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  • About Centr

  • How Centr works

  • What I like about Centr

  • What I don’t like about Centr

  • How much does Centr cost?

  • Is Centr worth it?

  • About Centr
  • How Centr works
  • What I like about Centr
  • What I don’t like about Centr
  • How much does Centr cost?
  • Is Centr worth it?

Pros

  • Includes meal plans

  • Wide range of workouts

  • Includes meditation/relaxation tips

Cons

  • Expensive

  • Can’t use your own music

  • Chris Hemsworth not always featured

If you are looking for a long-ish term health investment, Centr is worth it—especially if you sign up for one of its better-value extended plans.

About Centr

A screenshot of Centr's workouts offered in the app.
Credit: Centr / Reviewed

Centr offers a variety of exercise options such as HIIT, pilates, and strength training.

I tried Centr during our test of workout apps, which pitted it against options like Nike Training Club, Apple Fitness+, Peloton, Obé, and Aaptiv. Its higher-than-most price —$30 a month, or $120 for the year if you pay up front, compared to $15 a month or $100 a year for Aaptiv and free for Nike—kept it from cracking the top spot. But there’s a lot to gain from using it.

Hemsworth made headlines in late 2022 by taking a step back from the screen to prioritize his physical and mental health after learning he has a predisposition for Alzheimer's. While the cause of this disease is still unknown, physical activity and a heart-healthy diet may help prevent it—and Centr’s holistic approach encompasses that.

The app’s content is divided into three main categories: Train (workouts), Eat (meal plans and recipes), and Live (mindfulness guides). A team of trainers leads functional training workouts—which include HIIT (high-intensity interval training), HIRT (high-intensity resistance training), boxing, strength training, MMA, yoga, pilates, and stretching—while chefs and dietitians deliver recipes. Spiritual guides lead meditations and pre-sleep visualizations, which are intended for you to incorporate into your daily practice.

Centr also encourages you to join its Facebook group, where members swap tips, discuss workouts, and act as an additional support system. The idea is that you’ll attain a healthier way of being by following its three foundational principles as closely as possible, instead of choosing workouts, mindfulness rituals, and meals a la carte.

I spent a lot of time on Chris Hemsworth’s Instagram while working on this review—research purposes, of course—and was able to confirm that he is, in fact, extremely ripped. But that I or anyone else could get to that point simply by following some recipes and doing exercises using my bodyweight plus the small dumbbells I happen to have—and not, say, working one-on-one with an expensive personal trainer and nutritionist to determine my exact caloric input and output needs down to the macro—seems a little unrealistic.

To be fair, Centr doesn’t really promise this—though anyone would be forgiven for projecting this desire onto the app. Instead, it pitches a holistic lifestyle adjustment, in which you combine a workout plan with a diet based on your needs and goals for tangible, realistic changes, which are touted on Centr’s Instagram.

How Centr works

A screenshot of Centr's workouts offered in the app.
Credit: Centr / Reviewed

Centr makes it easy to filter workout and meditation sessions to find ones that align with your goals.

When you sign up for Centr, you take a brief quiz that asks your general body stats like height and weight, fitness level (beginner, intermediate, advanced), goals (“lose weight,” “build muscle,” or “get fit and toned”), and dietary preferences (meat-eater, pescatarian, vegetarian, or vegan). From there, it provides you with a calendar that shows you one workout, one meditation session, and three meals to eat each day. Usually, you also get a suggested podcast episode or supplemental article focusing on a different aspect of your wellness journey.

For my routine, I went with “intermediate,” “vegetarian,” and “get fit and toned,” but I switched them around after my plan had been set to make sure I could and to make sure that there actually was a difference in the workouts for different goals that also accommodate different fitness levels. I was happy to see that the calendar was pretty sensitive to my selections—depending on which options I switched, the workouts and meals on my calendar shifted.

What I like about Centr

A screenshot of Centr's workouts offered in the app.
Credit: Centr / Reviewed

Centr users can choose from individual workout classes or multi-week programs.

The high quality fitness programming

Centr’s workouts come in two formats. “Coached” are classic workout video-type classes that are great if you want to see an instructor demonstrate and explain a move. “Self-guided” are audio-driven workouts that show brief videos or photos of each move that are a good option if you are comfortable with exercising and want some more flexibility with your workout.

Workouts are scheduled on your app calendar—for me, it was a pretty even split between coached and self-guided workouts—and are usually between 25 minutes and one hour long depending on your fitness goals. “Bonus” workouts, which may be served up to you on your calendar to add onto a workout, are usually about 10 minutes long. The calendar doesn’t give you any days off (or, at least, it didn’t for me), so it’s up to you to remember to take breaks when your body tells you it needs them. Once I understood that the calendar isn’t a full mandate, and I remembered to take rest days when I needed them, it was a great, easy system.

But that’s not to say you should get in the habit of skipping your least favorite sessions: If you’re not feeling your workout of the day, you can search for a different one on demand. The filters allow you to choose if you want a coached or self-guided workout. Then, you can filter by workout style—whether it’s HIIT, HIRT, MMA, pilates, yoga, or whatever—equipment, and target area, such as core, glutes, arms, and so on.

You can also follow an even more targeted program. These workouts don’t differ too much from the ones that are served up to you or those that you search for, as far as I can tell. The only difference is that they are more concentrated in their goals and in type of exercise you’re doing—you can choose a set of bodyweight-only workouts for beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels, for example. Instead of doing the workouts on the calendar, you pick the one that’s next in your program schedule. This, presumably, can give users more of a feeling of advancement and continuity from one day to the next.

