Tone It Up, the women’s fitness app and community founded by Karena Dawn and Katrina Scott: a big, varied library of toning, strength, HIIT, yoga and Pilates workouts with a famously strong community, now back under founder Karena Dawn after a couple of ownership changes · a solid, friendly general women’s app · but with light-to-moderate weights, an aesthetic heritage and no menopause content. Good general fitness and community, not a midlife specialist.
How this profile is different. This is a research-based data profile, not a hands-on test. It draws on Tone It Up’s official information, app-store listings, current pricing, verified user reviews, news on its ownership, and the exercise science, then scores the app on our standard criteria. Where we describe a feature, that reflects published information, not a personal trial. This is education, not medical advice; check with your clinician before starting a new programme, especially with joint, pelvic-floor or heart concerns.
Tone It Up Review 2026: Quick Answer
Research-based data profile: assessed from official sources, pricing, user reviews, ownership news and the science, not personally tested
Women who want varied, community-driven general fitness at home, from toning and strength to yoga and HIIT
You want menopause-specific content, heavy progressive strength, or a break from aesthetic, toning framing
A women’s fitness app with over 1,000 workouts, structured challenges, nutrition and a strong community
About 10 to 45 minutes, with short daily moves and longer sessions
Light to medium dumbbells, a mat and a resistance band; some workouts are bodyweight
A mix, with low-impact yoga and Pilates alongside higher-impact HIIT
Structured challenges, a supportive community, real variety and built-in nutrition
Real but light-to-moderate toning weights, gentler than the heavy loading bone needs
Limited: no menopause-specific content, though cycle-phase workouts and a pelvic-floor class suit still-cycling women
iOS and Android apps, plus the website and free YouTube content
About $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, often discounted, with a 7-day free trial
Co-founder Karena Dawn bought the brand back in late 2025 and is now running it
5.8 / 10
Quick Verdict
Worth it for women over 40? For varied, community-driven general fitness, it can be. But it has no menopause content, so for perimenopause or menopause it is a general women’s app rather than a midlife plan.
Tone It Up earns 5.8/10 on our research-based evaluation. It is a friendly, well-established women’s fitness app with genuine strengths: over 1,000 workouts across toning, strength, HIIT, yoga, Pilates and dance, well-structured challenges, built-in nutrition and, above all, a famously supportive community. After a few years under private-equity ownership, co-founder Karena Dawn bought the brand back in late 2025 and is leading a relaunch, which is a positive sign, though the recovery is still in progress.
Where it is limited for our audience. The strength is real but light-to-moderate toning weights, not the heavier loading that protects bone, and while it has cycle-phase workouts and a pelvic-floor class, they are built around the menstrual cycle for still-cycling women, with no menopause or hormone-shift content. The brand’s heritage leans aesthetic, with a bikini-series history, and reviews note app bugs and billing friction. Choose it if you want varied, sociable general fitness and will add heavier progressive strength and your own midlife knowledge.
Is Tone It Up right for you?
Tone It Up is strongest for nutrition support (5.0 out of 10, against a 3.6 average across the 105 programmes scored) and weakest for painful joints (4.5 against 6.1).
