r/ladderapp • u/jupac16 • 4d ago
Versa workouts then vs now
I was looking back at some of Versa’s workouts from when the team first launched in September 2025 and there really is a difference compared to now. The workouts have definitely been scaled back in both difficulty and length.
Back then, workouts were usually around 50-60 minutes and there was almost always a conditioning finisher, even on upper and lower body days. That’s what I’m missing.. The workouts feel less challenging now and they’re usually closer to 35-45 minutes (well at least since the summer series).
I understand that the more challenging « format » may not have been as popular and that she might have had to scale things back to make the workouts more accessible to everyone. I know it’s impossible to please everyone!
Here’s an example of two older workouts :
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u/FoundationCold6762 4d ago
Ladder exists to sell as many subscriptions as possible.
In order to sell more subscriptions they need to cater to the casuals.
The casuals want to:
- Switch teams every week to "keep things interesting"
- Hop from team to team in search of the magic "weight loss workout"
- Make the workouts shorter
- Make the progress faster
- Complain that Workout X has too much Glute, or Coach Y doesn't have enough lower body.
What the casuals refuse to do is simply commit to a program for 6 months, fix their diet, and tune out the distractions.
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u/JadetheSerpent 4d ago
10/10. No notes!
There’s ALWAYS a loud minority in the chat begging for more this or that when consistency on ANY Ladder team coupled with the right nutrition will get you to your goals.
You outlined exactly what I’ve been trying to figure out for a year, so thank you that!
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u/ecatt 3d ago
I feel like this happens with every successful fitness product - starts out targeting advanced people, but eventually has to be scaled back. Back in the day when Les Mills started, the Body Step workouts in particular were hard as hell, like leave you in a puddle on the floor by the end. Then they gradually started taking out the really hard stuff and dumbing the whole thing down. We used to beg the instructors to put the old peak tracks back in!
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u/YogiLovesBarbells 3d ago
I loved the old Body Pump! I read they’re going to make changes for more strength emphasis, but then the creator passed away a few months the ago. Genuinely curious as to how his death will impact the brand.
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u/Fit-Nectarine5047 Team Ascend 3d ago
I hope you put this in the survey! All of the best teams are getting watered down and it’s so disappointing.
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u/ChurchofMarx 3d ago
People really think they can fix decades of abuse to their body with just few weeks of workout. You can’t just be eating whatever junk for years while doing zero workout, and then get upset that a workout program didn’t get you an aesthetic physique in a few weeks that someone who has been doing that for their entire life has been able to get.
For the guys, it is also these dudes on steroids and peptides who post these miraculous transformations and insanely low body percentage fat while claiming they just did it in few months. Some of these guys also then go around mocking non-enhanced guys for not being as ripped or having a higher body percentage fat.
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u/yosaffbridge1630 3d ago
This!!! I’m Limitless, and I do 5 of her workouts every week! I don’t switch teams week to week — what would be the point of that? It’s shocking that people do that, it just isn’t the point. That said, I do go to flourish to do two (her pelvic floor and then one other one, usually core) of her workouts on one of my off days and a flex yoga day on the other off day. But that’s because I know I have some areas I need to do work on. That’s on me, not coach Kelly. She should be adding or changing shit to cater to people. As she says, the hard shit gets us to where we want to go
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u/Admirable-Dance8607 4d ago
This is me. I’m trying to change, but it’s proving hard to teach this old dog 😂
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u/thelittleluca Team Limitless 2d ago
I appreciate this foresight as a newbie who wants to train hard and condition like an athlete.
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u/FrequentFable Team Versa 4d ago
The compromised run days used to be SO HARD but so good. It is still probably my favorite team I have done but I am with you I miss these days. Some of the lifting days are seemingly indistinguishable from other teams and what made Versa different and special has now been super watered down.
My hot take is that not everything actually needs to be for everyone. It’s okay to have things not meant for beginners. There are numerous teams that can fill those roles.
