The honest summary
This is the least close comparison on the site, and saying so is more useful than pretending otherwise.
Pliability, formerly ROMWOD, is built for athletes. More than 1,500 on-demand videos with new sessions added daily, movement assessments, and plans built around what the assessment finds. Its centre of gravity is the CrossFit and strength world, where mobility work supports training. If you train seriously and want mobility work that fits around it, this comparison should end with you downloading Pliability.
Lucy is for the opposite situation: you do not train, you sit, and your hips complain. Sixteen illustrated routines, nothing past six minutes, no assessment and no plan.
If you are an athlete, Lucy is not built for you and will feel underpowered. The brief it was written to says so explicitly: not athletes chasing splits.
Side by side
| Lucy | Pliability | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | People who sit all day | Athletes, CrossFit, strength training |
| Format | Illustrations and a timer | Video, new sessions daily |
| Library | 16 routines, 59 stretches | 1,500+ videos |
| Assessment | None | Mobility tests and personalised plans |
| Session length | 4 to 6 minutes, capped | Varies, generally longer |
| Platform | iPhone, iOS 18+ | iPhone and Android |
| Works offline | Yes, fully | Video needs a connection |
| Free | 1 routine, complete, forever | Trial, then subscription |
| Account required | None | Account-based |
Where the difference actually bites
Assessment and personalisation
Pliability tests your movement and builds from the result. That is a real feature and Lucy has nothing equivalent.
Lucy suggests routines by matching the preferences you enter during setup. That is simple matching, not an assessment, and the terms say so plainly: suggestions are not a clinical assessment of you and are not personalised in any medical sense.
If you want something that looks at how you move and responds, Pliability is the one of the two that does that.
Library size
1,500 videos against 59 stretches is not a close call.
Lucy's argument is that an athlete and a desk worker have different problems: the athlete needs variety and specificity across a training week, the desk worker needs the same five areas addressed on a Tuesday. Whether that argument applies to you depends on which of those you are.
Session length and the evidence
Pliability's sessions are generally longer. Lucy caps at six minutes.
A 2025 meta-analysis in Sports Medicine, pooling 189 studies and 6,654 adults, found session gains flattening at roughly four minutes per muscle group and weekly gains flattening at about ten minutes per muscle group, with no advantage to any particular distribution.
That is about flexibility outcomes specifically. Mobility work in an athletic context is doing other jobs too, including recovery and preparation, which that review was not measuring. Do not read it as evidence against a longer session if you train.
Post-workout, which is the overlap
The one place these two genuinely compete is the cooldown.
Lucy has Post-Run Cooldown (six minutes, seven stretches) and Post-Strength Cooldown (five minutes, seven stretches). If a short, timed, offline cooldown is all you want from a mobility app, Lucy covers it and we wrote the detail in stretches after a run.
For anything beyond the cooldown, Pliability is the better-equipped product.
Choose Pliability if
- You train, and mobility work supports that training
- You want an assessment and a plan built from it
- You want a large library with something new every day
- You are on Android
- Longer sessions suit how you train
Choose Lucy if
- You sit all day and do not train
- Five minutes is the honest maximum
- You want it offline, with no account
- You want three routines that work standing in a square metre
- You are not chasing a flexibility goal
What neither of them does
Both are general fitness and wellness products. Neither provides medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, and neither is adapted to a specific injury or diagnosis. A mobility assessment in an app is not a clinical assessment.
If you are returning from an injury, a physiotherapist is the right first stop whichever app you pick. Our fitness and safety note covers Lucy's position.
FAQ
Is Pliability or Lucy better for CrossFit?
Pliability, without much argument. It is built for that market, with assessments and a library sized for a training week. Lucy's two cooldown routines are the only part of it aimed at people who train.
Is Pliability the same as ROMWOD?
Pliability is the current name for what was ROMWOD. If you are comparing older reviews, that is the same product under its previous name.
Does Lucy have mobility assessments?
No. It suggests routines by matching the preferences you enter at setup, which is simple matching rather than an assessment, and it is not personalised in any medical sense.
Which has more content?
Pliability, by a very large margin: more than 1,500 videos against Lucy's 59 stretches across 16 routines. Lucy is deliberately small.
Can you use Lucy as a cooldown after training?
Yes. There are two cooldown routines, one for running and one for strength work, each five or six minutes. That is the part of Lucy that overlaps with a mobility app.