Script:
Enough with all these video games such as Let’s Get Fit, Wii Fit, Ring Fit Adventure or any other title with fit in it… I want to try a more intense platform that is dedicated to health and resolving deep seated issues. Well, that’s when I found out about Hinge Health, a digital health hardware and software company that aims to tackle musculoskeletal disorders. As someone with light back pain, I was looking forward to getting this guy in my hands. After thirty plus days of use is my back pain better? Is this platform worth spending twelve hundred dollars and many hours of your life on? Or would that be better put to use for some Yoga classes for your back? Let’s find out when I spend thirty days with Hinge Health.
[Intro]
I know what you are all thinking. Twelve hundred dollars sounds like a lot of money… and that’s because it is. Twelve hundred dollars is two thousand dollars according to Joe Biden. That’s my rent for a two bed one bath… some of you can’t tell if that’s a brag or an cry for help and neither can I. Luckily if you have health insurance, some providers will cover the entire cost of the unit. I have Blue Cross; Blue Shield of Illinois and the unit was covered. The same company in other states or other insurance companies may not cover this device. I also don’t know how insurance works outside of the United States, so whether this thing will be covered by insurance or not outside of America is for you to determine. I will say that it is incredibly expensive but the price may be worth it considering a specialist can be a few hundred dollars or more again depending on your insurance and whatever country you are from. I am not sponsored by anyone but I can say the price is too high but I will get to it later on in this review.
With the price discussed let’s start off with the beginning process of Hinge. When you sign up for your unit, you must complete a survey on any pain you have and in what areas of your body. I didn’t record it since my insurance information was on the screen, but it went incredibly in-depth with specifics and goals in mind. My survey results focused on my back pain, but other areas such as knee and shoulder pain can be picked, and the program will then work to help that issue. It’s pretty cool when applications use this, and it’s something I wish more games would. Really only the game Gold Gym Dance workout did it, and it’s probably the best part of that game. The review for that is linked below.
After you create your account, you will get a unit shipped and assigned a coach to lead you through a personalized exercise program. I didn’t interact with my coach at all since I don’t need the full suite of physical therapy needs… I just need some movement to get my back going well. I will say the target audience does appear to be those forty or older, and the exercises and experience are focused on those people. As someone still in their twenties, I don’t have that much of an issue moving around yet. That’s a pretty big yet if I don’t get my health in order.
After about a week, I got my Hinge Health unit. The unit comes in this lovely case with a zipper containing a few departments. First is your device, which is just a Lenovo TB-8505 tablet with the application pre-installed. You can also just use your phone, although having a bigger screen is for those who are hard of seeing. Off to the side, you have a stand to hold the device up in portrait mode. You also get various chargers for it and the two straps. These straps are the real game changer here. One strap will go around the chest facing front, and the other will go behind your back. These two straps will read the center of your body as you bend forward, backward, and to the sides. There isn’t anything that reads the movements of your arms and legs, so it’s pretty much the exact opposite of Let’s Get Fit. Watch my review on that to get the reference. A Computer Vision component was also being developed as I was doing the challenge that will allow the app to track your arms and legs. Maybe I should revisit this in a year to see the improvements. Let me know if you would want to see a follow-up video.
As you can see behind me, the straps are long enough to fit around a three-hundred-pound man with plenty of room left to lengthen. The device and stand work wonders, and the carrying case are excellent. The dual charging is fantastic and works with pretty much any USB slot. I have to say that just from the packaging alone, I was greatly impressed. Everything is incredibly high quality and has lasted me three months to write the script and record the video without issue. That’s right, I still use Hinge Health every once in a while, which is a pretty good estimate of its quality. I usually drop these products like a hot potato after a video.
Before I get to the application itself, I wanted to talk more about the price. The reason why I feel that it’s too expensive is because it comes with this tablet. While I can’t find the direct product on Lenovo’s site anymore, the equivalent tablet, Lenovo tab M8, costs around two hundred dollars. Cut that out will bring it to a grand even. While I do like the straps, it seems to contain an accelerometer and maybe a gyroscope with a Bluetooth chip. It’s probably not that much different than the MMS MetamotionS device which you can get for one hundred thirty. Together I would say the price breakdown is five-hundred with the device, two sensors and the chords and the rest. That leaves seven hundred dollars in of value within the application. With that part broken down, I’d say make the tablet optional to bring that price down to a much easier to swallow one thousand dollars. The company does provide limited support to the tablet which makes sense since the audience is to an older and more likely technological illiterate generation.