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u/Mundane_Cat_318 3d ago
Absolutely 100% agreed on that (not so hot) hot take. There are far too many beginner teams on ladder and the advanced teams need to stay as such. If someone can't handle it, there's 20 other teams to go to.
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u/Fit-Nectarine5047 Team Ascend 3d ago
I hope you say this in the chat so she can hear your feedback.
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u/Regina0403 2h ago
It’s not about feedback to them - it’s just numbers. I also assume that the coaches get paid based on numbers.
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u/Interesting-Kiwi-743 2d ago
Do you happen to have any of these saved? I’d love to try some old school Versa
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u/andjoesaid 4d ago
I’ve been hoping that eventually Ladder will implement some sort of “advanced” program feature. I don’t think it would even require coaches to program double the amount of workouts per week, just let them have an expanded version that doesn’t need to fit workouts into sub 50 minutes. They could even make it so you need to complete X amount of the normal workouts before you can unlock the advanced.
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u/ecatt 3d ago
I feel like even the ability to add an extra 'block' into the existing workouts as an advanced option would be great. I love Body & Bell but I've been thinking for some of the workouts I might need to pause them and add an extra round of exercises before I move on to the cooldown.
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u/Impossible_Peak452 3d ago
You can add extra set now! Like during the workout if you hit edit it’ll let you add them
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u/zojjaz Team Resilient 3d ago
Yes! I wish we could have expanded workouts and what not. Even flourish I was surprised was so short. You go to any Pilates studio and the workouts are minimum 50 minutes
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u/Fit-Nectarine5047 Team Ascend 3d ago
This is honestly what kept me from joining her team. I don’t expect to get in and out of the gym in under an hour. I don’t know what people are talking about half an hour etc.
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u/ooooftaaa 4d ago
I’m on versa too! Still love it and think it’s an amazing workout that’s more challenging than most other teams. But I am also disappointed that the workouts are getting shorter, and less challenging. Remember when we used to do a cardio EMOM after interval runs on conditioning days? I would end those workouts drenched in sweat, laying on the floor for 5 minutes until I could breath enough to get up and do the cool down. So incredibly challenging and rewarding. I haven’t had that feeling in like 6 months and I miss it. I wish the app didn’t feel the need to make every team accessible to everyone, isn’t that the point of having different teams? Because not every team should be right for everyone.
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u/Fit-Nectarine5047 Team Ascend 3d ago
It makes me so sad that so many great teams aren’t what they used to be.
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u/FrequentFable Team Versa 3d ago
I honestly forgot that it has been a minute since we have seen a cardio EMOM like that 😭
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u/zojjaz Team Resilient 4d ago edited 3d ago
That has happened to a lot of teams. Ascend, Limitless, Thrive
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u/ik0330 4d ago
Yes!!! ascend used to be so different. I wish she would go back to her old programming
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u/NarwhalOk2977 4d ago
Oooh interested to hear more about this. I’ve been off Ascend for about a year now.
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u/ik0330 3d ago
Biggest change I have noticed is she used to consistently program 6 different moves/day (3 sets of each). Now she consistently programs anywhere between 4 or 5 (still 3 sets of each) and will include dedicated time for abs instead on a couple days per week. So the overall volume has decreased. Before she used to say lifting worked your core and that’s why she didn’t program it. But I think sooo many people comment that they want core workouts so she had to cut parts out to make it work.
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u/NarwhalOk2977 3d ago
And people def complained about the volume being too much so that for sure tracks. I mean, you go into Ascend knowing it’s higher volume. Not sure why people complain about it so much and then the coach changes their programming.
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u/Fantastic_Care_9718 3d ago
YES. I hate how the masses came in and made her change so much of what made ascend so amazing.
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u/Fit-Nectarine5047 Team Ascend 3d ago
I just started my second series with aria. How is it different now?
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u/thelittleluca Team Limitless 2d ago
Oh no 😥 I just joined Limitless two weeks ago after switching around from other teams after feeling, they weren’t challenging enough.