| Question | Verdict | Rating | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it suits a perimenopausal body | |||
| Is Tone It Up good for pelvic floor problems?Based on pelvic floor support and low-impact design | Low, about the same as mostmost score 4.7/10 | 4.0 / 10 | |
| Does Tone It Up include perimenopause and menopause education and programming?Based on programming, education, hormone awareness and credibility | Low, and worse than mostmost score 3.2/10 | 2.3 / 10 | |
| Is Tone It Up good for painful joints?Based on low-impact design and recovery provision | Low, and worse than mostmost score 6.1/10 | 4.5 / 10 | |
| Is Tone It Up manageable when your energy is low?Based on recovery provision and mind-body support | Moderate, about the same as mostmost score 5.6/10 | 5.3 / 10 | |
| Is Tone It Up good if you are new to strength training?Based on beginner on-ramp and mind-body support | Moderate, about the same as mostmost score 6.1/10 | 6.5 / 10 | |
| Is Tone It Up good for building bone density?Based on bone loading and progressive strength | Low, and worse than mostmost score 5.1/10 | 4.0 / 10 | |
| Does Tone It Up help with nutrition?Based on midlife nutrition support | Moderate, but better than mostmost score 3.6/10 | 5.0 / 10 | |
| How it performs as a product | |||
| Can you fit Tone It Up into a busy week?Based on time efficiency | Moderate, and worse than mostmost score 7.5/10 | 6.5 / 10 | |
| Is Tone It Up worth the money?Based on value for money | Moderate, and worse than mostmost score 6.9/10 | 6.0 / 10 | |
Jump to Section
What Tone It Up Actually Is
Tone It Up is a women’s fitness app and community, founded in 2009 by Karena Dawn and Katrina Scott and still going strong in 2026. It offers more than 1,000 follow-along workouts across toning and strength, HIIT, cardio, yoga, Pilates, barre, dance and pregnancy and postnatal content, alongside structured challenges, built-in nutrition and recipes, and a famously active community with in-app chat, challenges and badges. It also includes cycle syncing, which aligns training with the menstrual cycle.
Which product this is, and a recent ownership note. This is the Tone It Up app from Tone It Up, on iOS and Android, and it is live and actively updated. Its ownership has changed a few times: after a period under private-equity owners, co-founder Karena Dawn bought the brand back in late 2025 and is now running it as owner and creative director, leading a relaunch of the app, content and products, while co-founder Katrina Scott has fully departed. So it is a familiar brand in a rebuild, which is worth knowing.
For this audience it helps to be clear about what it is and is not. Tone It Up is a genuinely good general women’s fitness app with real variety, structure and community. What it is not is a menopause product or a heavy-strength specialist: the strength is light-to-moderate toning work, its cycle-phase and pelvic-floor content is built around the menstrual cycle rather than menopause, there is no menopause or hormone-shift content, and the heritage leans aesthetic. Read it as a friendly, varied general-fitness and community app to pair with heavier strength and your own midlife knowledge.
Who Is Behind Tone It Up? Credibility
Tone It Up was built by Karena Dawn and Katrina Scott, both certified personal trainers and nutrition coaches, who grew it into one of the best-known women’s fitness brands with a large, loyal community. After several years of private-equity ownership, Karena Dawn reacquired the brand in late 2025 and now leads it, with a roster of trainers including Chyna Malik, Tori Dietz and Stef Corgel; Katrina Scott is no longer involved.
How to read that credibility. As general women’s fitness, it is credible: the founders are qualified, the community is real, and the content is well produced. What it is not is clinically or menopause-credentialed: the founders are trainers rather than menopause specialists, there is no medical or menopause advisory board, and no menopause or clinical expertise. On top of that, the ownership changes and the founder buyback mean the content direction and quality are in a period of transition. For our audience that means a friendly, competent general-fitness brand, but not a menopause or clinical authority.
Content and Features
At a glance: a varied women’s fitness app with over 1,000 workouts across toning, strength, HIIT, yoga, Pilates and dance, structured challenges, built-in nutrition and a strong community. Capped for our audience by light-to-moderate strength, an aesthetic heritage, no menopause content and app-quality and billing caveats.
| Format | A women’s fitness app with follow-along workouts, structured challenges, nutrition and community. |
| Class types | Toning and strength, HIIT, cardio, yoga, Pilates, barre, dance, and pregnancy and postnatal. |
| Class length | About 10 to 45 minutes, with short daily moves and longer sessions. |
| Midlife strengths | Structured challenges, a supportive community, real variety and built-in nutrition and recipes. |
| Strength and bone | Real but light-to-moderate toning weights, gentler than heavy bone-loading training. |
| Impact and joints | A mix, with low-impact yoga and Pilates alongside higher-impact HIIT. |
| Menopause programming | No menopause-specific content, but it does include cycle-phase workouts (menstrual, follicular, luteal, ovulatory) and a dedicated Pelvic Floor & Core class, aimed at cycling women rather than menopause. |
| Nutrition | Built-in recipes and nutrition guidance, plus a separate supplement line. |
| Devices | iOS and Android apps, plus the website and free YouTube content. |
What Equipment Do You Need for Tone It Up?
