This isn’t your typical Moves App Tighter Together review. I don’t have any Tighter Together before-and-after transformation pictures, measurements, or weight loss reports. However, I do have some shocking results as a 40-something whose body has decided to go downhill in the past several years.
The TL; DR: I felt much younger after just a week. By the end of the challenge, I was doing things that required strength and balance that I hadn’t been able to do in years without even thinking about them. Though I didn’t track measurements or weight, my belly was flatter and my clothes fit better by the end (really, by the middle).
I felt happier, more energetic, and more capable. My mental health and overall productivity improved. I felt accomplished after these workouts, and that feeling propelled me through the rest of my day.
Before Tighter Together
I had been feeling older than my age and experiencing weakness, stiffness, chronic pain, and a lack of endurance. I’d had a few injuries and a couple of surgeries. There were lots of frustrating setbacks that left me feeling heavy, slow, and depressed.
Quick Side Note About Electrolyte Issues and LMNT
I’d worked out on and off for years (with Weekly Moves in the Madeline Moves app, Peloton, and a few other apps), but not consistently. Sometimes, a single workout could knock me on my butt (extreme fatigue and flu-like symptoms, not just muscle soreness) for a week.
I had suspected something was off with my electrolytes for years but couldn’t strike the right balance to correct them long-term. (There’s probably something to diagnose here, but I’ve had no luck with that, so I’ve had to figure it out on my own with trial and error.)
A week or so before the challenge began, I started drinking LMNT every day, and that seemed to help with endurance. (Here’s my LMNT affiliate link if you’d like to check it out and snag a free sample pack with any purchase.) Spoiler: It got me through the whole challenge. I felt great and was able to work out most days.
Commitment to Consistency, Not Perfection
With this change, I vowed to stick with the challenge but listen to my body and back off–but not totally quit–if I started to feel like I was running out of steam as I had so many times before. So no “excuses” were allowed, but if I legitimately felt unwell, I planned to swap a strength workout for a walk, yoga, or complete rest.
My goal for this Tighter Together challenge (Summer 2024) was simply to be consistent so I could reignite my relationship with fitness and fight back against some of the not-so-great side effects of aging I’d been experiencing.
I was never an athlete, but I used to be fit, lean, and comfortable in my body. For this challenge, I was looking for habits that would lead me back there, not perfection. This was a mental shift I made for this challenge that I haven’t been able to adhere to in the past. The layout of this challenge made that much easier to digest, but I’ll get to that in a second.
Performance Over Aesthetics (for Me)
My Tighter Together review is based on how I felt and performed, rather than how much I weighed at the end or how many inches I’d lost in my hips or waist.
I still care about aesthetics to a point, but for this challenge, I was more concerned with how my body felt and performed. Once you have a consistent routine and fuel your body well, fat loss and muscle definition will usually happen anyway.
I know pictures and numbers are motivating for some people, but I tend to have unrealistic expectations when I get photos and numbers involved. Even when my body moves more fluidly and I’m not huffing and puffing once I make it to the top of the stairs, I run the risk of feeling discouraged when the number on the scale hasn’t gone down or I don’t have more visible muscle.
What IS the Moves App (Madeline Moves) Tighter Together Challenge?
If you’re here, you probably have at least a vague idea of what the Tighter Together challenge is. You may even be using the Moves app (sometimes called the Madeline Moves app) already, and you’re wondering if it’s worth the extra money (I think I paid $30 for the challenge since I was already a Moves app member). Quick answer: Yep. It is worth the extra money.
There are two parts: nutrition and workouts. Tighter Together ties expertise across fields together into one cohesive program.
Madeline works with a physical therapist, nutritionist, and dietician to build these challenges, so I always feel like I’m in good hands when I participate.
These challenges run a couple of times per year and are only available for a limited time, but once you have them, they’re yours, and you can do them for the first time or repeat them when you’re ready.
I’ve purchased several of these challenges but quit the workouts by the halfway point (that intense fatigue due to probably-electrolyte-issues I mentioned above).
Each time, the challenge is a little different (and they just keep getting better, but the price hasn’t gone up).