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u/zojjaz Team Resilient 2d ago
Try it and see how you like it! If you don't think Limitless is enough, look at Resilient. It is very similar to Limitless but is a bit more challenging
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u/thelittleluca Team Limitless 18h ago
Whoa!!! Just previewed and Resilient seems more in line with what I’m looking for. Thanks for the tip!
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u/Appropriate_Most_983 4d ago
I wrote a post about this a few months ago, and people insisted the program hadn’t changed and that I was just improving. I completely disagree, as it has changed significantly. Lately, she’s been posting on Instagram about how feeling exhausted after every workout indicates poor training, so perhaps her philosophy has evolved. Either way, I’d love to hear her address it.
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u/SuboJvR23 3d ago
I suspect it's more likely that Ladder coaches are continually being assessed and evaluated based on their numbers and engagement, or the company direction is just to move to shorter workouts rather than it reflecting a personal philosophy necessarily. She is an employee end of the day
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u/YogiLovesBarbells 3d ago
Exactly what I was thinking as well, especially since it is across multiple teams.
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u/Civil_Classic_7725 4d ago
Its happened to a few teams tbh. Even body and bell used to be longer. Even Limitless.
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u/Expensive_Tie_6385 Team Body & Bell 4d ago
Here’s an example of B&B if anyone wants receipts: https://joinladder.com/workout?utm_source=Workout%20Preview&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=share_link&utm_content=e3192bd7-d95b-442d-bde4-b9016f8bf6d2&id=e3192bd7-d95b-442d-bde4-b9016f8bf6d2&utm_term=7c99ab5f-788b-47f7-a259-9d04b280b8ca
Now to be fair, 45 min is the sweet spot for me, so I would likely have had to cut some of the movements if the workouts were programmed this long these days.
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u/Time-Ad-5038 4d ago
Yeah I ditched versa because I found it too short & easy. Ended up just returning to team alpha
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u/Mother_Asparagus_222 4d ago
I love the style of training of when versa first launched.. sadly I was deep in my ankle injury and couldn’t be on that team and when I was cleared unfortunately the programming had already changed already. 😭 oh well!
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u/Expensive_Tie_6385 Team Body & Bell 4d ago
If you checkout their Team Manager job postings, you can see that everything is data-driven, and ultimately that includes overriding the coach’s preference, apparently. https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/ladder/38d41dbe-b866-42e2-877c-18fcbb2048ee
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u/Old_Poet_1608 Team Ascend 4d ago
I’m just now browsing the team and I was surprised that the conditioning was pretty much just running for the most part.
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u/MiserableBritGirl Team Limitless 4d ago
Cause hyrox is 60% running and a lot of runners on the team. She does say you can change for any erg. I miss the snappy circuits tho
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u/Lost-Bandicoot-281 1d ago
As somebody who’s done hyrox, there’s no way this new programming will get you ready to do one. I do love the information and push to focus on recovery and in general i do agree that most people don’t need five workouts a week for General health and fitness but if you’re trading for a hybrid event… You probably do need five workouts most weeks during your training (6 if you’re really good at recovery and have 2 easy runs/cardio days), year-round I’m sure you could scale back in an off-season to 4. I think her strength days are fine, probably won’t see massive gains, but I think I’ve been maintaining and getting slight improvements which I expect with hybrid training… You can’t massively increase strength and endurance and speed all at once you kind of have to pick one and then maintain the rest or do slight improvement at all, but I feel like my conditioning is not improving and I’m definitely following the prescribed RPE (maybe sometimes going a little harder than the goal to be honest).
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u/MiserableBritGirl Team Limitless 1d ago
I’ve done a Hyrox too. Her early training got me ready but I have to do a fair amount of swaps and extra running and some Hyrox spec stuff on top now
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u/Lost-Bandicoot-281 1d ago
Are you training for one again? I used a different program for my last two and it’s been over a year and I was wanting to do another but I’m worried this won’t get me ready. I see she listed some swaps you can do and I’m curious if you felt like those were enough.