Not much. Most workouts use light to medium dumbbells and a mat, some add a resistance band, and others are bodyweight. For a midlife body, the most useful upgrade is a set of adjustable dumbbells you can make heavier over time, because Tone It Up’s toning weights stay on the lighter side and progressive loading is what protects bone and muscle after 40.
Recommended spec examples. These picks are curated for convenience by specification and feature fit, not personally lab-tested for long-term durability. Prices are examples; verify before buying.
Adjustable dumbbells (light)
Light adjustable weights for the toning and strength work.~$73
Adjustable dumbbells (heavier)
A squared dial pair to 25 lb to add real load over time.~$60
Exercise mat
For the yoga, Pilates and floor work.~$45
Resistance bands
Used in some toning and glute workouts.~$20
A quick heads-up: some of the buy links above are Amazon affiliate links, so if you grab something through them I may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. I only ever point you to kit I would happily use myself.
Bottom line on equipment: light dumbbells, a mat and a band cover the app; heavier adjustable dumbbells are the companion buy for the bone-loading strength toning weights do not provide.
How We Scored Tone It Up: the 5.8 / 10 Breakdown
Scores on our 9 weighted criteria, from our research-based assessment. Women Over 40 is our menopause-fit criterion, and its full 12-capability breakdown follows in the next section.
| Category | Weight | Score | Confidence | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time Efficiency | 15% | 6.5 | Med | Short daily moves and efficient HIIT and express workouts fit a busy day. |
| Muscle Potential | 18% | 5.5 | Med | Real resistance work, but light-to-moderate toning loads cap the strength and muscle ceiling. |
| Women Over 40 Specificity | 10% | 3.9 | High | Cycle-phase and pelvic-floor content for cycling women, but no menopause-specific content and an aesthetic heritage; full breakdown below. |
| Joint Friendliness | 12% | 5.5 | Med | Low-impact yoga and Pilates options exist, but higher-impact HIIT reduces overall joint-friendliness. |
| Recovery Compatibility | 10% | 5 | Med | Rest days and mobility help, but there is no deload structure tuned to midlife recovery. |
| Programme Structure | 12% | 7 | High | Well-defined challenges, series and a daily structure are a genuine, motivating backbone. |
| Value for Money | 8% | 6 | Med | A reasonable subscription with broad content and community, though no midlife specialisation. |
| UX and Design | 8% | 6.5 | Med | A polished, approachable app, though reviews note bugs and the relaunch adds some uncertainty. |
| Nutrition Integration | 7% | 6 | Med | Real recipes and nutrition guidance are built in, though general rather than midlife-focused. |
| Total | 100% | 5.8 / 10 | Research Score. |
Is Tone It Up Good for Women Over 40?
As a varied, community-driven general-fitness app, it has real appeal. The structured challenges give you a plan to follow, the community is genuinely supportive, and the mix of toning, strength, yoga, Pilates and HIIT keeps things interesting, all of which help a midlife woman stay consistent. There is a real, loyal cohort of women in their 40s and 50s who use and love it.
Who it suits, and what is missing. It suits a woman who wants friendly, varied general fitness with structure and community and does not mind an aesthetic tone. What is missing is anything menopause-specific: it has cycle-phase workouts and a pelvic-floor class, but the cycle syncing is built around menstrual cycles rather than menopause, there is no hormone-shift or menopause content, the strength is light-to-moderate rather than bone-loading, and the brand heritage and framing lean toward appearance. Older users have noted they are a loyal minority rather than the target audience.
