Update: Since I wrote this review, Joyn has added a number of new workouts, including longer and more intense options. They are still offering a 30 day free trial, so I recommend checking them out!
Since I’m doing all my workouts at home, I thought I would review some of the workouts that I’ve been doing. Today it’s Joyn.
Full disclosure, while I know some of the people who created it (and think they are amazing!) I’m not affiliated with the app in any way, they don’t even know I’m writing this!
My fiancee, Julianne, had actually started to use Joyn a while ago. As I was dealing with my neck injury and stuck at home, I joyned her (see what I did there…) trying some of their classes.
This app seems to be built on a foundation of diversity, and out of bricks of joy. There are diverse course offerings (yoga, multiple forms of dance, low impact workouts including walking, pilates and more.) The instructors and participants are a diverse group. There are options for seated, standing and lying down – often all in the same class. The focus is joyful movement that is Queer, Trans, and Fat positive and all from a Health at Every Size perspective.
There are often options provided to add intensity (raise the arms, lift up the knees more etc.) Depending on where you are currently at with your fitness, if you are looking for a really high-intensity workout you may have to apply your own modifications, but it can definitely be done.
The workouts are also 20 minutes or less so if you’re looking for a longer workout you can simply string them together – they have also put together some “flows” that can help with that.
It’s available on television, laptop, tablet, and phone.
If you’re looking for fat-positive workouts that are Health at Every Size based and/or beginner-friendly and/or Fat/Queer/Trans positive and/or have lots of options for accessibility I definitely recommend checking out Joyn!
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IronFat 
THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing this! I keep getting all these notifications for quarantine fitness classes and they’re always thin-centric, too intense, and weight-loss oriented. I have been absolutely dreaming of a HAES/fat-positive alternative. I know typing in all CAPS sounds like you’re yelling, but I am yelling with joy because I am GEEKED. ^_^
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Like many people I’m doing a lot more movement at home these days, and I think I’ll give Joyn a look. Is there an online community for Joyn, and if so is it body-positive?
I am asking because the online community for Body Groove was unhelpful for me. I enjoy Body Groove very much — the movements are fun (or if one isn’t, substitution is encouraged), and the leaders are encouraging and body-positive, not engaging in diet talk and encouraging pleasure in one’s own body. The founder suffered from bulimia for years, and her recovery informs her work. The videos show people of a variety of sizes and ages, mostly female, including people of colour in more than token numbers, dressed in delightful outfits and doing a variety of moves including seated Groove. The videos are genuinely about pleasure in movement and I like them. Sadly, I had to unfollow the online community because …well, I don’t want to describe the diet talk since it might be as hard for others to read it as was it was for me. I’ve been away from diet talk for so long that it really struck me how tragic it is to live in shame.
But the videos are great, and I definitely want to check out Joyn.
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I’ve heard similar things about the Body Groove workouts – I know that their marketing has incredibly anti-fat weightloss talk. I sent an e-mail offering to support them in moving away from that, I haven’t heard back yet! I don’t think jion has a community, but you might check out Fit Fatties (full disclosure – I co-founded it with Jeanette DePatie!) We are a Facebook group of 8.5 thousand people of all sizes who talk about fitness from a weight-neutral perspective. There’s absolutely no weightloss or diet talk allowed. https://www.facebook.com/groups/fitfatties/
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Oh, for heaven’s sake! I joined Fit Fatties years ago and totally forgot about it! Laughing at myself now. Thanks very much for the re-pointer. 🙂
When I first saw your response I was surprised about your comments about the Body Groove advertising, because the ads I responded to were body-positive. Since then, though, I’ve seen a different ad that is not positive (not repeating the self-hating sentiments in it). How sad.
Anyway, off to see if I can remember my password for Fit Fatties, and thanks again.
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