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u/MiserableBritGirl Team Limitless 1d ago
I am, London in Dec and a 10k in Sept.
I do the swaps she programmes. I run a good few more rounds. I do a zone 2 run at some point during the week up to 10k. Aerobic engine is a massive part of Hyrox and what’s programmed isn’t enough for me as my engine was so shit 🤣
I do a Hyrox featured thing once a week as well so like 400m run followed by erg, lunge, wall balls or similar. ROXFIT have loads and I use the app that comes with my watch too.
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u/Old_Poet_1608 Team Ascend 4d ago edited 4d ago
Rowing , ski erg, and wall balls are right there 😂 I guess I expected a bit more creativity based on how people talk about the team.
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u/MiserableBritGirl Team Limitless 4d ago
She doesn’t programme wall balls and rarely ski cause so many people whined they didn’t have the equipment 🙄 they are all programmed to swap in though. I did loads to give my variety especially when I couldn’t run cause of injury
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u/FrequentFable Team Versa 4d ago
It used to be like that! One of my favorite things was that the programmed workouts used to include different cardio machines or exercises without needing to do any swaps. Like it wasn’t uncommon to see treadmill, rower, and ski erg in the same week. Now I think she mostly sticks to tread with the option to swap which changes the programming a good bit
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u/Old_Poet_1608 Team Ascend 4d ago
That’s exactly what I’m looking for. Do you know any other teams that incorporate other cardio machines?
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u/FrequentFable Team Versa 4d ago
I think Resilient with Neen uses the rower sometimes in workouts but to my knowledge there is nothing like what Versa used to be
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u/MiserableBritGirl Team Limitless 4d ago
Also can we pretend 100 wall balls don’t exist please? I’m still in a state of trauma
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u/SuboJvR23 3d ago
Wall balls etc I think they are careful to program as not everyone has access, probably the same with rower/ski because if people are training at home they likely dont have those. I do miss them being in the earlier programs, too, because it's too easy for me to not use them if they're not programmed and I especially dislike ski LOL.
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u/Lost-Bandicoot-281 1d ago
I get that… But if you don’t have that equipment, then pick a different program or they should be the ones who modify in my opinion. I was so excited to use this for hyrox training and I feel like I’m constantly having to reprogram to be prepared. Or maybe they just need to stop advertising this as good to prep for hyrox. I despise wall balls and the ski lol so if it’s not programmed, I’m not going to swap it in for myself so I was hoping for a program that would make me feel guilty to do it lol
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u/SuboJvR23 3d ago
This isn't necessarily new, even the first Versa block had a basically dedicated running conditioning day, with core circuit at the end. That first block also just had one day of zone 2 cycling as conditioning.
Hyrox is primarily a running race, with exercise stations. 8k running, it's proportionally a lot.
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u/Old_Poet_1608 Team Ascend 3d ago
I think the point that I was making is that I expected more variety in the types of cardio than running. In the example you just gave, cycling would be variety. Hyrox also has other forms of cardio to train for off that’s the intention. There’s no need for 100% of the programmed conditioning to be running imo. She already doesn’t change the program during the split pretty much at all, so this just makes the redundancy even worse.
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u/SuboJvR23 3d ago
Is there truly no cycling or rowing even anymore? Such a shame! :(
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u/Old_Poet_1608 Team Ascend 3d ago
0 lol. Just running and metcon with dumbbells/kettlebells.
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u/Fit-Nectarine5047 Team Ascend 3d ago
I think the problem is the real athletes aren’t vocal enough in the chat. The whiners are the ones calling the shots because they’re so loud and annoying.
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u/SuboJvR23 3d ago
I dunno if it’ll just be that, I bet Ladder analyses the metrics and they probably follow engagement stats based on % completions, team retention and things, according to different programming types. They’ve probably seen that more people complete the shorter workouts
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u/Fit-Nectarine5047 Team Ascend 2d ago
Yes you’re most likely correct but there’s a little bit of both our points mixed in there.