What the wider picture shows. Tone It Up is a genuinely good general women’s app, and the founder buyback suggests renewed investment, but it is not built for menopause and its strength is on the lighter side. The best way to use it is for its variety, structure and community, layered with heavier progressive strength for bone and muscle and, if you want it, a menopause-specific programme.
How Tone It Up Fits Perimenopause, Menopause and Beyond
Our capability breakdown of how well Tone It Up suits women across perimenopause, menopause and post-menopause. Women Over 40 is our menopause-fit criterion, and this is the full breakdown behind the Women Over 40 row above.
Tone It Up is strongest for community, structure and a beginner-friendly onramp, and it does include cycle-phase workouts and a pelvic-floor class; it is weakest on heavy bone loading and on any menopause-specific or hormone-shift programming, in our menopause and midlife capability assessment.
| At a glance | Score |
|---|---|
| Right training for a midlife body | 4.3 / 10 |
| Menopause education and programming* | 2.4 / 10 |
| Whole-woman support | 6.0 / 10 |
This is the perimenopause and menopause assessment, and it is separate from the overall score. Twelve things a programme either does for a midlife body or does not, each scored out of 10 with my reasoning next to it. Together they produce a single menopause fit score, and that becomes one of the nine categories in the overall scoring below.
How Tone It Up Fits Perimenopause, Menopause & Beyond
Women Over 40 is our most important criterion, and here's the full breakdown behind it.
Tone It Up is strongest for mind-body support, beginner on-ramp and low-impact, and weakest for menopause programming, menopause education, hormone awareness, pelvic floor, bone loading, expert credibility and recovery & deload, in our menopause and midlife capability assessment for women over 40.
At a glance
What the app teaches about perimenopause and/or menopause, not whether the training suits a midlife body.
| Capability | Score | Rating | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Right training for a midlife body | |||
| Low-impact | 5/10 | Some | Yoga and Pilates and gentler options exist, but HIIT and plyometric work keep the library from being genuinely low-impact. |
| Progressive strength | 4.5/10 | Minimal | Real resistance training, but light-to-moderate toning weights and challenge structure limit true progressive overload. |
| Bone loading | 3.5/10 | Minimal | Light-to-moderate dumbbell work gives some stimulus but falls short of the heavy loading that protects ageing bone. |
| Recovery & deload | 4/10 | Minimal | Scheduled rest days and mobility help, yet there is no deload logic tuned to midlife recovery capacity. |
| Menopause education and programming* | |||
| Menopause programming | 1.5/10 | None | No perimenopause or menopause-specific programming; the cycle-phase workouts are menstrual, aimed at still-cycling women. |
| Pelvic floor | 3/10 | Minimal | A dedicated Pelvic Floor and Core class exists, but it is a single class, not a structured pelvic-floor or core-canister programme. |
| Hormone awareness | 2.5/10 | None | Cycle-phase workouts (menstrual, follicular, luteal, ovulatory) show some hormonal-phase awareness, but built around the menstrual cycle, not menopausal shifts. |
| Menopause education | 1.5/10 | None | No educational library on menopause symptoms, HRT, sleep or metabolic change for women 40 to 55. |
| Expert credibility | 3.5/10 | Minimal | Founders were certified trainers, not menopause clinicians; ownership change weakens continuity. |
| Whole-woman support | |||
| Mind-body support | 6.5/10 | Some | Strong community, challenges, yoga and mindset content deliver genuine motivation and belonging. |
| Beginner on-ramp | 6.5/10 | Some | Guided challenges and approachable coaching make it easy for returning or newer exercisers to start. |
| Midlife nutrition | 5/10 | Some | Built-in recipes and nutrition are solid but general and aesthetic-leaning, not midlife-metabolism focused. |
ScaleBest-in-classStrongSomeMinimalNone
* What the app teaches and programmes around menopause, not whether the training suits a midlife body. Many programmes that score low here are still a good fit, they simply never use the word. A high score is not proof either: a few menopause videos added to a general library lifts this score without changing the training.
