Start Strong with Tonal: Weight Assessment Workout

Just like a personal trainer, Tonal begins your fitness journey with a quick assessment to understand your current strength and range of motion. It’s called the Weight Assessment workout, and it’s designed to personalize your training experience from day one.

What is the Weight Assessment Workout?

When you first power on your Tonal, you’ll be guided to select your level, goals, and training focus areas..

From there, you’ll complete a short strength assessment made up of four foundational, full-body movements:

Barbell Seated Lat Pulldown
Standing Chop Bench Press
Neutral Grip Deadlift

These movements are performed at gradually increasing weights so Tonal can accurately gauge your strength and set your Strength Score—the key performance metric used to track your progress over time.

What Is the Intro to Tonal Workout?

When you first power on your Tonal, you’ll be guided to select one of three fitness goals:
Get Lean, Build Muscle, or Improve Fitness.
From there, you’ll complete a short strength assessment made up of four foundational, full-body movements:

Seated Lat Pulldown
Seated Overhead Press
Bench Press
Neutral Grip Deadlift

How Tonal Personalizes Your Training

After completing the Intro to Tonal Workout, your trainer is calibrated and ready to go. Tonal uses your Strength Score to:

Recommend starting weights for over 100+ exercises
Adjust weights automatically in one-pound increments as you get stronger
Ensure proper progression without the guesswork

Tonal’s digital weight feels different from traditional gym equipment—it provides constant resistance through every rep. With free weights, momentum can make the movement feel easier once you're in motion. Tonal removes that momentum, making every part of the rep count. That’s why digital weight can feel tougher, especially at first—and that’s totally normal!

To make sure you feel confident and safe, Tonal starts you off conservatively and gradually builds your strength from there.

Need to Recalibrate? Here’s How

Taking a break from training, coming back after an injury, or returning postpartum? No problem. You can recalibrate your starting weights anytime to reflect your current fitness level:

Go to your Profile
Tap About You
Select Recalibrate to redo your strength assessment

This resets your starting weights and ensures your training remains both effective and personalized.

FAQS:

Can I perform Intro to Tonal Workout again?
Intro to Tonal Workout is an exclusive strength assessment which is done when you are getting started with Tonal. This workout doesn’t appear on the trainer like other guided workouts and it is not necessary to complete more than once. Follow the steps highlighted here to recalibrate your starting weights.
Will my Strength Score increase or decrease if I recalibrate my weights?
Strength Score is calculated by evaluating each movement that you do, specifically making note of your best set. From these best sets, Strength Score calculates a weighted average. Your Strength Score may increase or decrease based on how much you lift in each set during your strength assessment.
Can I skip Intro to Tonal Workout and get started with other guided and bodyweight-only workouts?
In order to benefit from Tonal’s intelligent, personalized weight suggestions, you need to complete the Intro to Tonal Workout. You can, however, do bodyweight-only workouts if you wish to skip the assessment. Bodyweight-only workouts such as yoga, meditation, and pilates do not affect your Strength Score.

Ready to Begin?

The Intro to Tonal Workout is more than just a first workout—it’s the foundation for your entire fitness journey. It sets the stage for smarter, safer, and more effective strength training that evolves with you.

Start strong. Lift smarter. Let Tonal do the heavy lifting on the programming, so you can focus on progress.

If you need further assistance, please give us a call at 855-MY-TONAL.