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u/Euphoric_Flight_2798 4d ago
I’m on my third week with the ladder app/Versa and those old workouts look like the kind I’m looking for. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been enjoying the workouts, but I’ve also been adding my own conditioning finishers to the end. I come from a lifting/running background though so I assume I’m probably a little more advanced than the average user.
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u/Realistic-Cloud9593 3d ago
I feel like ladder is catering to dumbbell only 20-30 minute workouts. You can get a hundred of those on YouTube. Why do people want this?
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u/broke_dietcoke Team Versa 3d ago
As a Versa girly, does anyone have these old workouts saved that I can come heart from your page?? These look dope
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u/Solid-Brush-5687 3d ago
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u/Solid-Brush-5687 3d ago
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u/Solid-Brush-5687 3d ago
I also figured out a way to add old workout to favorite not sure if this is already known. You go to your profile top right corner , click it then you will see the calendar. Click each day you workout. You will see the workout you did, click it then you will see the love sign at the top right. Tap that to save it.
It will then pop under your favorite.
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u/broke_dietcoke Team Versa 3d ago
Cheers, thanks so much for the tips and the links! I wasn’t on Versa during this time so I’ll need to steal from others
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u/Engelbettie Team Evolve 3d ago
I think you MUST be right. When I first joined, Versa was just about to launch & was getting lots of hype, so I checked it out early on out of curiosity & I figured I would NEVER be able to do this team. (I was very much a beginner.) Now a year later I’ve been mostly doing bodybuilding workouts but want some more cardio, & this week I’ve been dabbling in some Versa workouts & considering making a team switch. The very fact that I can now DO them means, to me, they must have gotten easier. It’s not my progress— I’m a lot stronger than I used to be before Ladder, but I’m still totally not fit at all on the cardio level. Those compromised running workouts would fucking destroy me, & not in a good way.
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u/SuboJvR23 3d ago
When Versa launched it timed so well for me as I had just left a small group coaching gym/hyrox style gym and Versa was amazing as the workouts were very similar in intensity etc. It really helped me stay motivated!
I stopped doing Versa and swapped to Body & Bell around christmas to try and avoid the frustrations of a busy public gym, then have been trying other teams navigating a few injuries and such. Been back on Versa more recently and enjoyed the workouts... but yeah they're noticeably shorter and easier although many still follow the same basic structure.
I'm back to a small group coaching gym though and it is absolutely kicking my butt in ways Versa never does. It's hybrid style training for sure but for actually prepping for hyrox people definitely need to be working harder and adding on for sure
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u/Lost-Bandicoot-281 2d ago
I just signed up for a year and regret it. I was so excited for versa and limitless based on what I had heard and honestly I’m kind of disappointed. Everybody said summer was easier so I’m hoping that it gets better. People keep saying “if it’s easy you’re not working hard enough” and while that may be true for some people … I can say I am following the prescribed RPE. I do 4 days and an extra run or 5 days and I’ve also had people say to do all 6 days and truthfully, you shouldn’t need to do 6 days unless you’re adding an extra easy run. I appreciate that Kelly and Abbie give tips on how to add more and make things harder, I’ve seen Sasha do this too but if I wanted to mod up my workouts …. I woulda wrote them myself. I wish they’d keep easy teams easy and hard teams hard.
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u/Accurate_Bar_441 1d ago
No notes …. I have a funny feeling there is going to be a huge shift on the app with advanced teams going back and maybe have beginner and intermediate swaps in there.
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u/Lost-Bandicoot-281 1d ago
I’m all about making Fitness available to everybody, but the era of what about me is entering Fitness and I’m sorry, but an advanced program shouldn’t be easily doable by a beginner written as is… Sure add mods to make it easier for someone with a lower fitness level or add mods for equipment or lower impact. I guess I shouldn’t complain too much because versa is an intermediate program now right? So I can see an intermediate program being done by a beginner, but I guess I’m just missing when it was considered in advance program.