These are evidence-informed suitability ratings, not clinical measurements. They combine exercise science with product-specific research and, where indicated, hands-on testing, alongside multi-source verification, and are approximate. Individual response varies. A starting point, not medical advice. How we score menopause fit
What the sources say: scores combine the platform’s features, user sentiment and the science. Tone It Up does well on community, structure and a beginner-friendly onramp, and reasonably on nutrition and mind-body support. It scores low on the built-for-menopause and right-training measures because, although it has cycle-phase workouts and a pelvic-floor class, that content is built around the menstrual cycle and pregnancy rather than menopause, there is no menopause or hormone-shift content, and the strength is light-to-moderate, so it sits well below purpose-built menopause platforms.
These are evidence-informed suitability ratings, not clinical measurements. They combine exercise science with programme research and multi-source verification, and are approximate. Individual response varies. A starting point, not medical advice. How we score menopause fit.
What the Research Says: Tone It Up Checked
The strength and variety have real value. Resistance training reliably builds strength in midlife and older women, with bigger gains from higher effort, so Tone It Up’s toning and strength work is genuinely worthwhile.[1] Encouragingly, lighter loads taken close to failure can build muscle size comparable to heavier ones, even though the biggest gains in maximal strength still favour heavier weights.[2] Its HIIT and cardio also help body composition, though the effect is weaker after menopause than before.[3]
Strength training is worth doing, whatever the load. Muscle-strengthening activity is linked to lower mortality and disease risk, with benefit from as little as 30 to 60 minutes a week, so a sustainable strength habit counts.[4] This matters because lean muscle falls and fat rises across the menopause transition, which is exactly what strength work helps counter.[5]
Where the limit lies. For the strongest bone-density gains, the evidence points to heavy, progressive resistance and impact training, which improved bone density in postmenopausal women using loads well above typical toning weights.[6] Tone It Up’s light-to-moderate weights are gentler than that, so its strength maintains and builds usefully but should not be assumed to match the heaviest bone-loading protocols. The sensible approach is to use it for variety and consistency and add heavier loading as you progress.
What Users Report: Verified Sentiment
Rating snapshot: Tone It Up rates highly on the Apple App Store, around 4.8 out of 5 from roughly 14,000 ratings, though much of the review text dates to its founder-led heyday around 2019 to 2022, so that figure is legacy-weighted. On Google Play it is around 4.3 from a smaller pool past 100,000 installs. Some low third-party billing complaints appear under lookalike domains that we could not confirm are the official brand, so we do not attribute them here.
What users praise and criticise. The praise is for the sheer variety and volume of workouts, the community, the trainers, the at-home convenience and the value against a gym. The recent criticisms are more about execution and the brand’s recent history than the workouts: app bugs like videos not loading, broken casting to a TV and completed workouts not marking as done, billing and refund friction, and long-time users feeling that features were stripped and the community lost some of its magic during the private-equity years. The founder’s return in late 2025 is widely seen as a chance to fix this, though the recovery is still unproven.
Consistently praised
- Huge variety and volume of workouts.
- A genuinely supportive community.
- Warm, capable trainers and at-home convenience.
- Good value versus a gym, with built-in nutrition.
Consistently noted
- App bugs, including casting, loading and tracking issues.
- Billing and refund friction.
- Features and community changed under previous ownership.
- No menopause content, and an aesthetic heritage.
Source and credibility note: ratings were checked in 2026 across the Apple App Store and Google Play and can change; the iOS score is legacy-weighted, so we treat the Google Play figure and recent reviews as the current signal. Some billing complaints appear under lookalike domains we could not verify as official, so we do not attribute them. No dedicated menopause sentiment was found, though older users are a real, loyal minority.
