Frequently-asked questions

Fresca is a health and fitness app with one goal - to help you to stay fit and healthy for the long term. The core of the app is the workout - a series of short-duration bodyweight exercises that progress in difficulty as you get fitter and stronger. 

We're not! We're doing it for love. We're not monetising your data and the website isn't being tracked in Google Analytics or any similar tracking tools. 

If we ever decide to release it to the public we'll start charging but, as friends and family, you'll always get free access. 

Hopefully you went through the onboarding process when you joined, which will set the difficulty for your workouts. If you didn't do that for whatever reason, you can access it here - but be aware that it'll overwrite your account settings. 

If you're looking for a good place to start, try the Get Moving workout - it's pretty quick and should be fun for beginners. 

It's designed to work best on mobiles - modern Android phones or iOS devices newer than the iPhone 6S. It works really well on tablets too, and on laptops and desktop computers. If you're using a mobile then install the app for best results. 

If you visit the website on your mobile using Chrome on Android or Safari on iOS, then you should see a little message at the bottom of the screen saying something like "Add Fresca to your home screen". This allows you to install it directly onto your phone, and gives you added benefits - it'll load faster, look nicer and you have better control over whether it plays audio. 

If you don't see that message then you can go to the Install page which should prompt you to install it.

If you're just starting off, we'd suggest one a week. If you haven't done any exercise for a while you'll be surprised how tiring it can be. Wait until your muscles aren't sore before you do your next workout. Once you can do one workout a week without any problems, try adding a second each week. 

If you're a bit fitter and used to exercise, you could happily do a workout every other day as long as it doesn't cause you any problems. 

We've deliberately designed the programmes to be suitable for all ages. You can control how fast or slow you do the activities and how fast you progress. We're certainly planning to be using the app as we get older.

Sure, there's a Theme option on the Account page that lets you choose from a range of colour schemes. 

Your streak is the number of consecutive weeks where you've logged exercise, either through Fresca workouts or by adding other activities. To keep your streak going, you need to log at least one workout or activity each week. 

Everyone is motivated by different things: Kat loves to see that she's done regular workouts like clockwork each month, while Mat is totally obsessed with being able to compete with other people. The leaderboard is definitely more for people like Mat. 

The leaderboard only shows the total time for workouts that you've done inside Fresca. This is partly to encourage you to do workouts, and partly to make it harder for people to cheat! Yes, we know that you could just keep starting workouts and leaving your phone on the table while you sip margaritas, but do you really want to win that badly?

At the end of each month, the top three people on the leaderboard receive an email with a little trophy icon, which is guaranteed to give a glow of satisfaction. Does that count as a prize?

This area gives you a place to record activities that you do outside of Fresca, like walking, swimming or running. We've sourced exercise data from the public Compendium of Physical Activities to make it easier to work out how many calories you're using. 

We're currently working on an import process for Strava, which you can try out here if you like. If you'd like to import data from another source please get in touch and we'll give you a hand. 

The app analyses the feedback you give during workouts, and sets a progress level for each part of your body independently. So if you struggle with arm and shoulder exercises but complete your cardio exercises without problems, then your cardio score will advance faster. You can use the progress page to see how you're doing on different body parts. 

Of course, the sliders on the progress page allow you to increase - or decrease - the difficulty for each body part. If you don't think that you're being challenged enough with cardio exercises, for example, then push the slider along a little. If you can't manage to complete the core exercises, then nudge it down to a more comfortable level. This is supposed to be fun, after all.

We really want to make this app as good as we can. Please get in touch and let us know what went wrong so we can fix it

Please let us know and we'll add it!

It sounds like you're over-training. Take a week off, let your body recover and then come back and try a short workout next week. 

If you suffer any serious problems like acute pain or shortness of breath while working out, stop immediately and consult a doctor. We don't want you to die. 

The simple answer is that we're not app developers, and we don't think there's a need to build a separate app. You can install the website onto your mobile device as a Progressive Web Application and it'll work just the same as a regular app. See the FAQ "How do I install the app?" for details.

Depending on your browser settings, your web browser might be deliberately blocking audio. If you're using a mobile, try installing the app as a first step, which should fix it. See the FAQ "How do I install the app?" for details.

Please try our audio test page and let us know the results.

Alternatively please get in touch and we'll help you figure it out. 

The app uses your weight to calculate how many calories you use during exercise, so you'll get more accurate data if you regularly enter your weight. If you're trying to lose a bit of weight, you could weigh yourself weekly and use this to check on your progress. 

To measure your body fat you'll need a special set of scales that send a tiny electric current through your body - you can't feel anything though. We have the Omrom BF508 but there are much cheaper scales out there, and some that connect to your phone via Bluetooth. There are also manual ways to measure your body fat, but who's got the time?

Of course, please get in touch and we'll give you a hand with it.