Tempo Move Review: A Home Workout System Worth Moving For?

About three years ago, I picked up the Tempo Studio—that’s the full screen version of Tempo. 

It was a great product, and I really enjoyed it. Plus, it was an ideal solution for my wife.

But we eventually moved out of our apartment and didn’t have space for the Studio. 

But since then, I’ve been thinking a lot about Tempo and wishing they had something a little more compact that I could put in my new living room. 

Well, I checked and found that they did. 

So I got the Tempo Move (I went with the Pro version): all the same weights and same programming, but in a smaller package. 

Here’s what I think. 

Tempo Move Overview

There are three levels of the Tempo Move: the Move Starter, Move Plus, and Move Pro. 

With the Starter, you get the weight cabinet, the phone dock, an HDMI cord to screen the footage to a television, two dumbbells, and 35 pounds of weight. 

Bump up to the Plus, and you get all of that plus an extra 40 pounds of weight and a workout mat. I think you’ll want the four extra 10-pound weights because that will allow you to hit failure on a lot of different exercises, which is much harder to do if you can’t load up the dumbbells. 

And then there’s the Pro, which adds the 25 pound barbell, plus two 25 pound plates. This gives you the greatest range if you’re looking to do strength training as you can now load up the bar to 150 pounds, which will likely be beyond your max weight for exercises like rows (for a while anyway). 

I picked up the Pro—I’m a 6’2” 200lb guy who’s been lifting weights in the gym for several years now, so the extra weight is needed for me. 

You might just want to stick with the Plus if you want to cut down on floor space.

Things to Consider Before Buying the Tempo Move

Tempo was founded in 2015 and their first product was the Tempo Studio (read my review here). 

The Tempo Studio blends the power of biometrics with a home gym—it’s a personal trainer, gym, and community all in one. But it’s also huge. 

The Tempo Move takes all the best part of the Tempo Studio and condenses it. 

You lose the big screen, but you still get the community aspect, personal trainer-level programming, and weights in your living room. 

The best part about Tempo, in my opinion, is that it’s extremely aesthetically pleasing. Like, I’d keep these weights in my house even if I didn’t use them. OK, maybe that’s a stretch, but I never thought having a gym in my living room would be a “good look” and it is. 

There’s also the Tempo Core, which is the Phone Dock and two dumbbells with weights. 

Personally, I think the Move is the way to go—you get all the range of weighted exercises available to you by having more weight-plates, but you don’t have to sacrifice all the space you normally would with the Studio. 

Tempo Move Pro Review

I picked up the Tempo Move Pro, which includes the weight cabinet, phone dock, two dumbbells, 75 pounds of small weights, two dumbbell clips, a workout mat, a 25 pound barbell, plus two 25 pound weight plates. 

It’s basically a whole home gym. 

The Aesthetics

Tempo gives you two choices of colors: white or black. 

I went with the white because it matches my living room better, and man that was a good choice. 

Look at how great this fits in:

I’m really impressed with the design of the Tempo Move. They must have incredible designers, because even the small accessories are aesthetically pleasing. 

All the weights stow into a neat little cabinet. And when the cabinet is open, you just see these beautiful pastel weights that look like they’re straight out of a futuristic Crate & Barrel catalog. 

Normally when I ask my wife if we can set up a home gym in the living room, she says no way, but when I showed her the Tempo Move, she was all in. 

Since you’re going to be living with the Tempo Move, the looks are critical. And I think style is Tempo’s strong-suit. 

This is a fantastic looking unit, and even with items like weights, Tempo has done an excellent job of making what’s normally unattractive, attractive.

The Equipment

The equipment is all quite basic: dumbbells, weights, and security clips. 

One thing I love about the weights is that they have a light rubberized coating on the outside, which not only makes them look matte and neat, but it also is easier on my flooring. It’s quieter, too. 

Not that you should be throwing your weights down after every set. But if you do accidentally drop a weight from a foot off the ground or so, it’s going to have a softer landing than a regular dumbbell would. 