Devices and App
Tone It Up runs on iPhone and Android, with the workouts also on its website and free content on YouTube. It historically supported Apple Watch and tablet use, and the app is actively updated, with new challenges and content arriving under the relaunch. It bundles workouts, challenges, nutrition and community in one place.
A couple of practical notes. Reviewers report that casting to a television and video loading can be unreliable, and that completed workouts sometimes fail to track, so if a smooth app experience is essential it is worth using the 7-day free trial to check on your own devices first. And because the brand is mid-relaunch under new ownership, some features and pricing are in flux, so confirm the current details before subscribing.
Tone It Up specifications
- Last verified
- 12 August 2026
Tone It Up Price 2026: What You Actually Pay
| Plan | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | ~$14.99/mo | The flexible plan. |
| Annual | ~$99.99/yr | Works out cheaper per month, and is often discounted in promotions. |
| Free trial | 7 days | A 7-day free trial for new users, then it auto-renews. |
Cost and Cancellation
Tone It Up costs about $14.99 a month, or about $84 to $99.99 a year in US dollars depending on the promotion, with a 7-day free trial, and it runs frequent promotions that discount the annual plan further, so it is worth checking for an offer. Plans auto-renew, and you generally need to cancel at least 24 hours before renewal through your app store account, with no refunds for unused time, so set a reminder before the trial ends. Prices are in US dollars and were checked in 2026; because the brand is mid-relaunch under new ownership, confirm the current figures before subscribing.
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Will You Actually Stick With It?
Tone It Up is built for adherence, and it is one of its real strengths. The structured challenges give you a clear plan, the daily moves lower the barrier on busy days, the variety keeps boredom away, and the community, historically the brand’s heart, adds accountability and belonging. For a woman who responds to a supportive group and a plan to follow, that combination genuinely helps consistency.
The risks to sticking with it are app quality and the transition. The reported bugs around casting, loading and tracking can frustrate, and some long-time members feel the community and features changed during the ownership churn. The founder’s return may rebuild that magic, but it is early. If the community and structure click for you and the app runs smoothly on your devices, adherence comes easily; if the technical issues get in the way, they can wear you down.
Tone It Up Pros and Cons
Pros
- Over 1,000 workouts with real variety
- A famously supportive community
- Well-structured challenges and daily moves
- Built-in nutrition and recipes
- Founder Karena Dawn back and investing in a relaunch
Cons
- No menopause-specific or hormone-shift content
- Light-to-moderate toning weights, not heavy bone loading
- An aesthetic, bikini-series heritage
- Reported app bugs and billing friction
- Ownership churn, with the recovery still unproven
How Tone It Up Compares
Here is how Tone It Up stacks up against the alternatives women most often weigh it against, including the strongest menopause-built option as a contrast. Scores come from our own reviews; prices and ratings are approximate, so verify on each platform.
| Feature | Tone It Up | Sweat | EvolveYou | FitOn | Pvolve |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Our score | 5.8 / 10 | 6.9 / 10 | 6.1 / 10 | 7.3 / 10 | 8.3 / 10 |
| Monthly price | $14.99/mo · $99.99/yr | ~$19.99/mo | ~$14.99/mo | Free tier · ~$29.99/yr Pro | $24.99/mo · equipment from $199 |
| Style | Toning, strength, HIIT, yoga, community | Women’s strength and HIIT | Structured strength for women | Varied class library | Functional strength, menopause-built |
| Strength focus | Light-to-moderate toning | Moderate to high | High, progressive | Some | Moderate, functional |
| Community | Strong | Strong | Some | Some | Some |
| Perimenopause content | None | Minimal | Minimal | Minimal | Yes, menopause-built |
| Best suited to | Women wanting varied, sociable general fitness | Women wanting women-focused strength and HIIT | Women wanting structured progressive strength | Women wanting a free library | Women 40 to 55 wanting menopause-built strength |
Tone It Up vs Sweat: Which Is Better for Women Over 40?
