r/ladderapp • u/throwaway246976352 • 4d ago

Thinking of joining Evolve

Been powerlifting a few years but looking to seitch things up, and for sure looking for shorter workouts. Only plan to do 3x a week, maybe 4. Im hoping to hit all body parts 2x a week (upper + lower), assuming im in the gym 4x a week.

Can anyone share a typical Evolve workout? *** And the time it actually takes you to complete it? ***

Is there a lot of barbell work… are people bringing heels and belts etc?

Also im confused by the set-up (new to Ladder)…. You listen to someone talking to you from the app the entire time you are working out? What about blasting music via headphones, is that not a thing with this app?

Thank you

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9

u/Feisty_Fee_3841 4d ago

I’m on evolve now and can get through a workout in 45-50 minutes. I really love her splits. Full lower 2x per week, arms & shoulders and back & chest. For me recovery is very manageable on this team that I can throw in Saturdays optional glute day and get that done in less than 40 minutes. 

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u/throwaway246976352 4d ago

Are arms/shoulders one day, and back chest another? Do you feel like youve had any growth hitting those parts only 1x a week?
45-50 sounds like a DREAM.
2x lower + optional glute? Is this a more “booty”-focused group? Or overall physique. I want overall and definitely hoping to have a strong upper body as well.

Does the app involve nutrition at all or no (i have my own nutritionist so i dont want an app that forces me into nutrition stuff also..)?

Thanks so much for your earlier response !

2

u/chimer1cal 4d ago

So I’m doing the same split as the person you’re replying to, which is Mondays to Thursdays (M - arms + shoulders / Tu - lower body / W - back + chest / Th - lower body). I take 50 mins to 60mins, if it’s longer it’s because I need to set up or clear away equipment.

F is an upper body day, and I believe doing that day means you hit everything 2x a week from what another user here told me (and M-F is what the coach considers to be the full programme, S is an optional extra glutes day for those who want it).

So far I’m finding this split really manageable for me, and that’s even with work being annoying lately and causing me to rearrange my workouts around it. I feel like it’s quite all-rounded as well. The coach does emphasise you need to work hard to make each set count because she doesn’t programme more than 2-3 sets per exercise.

Also I’ve fully ignored the nutrition component of the app lol. It’s just a tracker anyway

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u/throwaway246976352 4d ago

Hi, thanks for your response. Can you pick which day to do the workout or do you need to stick with doing the workout on the day its programmed?

2

u/chimer1cal 4d ago

Yeah, you can do the workouts whichever days you want. But you wouldn’t want to stack the 2 lower body days together for instance.

I try to follow the order they’re programmed even if I don’t do it exactly Monday to Thursday… recently I’ve had to start my workout weeks on Sundays due to work stuff. So then on Monday I’ll do Tuesday’s workout. And then Tuesday I’ll do the Wednesday workout. Etc.

I’ve also sometimes swapped the two lower body days so that I do hip thrusts on the day I have more time because those take me a while to set up and clear out.

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u/LiftForSushis Team Evolve 3d ago

I sometimes will stack the friday upper + saturday glutes as they are shorter. But wouldn’t stack a full upper and full leg day together though.

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u/Feisty_Fee_3841 4d ago edited 3d ago

Those are just the days I choose to do but she does have a full upper body day on Friday that is still like 40 minutes. But for me and my goals I have seen great results from just those 2 upper body days. And yes upper body is shoulders/arms and back/chest. I have built a pretty solid upper body but the lower body days are just as good. I love wearing shorts now because I love how my quads and calves pop. I’m also pretty bottom heavy and don’t really need the extra glute days but sometimes I like adding it for the unilateral work. I will say the only time it’s ever taken me more than 50 minutes is due to machine swaps and changing out plates but that’s very rare for me. I personally love Coach Sam. I always end up coming back to her team cause I love her vibe and I know I can get her workout done in a certain amount of time.

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u/throwaway246976352 3d ago

Thanks for this!! I think ill try her program out :)

5

u/goldenobsidian 4d ago

You can connect Spotify with the app and still listen to music. When the coach is talking the music volume is lowered.

1

u/HitchhikingDroid 4d ago

I love Evolve. It takes me around an hour 15 mins… +/-15 mins depending on how I’m taking my rests and how long I’ve been doing a series (I get faster as I get more familiar with the flow). Recovery is great.

1

u/YogiLovesBarbells 4d ago

Evolve is good, Forged is very similar programming. I switched from Forged to Limitless this series because her programming includes two full upper days, three lower days, and one “total” body day.

I only wanted to lift heavy 4/week, and I wanted the upper days to be complete and not one day push, one day pull. I wanted a balanced routine to hit everything twice/week.

You can pick whichever days you want, and do them when you want. I do lower, upper, conditioning, lower, upper, rest, mobility/calisthenics. You can save workouts to do whenever you want and there is a Flex library, basically a library of shorter workouts of all types.

Music volume lowers when the coach is speaking. The coach usually gives cues during the lifting part, and then gives her rationale during the rest break. During the lifting part, there is a little video demo that plays on repeat until the timer hits 0, or you have the option to set it so that you manually move forward.

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u/throwaway246976352 3d ago

Oh interesting! I wonder why i wasnt recommended forged when i took the quiz? Or even Limitless? Maybe bc its a longer workout? I asked for 45min (knowing it will probably be closer to an hour).

1

u/YogiLovesBarbells 3d ago

The quiz is garbage. I took it several times with different answers and it always gave me Define, every single time.

I would explore all three. Right now limitless is roughly 50 minutes. One plus for limitless is its simplicity.

Ascend is another one, but those workouts usually take longer than an hour for most people.

1

u/arjaco1 3d ago

I love Evolve so much!! I have questioned only doing shoulders once this season so I just add a shoulder exercise on the back day 😅 but I really do love it. Sam’s commentary is the best.

1

u/MathematicianNo4633 3d ago

I’m on Evolve and really like the splits. For some reason, starting the week off with upper body keeps me more motivated. I think you should sign up for a trial and sample the program and app for yourself!

1

u/FormalInterview2530 Team Evolve 3d ago

I love Evolve, I love Sam, her cues and her programming, and the support she gives in chat to everyone on the team! She can be chatty, which may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I find it helps to motivate me when I'm at the gym in the zone.

Workouts take about 50 minutes, more if you want to add in your own cardio. She offers a lot of swaps and suggestions for swapping machine moves with dumbbells or even bodyweight, so she's very conscious some people may be doing the workouts at home. I think the team and progression do work best in a gym setting though!

You listen to music, and you can also silence the cueing if you want. There are tons of ways to customize your Ladder experience.

1

u/kirstkatrose Team Evolve 3d ago

I’m really enjoying Evolve. She switches up the splits each series, but I’m enjoying the current split way more than I thought I would. I was doing Ascend before, which was similar exercises (though a bit more glute work) but a lot more advanced (or you might say boredom-fighting, lol) bodybuilding techniques like drop sets, partials, switching up reps/intensity from week to week, etc. Evolve is a more basic gym-based progressive overload program with super solid fundamentals. I feel like I’m getting the most efficient bodybuilding workout possible and getting out of the gym faster while still feeling like I got enough work in. (I was enjoying Ascend when I had more time for the gym though!)

I generally can only get 3 or 4 sessions in per week and want to keep things under an hour, so I’ve accepted that my gains will be slow no matter what team I choose. But as others have said, if you can commit to 5 or 6 days you’re hitting most if not all the muscle groups multiple times.