Now let’s jump on over to the application itself. Once you open the app, you will be greeted with your schedule for the day. The agenda consists of a quiz that needs to be filled in daily with a longer one every week, an exercise therapy program that lasts from five to twenty minutes, and an article about a five-minute read. Doing your agenda each day will award points that unlock levels in the platform. The higher the level, the more complicated your exercise therapy program will be. It’s a simple gamification mechanic that helps motivate users to do the exercises at least three times a week. One thing I would like is the ability to choose a higher level manually without having to unlock it. As I said, the exercises are geared to those around mid-life, which I still got a few years to hit. It would be nice if I could just get a harder routine that actually challenged me. I felt that the time was up by the time I got to the levels where things were beginning to become a challenge. I believe your coach can adjust the levels for you, but I don’t want to talk to someone else… that’s weird.
The routines themselves were fine, but how they implemented the exercises themselves where great! As you’ve seen behind me, you have a picture showing you how to do the exercise and a measurer. You must stay in the green area for ten seconds before returning to the beginning. How many sets you have to do is located on the bottom left. Doing each rep will give you more points to continue. You can adjust the target level if the exercise is too strenuous or too easy. This little visual and target system is impressive and is my biggest problem with most fitness games and applications. The whole point is customizability and visually seeing what you are doing. Pretty much all fail to get that concept. The Hinge Health app nails this with ease. While some minor issues with the sensors misreading your movements, I still love this system. Some minor complaints are that you can’t change the reps, hold the time, or swap out exercises, but I figured that is part of the routine the physical trainer’s pick.
After completing your workout, you get to the survey. Every time you do the workout, it asks you to log how your back pain was and anything you want to send to your coach. Afterward, log your health and any physical exercises you have done today. All this data is sent back to the care team to see the patterns in your weight and back pain. Considering excess weight pulls on the pelvis and back, it’s kind of like a no duh being fewer fat helps but whatever.
After filling out your survey, you end with a five-minute article. These articles focus on cognitive behavior therapy and try to teach you how to behave to fix your back pain. It looks like these articles are targeted based on your profile. If you are older, then it focuses more on keeping active with low-impact exercises. Since I am young and obese, most articles focused on losing weight and thinking through what pain is in the body. The articles are a nice, short way to learn more about your body, how to change it, and what pain is telling you. I think these, besides the exercise, can reinforce a healthy lifestyle for some. Hell, for me, it definitely reinforced the importance of stretching, and it is something I know to do each evening. I am still obviously fat, but I feel a little better now that I eat less sugar. I still eat cheeseburgers like a mofo, which is probably the main issue. Never giving up on the cheeseburgers. I’m like that Popeye character wimpy with my burgers.
Outside of the programs, there is a message board system where you can talk to other users on the app, review your progress, and revisit old articles and exercise levels for extra bonus points. The app does look pretty new and is only on version 1.104. In fact, the whole group tab rolled out a few days before I finished my challenge. When I visit the app now, there are some things like the achievements section that says it’s coming soon, along with the before-mentioned Computer vision limb tracking. The app definitely needs some work and more features, but they are coming along nicely if I say so myself. One thing that is absent in the app that is a head-scratcher is the ability to switch your program. You have to log in to the website to do that. The software can do that but not on the web. As a developer, I found that a little bit weird, but other than that, everything is incredibly well done.
The main question I am sure everyone has is if it helped my back. The answer is yes. Even in the beginning, easier level, I felt my back pain disappear. However, it also went away when I did Yoga Master, so it’s more of a need-to-move type of pain. If you have more severe skeletal or muscular issues, then please write them down. I am curious to see if this application has helped with more intense issues. If you want to buy this system, I would first say to check your insurance. I have a blue cross–blue shield, and they covered it, but it will depend on your state. If you don’t have insurance or it won’t cover it, I don’t know if I can recommend it. Twelve hundred dollars is a ton of money, especially when about three hundred is going to just a tablet. I would try and do regular yoga or maybe lose weight before coming to this solution first. If not, give the digital solution a try before going to a physical provider or undergoing surgery. I am not a doctor at all, so that wasn’t medical advice. It’s just what I would do in that case.
So, guys, that is it for today’s video. If you liked this video and all the work that went into it, please give it a big old thumbs up. Subscribe to the YouTube channel for more content just like this. I do videos on product try’s, reviews, challenges, and much more. I do anything that falls into self-improvement, so if you are interested, then keep watching. I hope you guys watching me struggle will also encourage you to improve. Follow me on Twitter at truejackjenk. Visit my website at jack-jenkins.com. Lastly, have an amazing day, everyone! All you guys watching are just incredible.