into your subscription and watch. Subscriptions to these apps are separate and not included with JRNY.

You can start watching your favorite movie or show on Netflix during the manual mode, or while taking the adaptive workouts.

This lets you have plenty of options to keep you busy during your workout, so you’ll never get bored. Right now, a lot of other home fitness equipment doesn’t have this feature, so we really like that JRNY allows it.

JRNY Features

Music

JRNY uses curated playlists in their trainer-led classes. You can also listen to them during manual mode, scenic workouts, and adaptive workouts. JRNY allows you to skip songs, and change your playlist while working out.

You can also give a song a thumbs up or thumbs down so it will play more songs like the ones you like. You can choose from the following genres:

• Pop
• Rock/Alternative
• Top 40
• Hip-Hop/Rap
• EDM/Dance
• Country
• 90s
• 80s
• Pop (International)
• EDM (International)

This “radio-esque” experience is perfect for doing pre-programmed workouts, and the scenic route workouts, but we aren’t a fan of this in the trainer-led classes.

A large part of what makes studio classes fun is experiencing a playlist as the instructor intended. Music can be a huge component of the energy of a class too. The instructor is most likely going to coordinate the music with their routines, so when you’re hitting sprints in class, the music increases when you do.

We think this would elevate JRNY’s trainer-led classes. You have access to JRNY’s radio in the mobile app and on JRNY-enabled equipment.

You can also control how you want to listen to the music. In both the app and on equipment, you can adjust the music level and instructor’s voice level to balance both or mute one or the other. There are also adjustments for video, tones, and celebration sounds.

Burn Rate

After taking the fitness assessment, you’ll be given a burn rate. The burn rate is a small range that JRNY encourages you to stay in, especially when taking adaptive workouts that are preprogrammed to guide you through specific patterns like hills and intervals. The burn rate is calculated based on your fitness level during the assessment.

Even though it’s just a tiny meter, it’s surprisingly motivating.

As you continue taking workouts and become fitter, your burn rate will adjust. You can also choose to make your intensity level and burn rate in an exercise easier or harder. Otherwise, you can keep with the recommended burn rate.

Third-Party Apps

While you’re using JRNY on compatible equipment, you can also connect to third-party apps, like the Peloton app, and Zwift. You need your mobile device to connect through Bluetooth and the content is displayed on your device’s screen. Unfortunately, the audio and video in the app will only play on your device and not on the attached touch screen. We recommend using a tablet with this feature because phone screens are smaller and harder to see when they’re on the device rack. Your workout metrics like watt output on the bike will be reflected in the app though.

There’s also an option to connect to other fitness apps, so you aren’t limited to using content on Peloton, Zwift, or even JRNY. This is great if you have another app you’re already subscribed to, and if you want more workout choices.

Comparison To Other Fitness Apps

When compared to iFit and Peloton, JRNY has a great variety of workout content and entertainment. The other two apps keep you limited to using only their content, while JRNY lets you use lots of outside apps.

iFit’s library of classes, especially outdoor content is a lot more extensive than JRNY’s however. iFit’s outdoor classes are led by an instructor and the camera often pans over the landscape during your workout so you can take in more of the landscape. We also like that iFit shows you a map of the route so you know where you’re going, too.

Peloton’s classes have music integrated into them, so you hear the music as the instructor plays it, unlike JRNY and iFit. Peloton and iFit also offer live classes and a leaderboard to compete with other members.

Although we wish to see some continued improvements from JRNY, we do really like the adaptive workouts that the other apps don’t have. These workouts are personalized and great for tracking your progress, rather than just focusing on listening to an instructor.

Where You Can Use JRNY

A membership to JRNY can be used on equipment from Bowflex. You can log in easily on any of Bowflex’s machines with attached touch screens. It’s on this equipment that you can have full access to JRNY by taking adaptive workouts, trainer-led classes, scenic workouts, and third-party app usage and streaming the preloaded apps.

Bowflex has exercise bikes, ellipticals, treadmills, and dumbbell weights. JRNY is also available on mobile devices but there you’re limited to only trainer-led mat workouts unless you’re connected to a compatible machine. Your entire workout history is shown in the app, however.

The mobile app is available to use with any of Bowflex’s equipment that doesn’t have an attached touch screen. You can also connect it to equipment from Schwinn. Once you’re connected to say the Bowflex C6 Exercise Bike, the bike classes, bike adaptive workouts, and scenic explore the world workouts become available on the app.

We do wish that all of JRNY’s classes and workouts were available on the app without having to connect to equipment, though.

Performance & Functionality

The overall navigation of JRNY in the mobile app and on integrated touch screens is pretty straightforward and clear. One aspect that I like is the “Just For You” section that suggests classes based on your fitness level and previous workout history. Four classes are recommended per time frame.

You can filter the content by duration, style, and coaching type.

The filter feature is also handy to find specific workouts and classes. There isn’t a search bar at the top to specifically type in what you’re looking for, but considering JRNY’s library and content aren’t as large and vast as other apps, we didn’t miss it.

One thing to be aware of is that you can only access the preloaded streaming apps once you’re in manual mode or when you select an adaptive workout. They are not displayed on JRNY’s home page. In order to switch from one streaming app to another, you have to end your current workout.

So, to stream music or videos you need to select your workout beforehand.

Also, a lot of the functionality in the equipment is through the screen, so if the screen breaks this could limit the use of the machine.

We highly recommend becoming a member of JRNY if you have Bowflex equipment. You’ll get the most out of your machine that way, especially if it has an attached touchscreen.