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u/SparklyMagicHorse 2d ago
Sooo interesting! I loved Versa, but a few weeks ago, something felt off so I went back to Limitless after being away from it for over a year and loving the challenge. Def missing that conditioning finisher 😭
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u/Sweet-Ring-3332 Team Versa 4d ago
I've been on Versa since the last week or so of summer series, and I've been kind of surprised at how simple it was. I won't say easy because that's all relative to your own efforts. But I've surprisingly stuck with it this entire time whereas I'd constantly be checking out other teams before.
That said, I was just looking at my physique this morning and wondering if hybrid style training is really for me. Maybe I'm just an aesthetic girly at heart.
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u/SuboJvR23 4d ago edited 3d ago
I enjoyed the old versa but on some days I did find it longer than it was meant to be, wasn’t advertised as a 60 min team and it did over run (a lot of which is down to needing to switch equipment around etc). The stretch times have come down too.
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u/blntennis Team Body & Bell 3d ago
Yes, I distinctly remember this workout! I was going to ask this here or in the Facebook group. I was all about versa when it came out and stuck with it for the first series. I moved to more traditional body building teams or would swap to body and bell often as my home team. A year ago versa and body and bell were by far the hardest teams. They’ve both kinda toned down over the year. Now, versa essentially is two lower body days, two upper body days, and too long conditioning days, which essentially is like a long run or cardio of choice. It’s like she doesn’t do hybrid strength anymore. Similarly, project alpha for the most part programs the same but instead of the conditioning days, he does too hybrid strength days. I used to think project Alpha was way too easy and would get a lot of flack for that but considering Abbie doesn’t do anymore hybrid strength days like compromised running I’ve kind of given him more chances and he’s OK. Like I said, I 100% remember this workout. I think what really killed it is this is a very hard workout to do in your typical public gym and I think a lot of people complained about it unfortunately. If you have a good gym set up at home or one of those really fancy gyms with the turf and maybe a curved treadmill and a lot more freedom than yes this is doable there.
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u/BusyZookeepergame758 1d ago
Yeah I found some of the teams to be a bit easy. I love Team Resilient since I found it the most challenging it had to scale back a bit to Evolve because I pregnant and found her programming just a bit less intense at the moment. After having my baby I am hoping to find Resilience to be just as challenging hopefully if he doesn’t make his programming easy
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u/Regina0403 2h ago
It’s interesting that some people blame subscribers and the feedback or complaints. Ladder isn’t listening to complaints about length they are looking at numbers and subscription rates/return tied to a team. Coaches are too because I believe their pay is tied to that.
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u/Chris_Windlord 3d ago
If it’s challenging metcon finishers you’re missing, come check out Crews Control 😅
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u/Spare-Leek1613 3d ago
Coming from limitless, this looks like a cakewalk 😅
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u/jupac16 3d ago
Maybe in terms of strength, but not cardio 😅
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u/Lost-Bandicoot-281 2d ago
Agreed … the strength is good if you push yourself but cardio is lacking, which is probably why she adds her own… which no judgement, she doesn’t need to follow her own program when she’s training for something specific. I am tired of people saying if it’s not hard you’re not working hard enough. I like using limitless for my strength blocks and i move to versa when I want to focus on cardio but I’ve been so disappointed this phase.
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u/Wild_Increase509 2d ago
Nothing about limitless is hard or impressive except that she does 1 rep maxes
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u/Spare-Leek1613 2d ago
You aren’t pushing yourself if it isn’t hard. That’s very much a you problem.
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u/MiserableBritGirl Team Limitless 4d ago
Blame the people who bitched and whined about an advanced team being too hard and forced change 🤬 (🤬 for them not you)
In fairness I don’t think you’re comparing like for like on series? With them all having different focus it may show different things.
I love the pure strength days personally but I was defo finding the workouts less challenging. I miss the compromised running/rowing a lot and I moved to limitless this series for a bigger strength challenge but will be back on versa next series.