One year ago, we officially launched the Heather Robertson app. It’s hard to believe an entire year has passed since we opened the doors, welcomed our founding members and started this new chapter together. What began as an idea to create a better, more complete training experience has grown into something I’m incredibly proud of, and we’re just getting started.
Before anything else, I want to say “thank you!” To our Builders who tested the earliest versions of the app, worked through the growing pains with us and gave us the honest feedback we needed to make it better. To our Founders who jumped in during launch week and trusted us with something brand new. And to every single person who has joined us since: thank you for showing up, sharing your feedback and being part of this community.
This first year has been a big one. So, in honour of our first birthday, I thought it would be fun to look back at why we started, how far we’ve come and, most importantly, where we’re going next.
Why I created the app
I started sharing workouts on YouTube more than a decade ago with a pretty simple goal: Make fitness accessible to anyone, anywhere by sharing high quality videos and workouts built around expert programming That hasn't changed.
YouTube has allowed me to build an incredible library of free workouts and programs and connect with millions of people around the world. It will always be an important part of what I do. But over the years, I also started hearing many of the same challenges from the community.
“What workout should I do next? How do I stay consistent? Where can I keep track of everything? How do I adjust a program when life gets in the way? I love the workouts, but I wish everything was in one place.”
I realized that while I could keep creating more workouts, more content wasn't necessarily the answer. I wanted to create a better experience around the workouts. A place that could provide more structure without being rigid. More guidance without making fitness complicated. Better tools to help you plan, track your progress and stay consistent. And a space where I could continue creating new workouts, programs and resources specifically for this community. That became the Heather Robertson app.
More than just workouts
The goal from the beginning was never to replace YouTube. It was to build on it. I wanted the app to bring everything together in one place so you could spend less time searching, planning and overthinking and more time actually moving.
Today, you can follow complete structured programs or choose individual workouts based on what you need that day. You can personalize your recommendations, schedule and reschedule workouts, track your progress, set weekly goals, earn achievements and create collections of your favourites. You can add activities you do outside the app, whether that's a walk, run, gym session, yoga class or even a YouTube workout, so your progress reflects everything you're doing. And on those days when you really don't want to make another decision, there's Heather's Daily Pick. Just press play and get moving.
Beyond workouts, there are video learning guides and hundreds of nutritious recipes with macro information and dietary filters to help support the bigger picture.
The goal is simple: provide the tools and resources to make fitness easier to navigate and consistency easier to maintain. But there's another part of the app that has become just as important to me.
A community within the community
I've always felt incredibly lucky to have such a supportive community surrounding my workouts, but the app has allowed us to create an even closer one. There is something pretty special about opening the comments after a workout and seeing people from different parts of the world encouraging each other, celebrating a tough session, sharing a win or simply admitting, "That one almost got me."
We're all following different schedules, working toward different goals and navigating different seasons of life, but we're showing up together. And sometimes hearing from another person who squeezed in a 30-minute workout on a chaotic Tuesday is exactly the reminder you need that you can do it too.
Here are just a few things members have shared about their experience:
"So much has changed! I now have a consistent workout routine and enjoy having the dedicated time to be present with my body - it has helped so much with managing stress." ~ Allison. San Fransisco, USA
"I feel so much fitter & stronger. I can lift heavy weights & run 5km (which I haven't done since I was a teenager) I feel happier, more calm & I have more energy!" ~ Misty. Collie, Australia
"I feel like I'm working out with a good friend or big sister. She just makes me feel powerful and strong and capable. Every workout feels so intentional and its been the best experience." ~ Bonnie. Saskatchewan, Canada
And that's what I hoped this would become: not just another place to find a workout, but a space that helps you keep going.
One year by the numbers
Okay, this part is pretty wild. When you're working week to week, filming workouts, developing programs, testing new features and adding recipes, it's easy to lose sight of just how much has happened. So we did some counting.
In our first year, we've:
✔ Launched 8 brand new, full length programs - with another one being released before the end of this year.
✔ Published nearly 250 new workouts - giving you a wide variety of sessions to choose from.