The main piece of equipment to watch out for is the phone dock. Again, it’s simple, but it’s the only piece you can’t afford to smash. It just goes right on top of the cabinet, and once you dock your phone to it, it becomes your fitness center. 

Now, I picked up the Pro, which also includes a barbell and two 25 pound plates. I can fully load the barbell to 150 pounds, which is quite heavy. Tempo offers a foldable squat rack, which is also basically a work of art, though I don’t have the rack myself. 

So I’m basically limited to barbell rows with this piece. With a 150lb load, that’s plenty for me and I’ve been able to do some great strength training and progressive overload. 

The App

Tempo customizes every stage of working out using your body’s data and prioritizes progress to help you see results.

You input your goals into the app, and if you want, you can also do a body scan that’ll establish a baseline for your progress. 

One thing I liked was that Tempo has a daily Readiness score that’s created based on your individualized health data, including your sleep quality, heart rate, and the workouts you did yesterday. 

Basically, there are a ton of potential workouts based on what you need that day, which I thought was really impressive.

The Tempo App is only fully functional if you have an iPhone, so that’s a downside for any Android users out there. 

View this post on Instagram

However, if you’re livin’ that aesthetic lifestyle, then you’ve probably already got an iPhone. 

The app is great—it tracks your workouts and automatically adds in progressive overload (which is basically when you either add more weights or more reps each workout). 

It’s like having a personal trainer, but the AI version. 

It’ll track the weights you’ve lifted for all of your workouts, and it’ll help move you along so that you’re getting stronger and stronger with each workout. 

View this post on Instagram

I love the leaderboard function, but I’ve found that you need to be careful not to get too caught up in it. It can cause you to do some pretty wild moves with your weights to try and beat the top spot, so I recommend always focusing on form rather than number of reps or total weight. 

Speaking of form, the app will use your iPhone camera to track your movement and form. It’ll give real-time feedback if your hips aren’t positioned right, or if your back is too curved. 

The Tempo App makes it really easy to see where your form needs work and will give very clear guidance on how to improve so that you’re always taking good care of your body. 

And I should mention that I’ve also set up a profile for my wife so she can use the Tempo Move how she likes to and still get the same level of personalization and progressive gains.

The Training

You can choose from dozens of different “styles” of classes, which is one of my favorite things about Tempo in general. 

While I’ve spent most of my time in the strength training section of the app, there are many more options. 

You can do boxing, cardio, HIIT, yoga, mobility and stretching, meditation, and even prenatal training. 

I generally stick to strength training and then stretch and mobility routines. My wife is big on the cardio and stretching routines. 

You can either choose to just follow a set plan, and Tempo will figure out the workouts for you. Or you can filter by specific body parts (i.e. a “Shoulder Pump” workout). 

I think your best choice is to follow a plan—after all, let the experts do what they do and focus on showing up every day. 

Shipping and Delivery

You’re getting a whole home gym in one delivery, so it’s a bulky, heavy box. When mine was delivered, I was out of town. My wife couldn’t get the package into the garage. Thankfully we had an Amazon delivery guy who came later in the day and was willing to help her out. 

That really might not be an issue for you. The main box is something like 90-100 pounds, which is too heavy for many people. 

Of course, it’s not too heavy for me because I’m extremely strong and good looking, but, you know…

Anyway, when you’re planning on getting your shipment in, just make sure someone’s there who can move it inside. Or another option would be to open up the package and move all the weights one-by-one. 

What Do Other Reviewers Say About the Tempo Move?

View this post on Instagram

I scanned through several of the most-read Tempo Move reviews out there and like myself, just about everyone was blown away with how good looking and compact this unit is. 

There’s one big review that mentions connectivity issues, though I didn’t struggle with that at all. 

One issue I also saw come up, and that I had myself, is that you’re limited with the heavier weights because it’s much harder to load the weight on your back (unless you can lift it over your head). 

To get into the major lifts, you’ll need extra equipment like a bench or a rack, which starts to defeat the purpose of having such a beautiful compact home gym, which Tempo also sells (and they look fantastic) 

My Thoughts Overall On Tempo

FAQs