These are the two best-known women’s fitness community apps, and they are close cousins. Sweat leans a little harder into structured strength and HIIT programmes with a strong community, while Tone It Up offers broader variety across toning, yoga, Pilates and dance with its own famously supportive community and built-in nutrition. Both share a younger, somewhat aesthetic heritage, and neither has menopause-specific content.
For women over 40 the choice is about emphasis. If you want slightly more structured, progressive strength, Sweat may edge it; if you want more variety, nutrition and a broad, friendly community, Tone It Up is appealing, especially with the founder now reinvesting in it. Neither is a menopause programme, so whichever you pick, add heavier progressive strength and, if you want menopause-specific design, a purpose-built option like Pvolve alongside.
If Tone It Up Is Not Right for You: Best Alternatives
If you want more progressive strength, menopause-specific design, or a free option, these published alternatives pair or compare well.
Similar programmes we partner with
Close to Tone It Up, if it is not quite right for you
These are not part of this review’s score. Each shares a goal or training style with Tone It Up, and each is worth a look if it is closer to what you need.
A well-structured AI coach app with genuine strength progression, but a high-impact default that is hard on midlife joints, no menopause programming,…
A polished UK studio-style HIIT, strength and yoga app with great variety and a motivating community, but HIIT-leaning with weak recovery, a modest be…
A huge, well-produced workout and nutrition library with a dedicated hormone programme in Belle Vitale. Strong value, but the mainstream library skews…
Joyful low-impact dance cardio and sculpt with a doctor-backed midlife programme added in 2026. Excellent for joints and consistency, though light loa…
Affiliate links, at no extra cost to you. I buy my own subscriptions and a commission never moves a score or a position. Full disclosure.
Tone It Up FAQ
Tone It Up is a women’s fitness app and community founded in 2009 by Karena Dawn and Katrina Scott. It offers more than 1,000 follow-along workouts across toning and strength, HIIT, cardio, yoga, Pilates, barre, dance and pregnancy and postnatal content, plus structured challenges, built-in nutrition and recipes, a supplement line and a famously active community. It also includes cycle syncing that aligns training with the menstrual cycle. It is a general women’s fitness app rather than a menopause programme.
Tone It Up is live and actively updated in 2026. Its ownership has changed a few times: after several years under private-equity owners, co-founder Karena Dawn bought the brand back in late 2025 and now runs it as owner and creative director, leading a relaunch of the app, content and products. Co-founder Katrina Scott has fully departed. So it is a familiar brand in a rebuild, with renewed founder investment but a recovery that is still in progress.
For varied, community-driven general fitness it can be a good, motivating choice, and there is a real, loyal cohort of women in their 40s and 50s who use it. The caveats are significant for our audience: it has cycle-phase workouts and a pelvic-floor class, but they are built around the menstrual cycle rather than menopause, there is no menopause or hormone-shift content, the strength is light-to-moderate toning rather than bone-loading, and the heritage leans aesthetic. So it works as varied general fitness paired with heavier strength and your own midlife knowledge, not as a menopause programme.
Tone It Up costs about $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year in US dollars, with a 7-day free trial, and it often runs promotions that discount the annual plan. Plans auto-renew and you generally need to cancel at least 24 hours before renewal through your app store account, with no refunds for unused time. Because the brand is mid-relaunch under new ownership, prices and features may change, so confirm the current details before subscribing.
Not menopause-specific content. Tone It Up has cycle-phase workouts (menstrual, follicular, luteal and ovulatory) and a dedicated Pelvic Floor and Core class, but this life-stage content is built around the menstrual cycle and pregnancy, aimed at still-cycling women, with no menopause, perimenopause or hormone-shift programming and no medical or menopause advisory. For menopause-specific design, a purpose-built option like Pvolve is a better fit, used alone or alongside Tone It Up.