✔ Added more than 300 recipes - and that library continues to grow.
But honestly, the numbers I'm most excited about aren't ours - they're yours. Together, this community has completed:
✔ Over 1 million workouts completed
✔ 13,841 achievements earned
✔ 500,000 hours of movement
That's the equivalent of more than 57 years of non-stop movement, or enough time to travel around the world more than 11,000 times!!
Phew - that's a lot of sweat my friends. More importantly, every one of those numbers represents someone making time for themselves, building strength, creating a habit or simply choosing to move that day - and that's worth celebrating.
You asked. We listened.
One of the biggest lessons from our first year has been that the best version of this app isn't something my team and I can build in isolation - we need you. We've sent surveys, read your comments, listened to your questions and paid close attention to what you love, what you don't and what you want more of. And that feedback has directly influenced what we've built.
You asked for more flexibility, so we improved program scheduling to allow you to train at your own pace, choose your workout days, move workouts around and adjust your schedule when life inevitably changes.
You asked for more personalization, so we introduced recommendations based on how you like to train and gave you the ability to add your own activities so your schedule and progress aren't limited to what happens inside the app.
You asked for an easier way to know what to do today, so we created Heather's Daily Pick and brought your upcoming schedule front and centre so you can just show up and press play.
And one request came through loud and clear: more variety, more often. So we've been working on exactly that. We've introduced new programs, added hundreds of workouts and built an extensive exercise library that allows me to create even more programming while maintaining the quality, intention and effectiveness behind every session.
The goal isn't to throw endless content at you. It's to provide strategic variety so you have options for different goals, schedules and seasons of life while still training with purpose. Your feedback isn't disappearing into a survey somewhere. It's actually helping to shape what we build next.
What I've learned
Building the app has pushed me outside of my comfort zone in ways I definitely didn't anticipate. I've learned that creating a great workout and creating a great fitness experience are two very different things.
The workout matters, of course. But so does everything surrounding it.
Can you find what you need? Can you fit it into your life? Can you adjust when your schedule changes? Can you see your progress? And, most importantly, does the experience make it easier for you to come back tomorrow?
Because ultimately, that's what I'm interested in. Not perfection, not a few weeks of going all-in before burning out. Consistency. Building a strong, healthy body takes time. Your needs and goals will change. Life will interrupt the best-laid plans. Sometimes you'll be ready for a challenging program and sometimes a 20 minute workout is exactly what you need.
I want this app to be able to meet you in all of those places. And after one year, I feel like we're just scratching the surface of what it can become.
So...what's next?
Year two is already shaping up to be a big one.
First up, the Heather Robertson mobile app is coming to iOS and Android. This is much more than simply putting the current experience into an app on your phone. We're using everything we've learned over the past year to build new features and functionality that make training even easier, more intuitive and more connected. Both the web and mobile experience will be available and included in your subscription so you can connect in a way that works for you.
We're also continuing to expand our content offering with new programs and workouts, giving you more variety and more ways to train throughout the year - including a new 7 week program this November and the highly anticipated 12 week program launching in the new year.
We have many more recipes on the way to make supporting your training outside of your workouts a little easier and a little more delicious.
We're also working on a new way to challenge you and give you even more opportunities to train toward something together as a community, celebrate progress and keep things fresh between programs.
And there is plenty more happening behind the scenes that I'm not ready to spill just yet. What I can tell you is this - you’re not going to want to miss it!
Here's to year two
When I think back to launch day, I remember how exciting it was, but also how many unknowns there were.
Would people want this? Would they use all of these tools? Would the experience actually help people stay more consistent? Could we create something that felt like a natural extension of the community we had already built?
One year later, I have my answer - and it's because of you. Every workout completed, every comment, every piece of feedback, every recipe made, every program finished and every friend you've encouraged along the way has helped build this community.
So whether you've been here since the very first beta test, joined during launch week, found us somewhere along the way or you're just discovering the app now, thank you for being here. I'm incredibly proud of what we've built in our first year and I can't wait for you to see what we're building for year two.
Here's to another year of showing up, getting stronger and doing it all together.
xo Heather
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