All the workouts and recipes are brand new every time. For this review, I’m talking about the most recent one as of this writing, Summer 2024.
Tighter Together Recipes and Macros
Even if you quit the workouts or have to do them months later, the recipes are worth the money—especially now, since they’re so well-organized and focused on prepped proteins.
Some recipes use protein powder, but the ones that do make sense (ever try a challenge where just about everything is protein powder or some other concoction of expensive superfood powders??).
These recipes use mostly easily accessible whole foods and don’t rely on artificial sweeteners (this is a must for me, though stevia’s okay). There’s also more of a focus on fiber than I’ve seen in other programs—in a good, tasty, enjoyable way! Nobody’s telling you to start your day with cardboard-flavored fiber cereal each morning. The fiber comes from sneaky (and not-so-sneaky) veggies, healthy grains, and fruit.
Meal-Prepping Made Easy
This year, the recipe portion was set up with meal prepping in mind, so you could cook a big batch of protein and make several different meals with it throughout the week. This layout cut down on time, boredom with meals, and mental energy necessary for planning and prepping meals. I think this was well-received, so I doubt it’ll be going anywhere in future challenges.
And Logging, Too
Recipes were already loaded into MyFitnessPal and MacrosFirst for easy tracking.
Macro Counts
As far back as I can remember, the challenges have consisted of six weekly workouts, recipes, fitness and nutrition education, and a macro count (fat loss with carb cycling or maintenance).
Here’s what mine looked like, but remember that macro counts are unique to the individual. So please don’t take mine and run! They might be all wrong for you. 🙂
Fat Loss and Maintenance Were Provided This Time
Both fat loss and maintenance macro counts were provided for the Summer 2024 challenge after I filled out a quick questionnaire about my weight, height, activity level, etc. I hope they’ll continue to offer both on future challenges (and believe they will). I expect this to continue because of the tendency to keep giving more and more value and set people up for success in every way possible.
I have always used the fat loss numbers since these challenges are “push” phases and I still have some fat to lose. I’ve tried the carb cycling option that has different sets of macros for low-carb and high-carb days. Other times, I averaged the numbers together and aimed for the same protein, fat, and carb numbers daily, which I did this time. I needed it to be as simple as possible. There’s information in the user guide about how to do that.
Options for People Who Prefer Less/No Meat
They also added the option to choose vegetarian/vegan/prefer-to-eat-less-meat for your macro calculation. There’s a pescatarian in my house, and it’s annoying to make two versions of everything, so I chose “prefer to eat less meat” this time and then kept it flexible in my mind if I wanted more protein.
I went over my protein goal a bit on days I ate more meat, but I tried to stay within my calorie range. I have no idea if this is the correct way to handle fluctuations in diet like this, but it seemed to work fine for me.
Don’t Want to Track? No Problem.
If macros aren’t for you, there’s a Build Your Plate method that offers guidelines for eyeballing the amounts of protein, fats, and carbs you need as you put your plate together. When I say this challenge is thorough and educational, I mean it!
Here’s the table of contents, so you can see what kind of information is covered:
Even after the challenge is over, there’s help for choosing the right next program, how to shift your nutrition away from a deficit, and even when and how to transition to a new set of macros.
What I Did with My Macros as a Lazy-About-Tracking Person
I made it so I could use the same macros every day for fat loss without the complication of carb-cycling and I pre-tracked my meals in the MacrosFirst app. I tried to eat the same things for two or three days in a row so I didn’t have to think about calculating, tracking, and logging very often.
This approach made it easier to move workouts around as I wanted to (when you do the high/low carb option, they recommend doing high carb days before lower body days for more energy). It also let me plan one day and eat those foods on repeat until I ran out of whatever I’d prepped.
Another thing I did (maybe it’s not recommended, but it worked for me) was leave some wiggle room, knowing I’d want a square of dark chocolate or a bite of fruit here and there throughout the day. I didn’t want to have to stress about those macros, so I would purposely leave around 100-200 calories unaccounted for in the app when I pre-planned. Sometimes, I’d fill them in if I had a bite or two of something unplanned; other times, I didn’t bother.