For a woman who wants varied, sociable general fitness with structure, community and built-in nutrition, it can be worth it, and the founder’s return suggests renewed investment. It is a weaker choice if you want menopause-specific programming, heavy progressive strength for bone, or a break from aesthetic framing, and reviews note app bugs and billing friction to weigh. On our research-based evaluation, Tone It Up is a good general women’s app best paired with heavier strength for a midlife body.
Final Verdict
Research Score: 5.8 / 10 · Research-based data profile
Tone It Up is a friendly, well-established women’s fitness app with genuine strengths: over 1,000 varied workouts, well-structured challenges, built-in nutrition and, above all, a supportive community. The return of co-founder Karena Dawn in late 2025 has brought renewed investment and a relaunch, which is encouraging, even if the recovery is still in progress.
Tone It Up is for women who want varied, sociable general fitness with structure and community. It is not for women who want menopause-specific programming, hormone-shift content, or heavy progressive strength, because it has none of those, its strength is light-to-moderate toning, and its heritage leans aesthetic. The best way to use it is for its variety, structure and community, paired with heavier progressive strength for bone and muscle and, if you want it, a menopause-specific programme. As a research-based profile, this reflects official information, pricing, user reports, ownership news and the science, not a hands-on test.
Assessment Status
Research-based data profile: this profile is based on Tone It Up’s official information, app-store listings, current pricing, verified user reviews, news coverage of its ownership and the exercise science, scored on our standard criteria. It is not a hands-on test, and no personal-testing claims are made. If we test the app hands-on in future, we will upgrade this to a sample-tested review on the same page. How we score and test.
Sources and Further Reading
- Peterson, M.D. et al. (2010). Resistance exercise for muscular strength in older adults: a meta-analysis. Ageing Research Reviews, 9(3), 226 to 237. DOI 10.1016/j.arr.2010.03.004. Available at: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Resistance training significantly increased strength in adults over 50, with larger gains from higher intensity.
- Schoenfeld, B.J. et al. (2017). Strength and hypertrophy adaptations between low- versus high-load resistance training: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 31(12), 3508 to 3523. DOI 10.1519/JSC.0000000000002200. Available at: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Muscle size grew similarly across loads taken close to failure, while heavier loads produced greater maximal-strength gains.
- Dupuit, M. et al. (2020). Effect of high-intensity interval training on body composition in women before and after menopause: a meta-analysis. Experimental Physiology, 105(9), 1470 to 1490. DOI 10.1113/EP088654. Available at: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. HIIT reduced body fat in women, with a stronger effect before menopause than after.
- Momma, H. et al. (2022). Muscle-strengthening activities are associated with lower risk and mortality in major non-communicable diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 56(13), 755 to 763. DOI 10.1136/bjsports-2021-105061. Available at: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Muscle-strengthening activity was associated with lower mortality and disease risk, peaking around 30 to 60 minutes a week (observational).
- Greendale, G.A. et al. (2019). Changes in body composition and weight during the menopause transition. JCI Insight, 4(5), e124865 (Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation). DOI 10.1172/jci.insight.124865. Available at: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Fat mass rose and lean mass fell across the menopause transition (observational cohort).
- Watson, S.L. et al. (2018). High-Intensity Resistance and Impact Training Improves Bone Mineral Density and Physical Function in Postmenopausal Women With Osteopenia and Osteoporosis: The LIFTMOR Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 33(2), 211 to 220. DOI 10.1002/jbmr.3284. Available at: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Heavy, progressive resistance and impact training improved bone density using loads well above typical toning weights.
This is a research-based data profile, not a hands-on test. Pricing and features were verified in 2026 and may have changed, especially as the brand is mid-relaunch. Some affiliate links may be present. This site does not accept payment from platforms reviewed. Education, not medical advice; check with your clinician before starting a new programme, especially with joint, pelvic-floor or heart concerns.
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