The motivational instructors

Centr calls its users “legends,” and I really felt that I had accomplished something after I finished my daily workout. During most of them, I felt challenged, sweat a lot, and felt like I was getting stronger the more frequently I used it. I found Centr’s instructors personable, charismatic, and generally fun. This is possibly because many of the teachers have an Aussie lilt in their voice, and I share the bias that many Americans have that predisposes me to assume anything said with an Australian accent is automatically more laid-back and enjoyable. No matter what the reason was, I thought the workouts were easy to follow and seemed to go by quickly, even when they were actually on the longer side.

The breadth of meal plan offerings

For the purposes of this review, I mainly focused on the exercise portion of the app, rather than the diet and lifestyle sections. But I made some of the recipes suggested for me as a vegetarian not specifically seeking weight loss—and found a few keepers (like a tofu banh mi bowl that I intend to make part of my meal rotation moving forward) and a few duds (zucchini and haloumi fritters that seemed great in theory but soggy in practice…possibly due to user error).

Overall, though, the meal plans seemed healthy, hearty, and not too difficult to maintain. You’re allowed to swap out the recipes, too, if you get served one you don’t think you’d like. Centr has a “shopping list” section, and each recipe has a tool that allows you to send ingredients there, so you don’t have to write down each item yourself.

The app only serves up three meals per day, but it also provides a “snacks” tab. There, you can rifle through recipes sorted into categories like “everyday” for healthy fare such as broccoli guacamole (“broccamole”) and “treat” for things like chocolate-hazelnut protein balls. I would caution against using the meal plan as the end-all be-all of your personal wellness, however. The meals are developed by chefs and dietitians, so they're generally tasty and healthy, but they’re served up to users via an algorithm—not someone who knows your precise goals and health history—so the plan may not work for someone with certain intolerances or allergies.

Soothing meditation options

I also tried a few meditation sessions. I am very much not a meditative person—getting my inner voice to shut up is, um, a challenge for me—but I found them relatively soothing. I especially enjoyed the pre-sleep visualizations, which helped me relax and maybe fall asleep a little quicker than I would have otherwise. You can also learn to meditate with one of the app’s introductory sessions, or select a session for goals such as stress release, finding focus, or boosting your mood.

What I don’t like about Centr

No live classes or clear workout tracking

The lack of live classes doesn’t impact the quality of Centr’s workouts, but it may dissuade some people who like getting the occasional first-name shoutout from an instructor during a class in their home gym. Centr also doesn’t keep track of the workouts you’ve already done—something I didn’t realize I appreciated about other apps until I noticed it was missing from this one.

Lackluster music options

It’s also difficult to listen to music on the same device you’re using for the app if you’re doing coached workouts—something other apps allow and that I enjoy. These workouts play a light, tinkly, Muzak-style music in the background that doesn’t go away unless you mute everything, instructions included. Depending on the workout you pick, you usually can play your own music, but it’s very faint and overlaid by the built-in background music. Other workouts don’t let you play music at all. This is pretty easily rectified by using a different device to play music, and I found the instructors so engaging that I didn’t feel like I needed the distraction.

Not enough Chris Hemsworth

My final complaint is less about the app itself and more about the levying of expectations. Chris Hemsworth doesn’t appear in Centr’s workouts all that much. This is fine—he is a busy man and not a certified personal trainer himself, as far as I know—and he pops up in a few videos alongside other trainers. But if you are thinking of getting the app with the expectation of exercising with Chris Hemsworth, don’t. Instead, you can expect to work out with a team of qualified, certified fitness experts (including Hemsworth’s own personal trainer, Luke Zocchi)—which is probably better, fitness-wise, anyway.

How much does Centr cost?

On a month-to-month plan, Centr costs $30 a month, which makes it the priciest fitness app I’ve tested. But you get quite a lot of stuff along with that cost. And, as with most apps, you can also get it at a reduced rate if you commit to a longer time. Three months is $60 ($20 a month) and a full year is $120 ($10 a month). Compared to a similarly priced app like Obé—which offers live classes, but not recipes or meal plans—it’s arguably a better deal.

Is Centr worth it?

A screenshot of Centr's workout and meditation sessions offered in the app.
Credit: Centr / Reviewed

In addition to workouts, Centr offers meditation sessions and diet plans for users.

As far as comprehensive lifestyle apps that feature a well-known Hollywood actor go, you can’t do much better than Centr. There are cheaper (even free) exercise apps out there, but if you don’t mind spending a little more money and committing to the program, you’ll get what you pay for.

If you are looking for a long-ish term health investment and feel relatively confident that you will use more than one of its components, Centr is worth it—especially if you sign up for one of its extended plans. If you’re just interested in adding more movement to your daily routine and aren’t totally sure how long or how often you’re going to do it, something like Nike Training Club (free) or Aaptiv ($15 a month) are probably better options.

For those unsure about the price and time commitment, Centr currently offers a one-month free trial. If you’re on the fence, give it a try to see if you like working out, eating, and getting zen with this star-studded dream team.

Meet the tester

Sara Hendricks

Sara Hendricks

Editor

@sarajhendricks

Sara Hendricks is a former Health and Fitness editor for Reviewed. She has several years of experience reading and writing about lifestyle and wellness topics, with her previous work appearing in Refinery 29, Insider, and The Daily Beast.

See all of Sara Hendricks's reviews

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