That gave me the flexibility I needed at this stage in my life. The “me” from previous decades would’ve been horrified because I used to follow challenges like this perfectly and couldn’t understand why others wouldn’t. Well, I’ve been humbled over the years. Lol
The pre-COVID time I did a whole Tighter Together challenge–workouts and macros–perfectly, my fat loss was more dramatic, but I’m okay with the slower route for now. I was also in my 30s, so there’s that.
The Recipes
These recipes were delicious, easy to prepare, flexible (there were substitution recommendations for people who don’t want dairy, gluten, meat, etc.), and real. No shade to people who thrive on artificial sweeteners and convenience foods, but I can’t do it anymore. Artificial sweeteners especially wreck me, and they always have.
My family was happy with the meals I made. Some were easier to adapt to our omnivore/pescatarian household than others, but I don’t remember getting frustrated with anything. I mostly cooked straight from the recipe guide that came with the challenge for the full five weeks.
Check out what some of the Summer 2024 recipes were, though:
- Sheet Pan Pancakes (So easy!)
- Sausage & Veggie Breakfast Burritos (I made a lot of these and froze them!)
- Steak & Herb Goat Cheese Sandwich
- Southwest Chicken Salad (I made a huge batch of this and then missed it when it was gone!)
- Corn, Ricotta, & Hot Honey Pizza
- Super Easy Cornflakes Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner
- Jalapeño Popper Chicken Casserole
- Greek Turkey Meatballs with Tabbouleh (Obsessed!)
- Magic Spiced Salmon & Sweet Potato Superfood Salad (Love!!)
I’ve always loved the recipes, but I think this may have been the best set yet. They just keep getting better.
Tighter Together Workouts
There are five weeks of workouts (at least, as of the Summer 2024 challenge, but based on my experience with previous challenges, I don’t expect it to change). Weeks one and three are similar, and weeks two and four are similar, with three and four being slightly more challenging. This allows for progressive overload and gives you an easy way to see strength increases over time.
The deload/flex week, week five, is at the end when you load it into your calendar, but you can move it to the middle (or wherever you need it) if you’re burnt out or traveling without access to the equipment you’d need for the main challenge.
These workouts are shorter and require less equipment. You’re still working, but the deload week is less intense (to give your body a break without screeching to a halt), and the flex week is easier to accomplish when you’re traveling.
How Much Time Do the Tighter Together Workouts Take?
You can choose between the 30-minute and 60-minute options every day. I recommend adding about 15-30 extra minutes to those estimates until you get the hang of the workouts and see how quickly you tend to complete them. If you can gather everything you need in one spot before you start, that’ll help.
Any LISS included in the day’s workout is extra, but you can complete it at another time (sometimes I even did it on a different day). A morning or evening walk is perfect for checking this part off the list.
This time, there was a 3- or 4-day split option in addition to the full 6-day plan, which took the pressure off. Having it written out that way stopped me from feeling like I needed to get all six workouts in or call myself a failure. I’m trying to work on my perfectionist, all-or-nothing approach to life, but sometimes it’s hard to shake.
I still aimed for six workouts but I felt like getting the three or four main workouts in would still count as a success since there was an actual written plan for that, too. I could rest, walk, do a different workout, etc., and still feel fine about it.
The 6-day workout split was like this:
- Monday: Lower Body 1 (Glutes & Hamstrings)
- Tuesday: Upper Body Push/Pull 1
- Wednesday: Full Body Burn & Core (more cardio-focused full body)
- Thursday: Lower Body 2 (Quads & Glutes)
- Friday: Upper Body Push/Pull 2
- Saturday: Full Body Build & Core (more strength-based full body)
- Sunday: Rest
The 3-day split had one lower body day, one upper body day, and one full body day.
The 4-day split had two lower body days, an upper body day, and a full body day.
I liked that all the workouts were loaded at one time rather than one day at a time. That way, if I had the time and energy for an especially taxing workout (like leg day) one day, I could choose that one over a day with a shorter or less intense workout. Or I could opt for a less intense workout on a low-energy day.
Similarly, I could plan days that had a LISS component and a strength component around my schedule.
I appreciated this Tighter Together challenge’s extra attention to core and mobility. It’s another one of those things I don’t see being removed from future challenges, either.
(The Madeline Moves app also has a whole Core Moves program that you can do alone or paired with other programs, like Weekly Moves.)
Equipment You’ll Need
You can do these workouts at home with a few dumbbells, resistance bands, and something to use as a bench you can step up on. There are other accessories you could use if you have them (and I’m sure which ones will depend on the moves in the challenge), but these workouts are doable with the bare minimum.
There are recommended swaps if you can’t do a move for whatever reason. Madeline’s catchphrase is, “Modify and go,” and it really applies here. It doesn’t have to be perfect. There are ways to modify and get the same results. I used to get hung up on doing it all “just right,” but it’s okay if you have to substitute another move in.
My Tighter Together Challenge Results
I have no idea if I lost weight or inches, but my clothes fit better, and I felt like my belly flattened out a bit (it’s always been my “problem” area) even as early as the first week or two. I have a tendency to eat too many carbs and not enough protein when I’m not paying at least some attention to macros, so I’m sure that played a part in deflating my bloat.
Within a few days, my energy levels were through the roof. I’ve been focused on improving my sleep for a while now, but I paid extra attention to it during the challenge. I think the movement, combined with better nutrition, brought me back to life, and the electrolytes I mentioned earlier kept me going. I felt like a different person pretty early on.
That high energy wasn’t completely consistent over the whole challenge (I still had days of feeling exhausted), but my energy levels were consistently higher than my baseline as long as I tracked macros, drank enough water, replenished my electrolytes, and moved my body.
Increased Energy Was Good, but Here’s What Really Surprised Me
The shocking part came the day I finally decided to scrub my kitchen cabinets thoroughly (around week four or five of the challenge). The cabinets are very tall, and I have to stand on a chair to reach the top half. Not too long ago, a bottle of flavoring and coloring exploded, and it went everywhere. It’s like glitter; we thought we got it all, but we still find another dark purple splatter almost every day.
Before I put too much thought into it, I grabbed a chair and hopped up on it, spray and paper towels in hand. I was spraying, stretching to wipe the cabinets down, getting down from the chair, moving it over, climbing back up, and repeating the process over and over before it hit me: I’d felt too weak and wobbly to do this before.
Not only was I getting up and down from the chair (with a core strong enough to allow me to scrub at the cabinets without feeling like I might fall over), I was doing it with both legs, not just my stronger, dominant leg. I wasn’t stiff. Didn’t feel weak. Nothing hurt.
I felt strong enough to accomplish the task I set out to do and didn’t even stop to question myself. I haven’t felt like that since my late 20s or early 30s. I’m in my early 40s now.
Tighter Together Review: Final Verdict and What I’m Doing Now
Do I wish I could say I’d gone down a few pants sizes in the five weeks? Yeah. My old wardrobe awaits. It didn’t take me long to go up a few pants sizes, so I wanted the going back down process to be quick. Lol
I will take the performance improvements for now, though. I was shocked by how quickly my strength, balance, and mobility improved. I knew my hip and lower back pain had mellowed out but those flare up when I sit too much, and I was sitting a lot less with all the working out.
I’m (loosely) sticking with the fat loss macros for a little while longer (not sure when I’ll switch to maintenance). I’m comfortable there and don’t feel hungry, and I would like to lose more fat. It’s not good to stay in a deficit without a break for a very long time, but a few more weeks should be fine.
I still use the Moves app for the Weekly Moves and Core Moves programs, but I mix in a few other apps, as well, depending on my mood and what my body is craving, movement-wise, at the time.
I want to do more Pilates since my core’s not what it used to be, even though it improved a lot during the Tighter Together challenge. I’d also like to add a quick HIIT workout somewhere during the week for the cardiovascular benefits. Generally, though, the split will stay about the same for me. I love strength training more than any other type of workout. Always have.
Anyway, I highly, highly recommend giving Tighter Together (and the Moves app in general since the workouts are like a toned-down version of those found in Tighter Together, and five per week instead of six). You can see my review of the Moves app as a whole here.
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