I’m already paying for Apple Fitness+ because I do the Premier thing, so I figured I should try to get my money’s worth out of it. I’ve been using it every day for the past week and I really like it. Good trainers, good routines, lots of variety, and I don’t feel like I’m working out all alone. I’m looking forward to trying out a bunch of different routines in the coming year.
I’m slowly incorporating Fitness+ into my routines more often. I had never done any kind of video workouts before and wasn’t convinced that I’d enjoy them.
I started by sporadically doing the cooldowns. That seemed like the easiest way in. I liked those more than I would have guessed.
I tried a couple of treadmill workouts, since the treadmill makes up the bulk of my workout time. But I didn’t find those any more helpful than my own BPM-based playlists that I’ve been using for a few years. I don’t want to be watching TV while I’m moving like that.
At this point I’ve expanded beyond cooldowns to occasionally do a strength or core workout to replace my normal strength routine. I like having that option — to do a workout that somebody else designed instead of trying to think up my own new variations. And I’ve liked all of the workouts I’ve done. They’re usually more taxing than what I’d do myself.
I feel like the workouts I choose are kind of arbitrary. I wouldn’t mind it if they added some options for building longer-range workout plans that are more structured or are goal-oriented — either in terms of outcomes or as a way of training for specific activities like golf, softball, tennis, etc.
But maybe I could do that myself if I used the service more regularly and had a better sense of what’s available.
I totally agree and have been thinking that same thought recently. I’d like to be able to structure each week of Fitness+ so that I know I’m getting a good mix of exercises for the whole body, as well as a mix of high heart rate and mellow stretching. I’m doing OK with this by myself as I experiment with different trainers, but I have questions. Such as, if I follow one trainer predominantly, while that lead to a more coherant week/month/year?
I love Apple Fitness+ more and more. I mostly do the strength workouts and have learned to read the descriptions to understand if it’s going to be upper body, lower body, or total body, so I can mix workouts appropriately. It’s so easy to fit a workout into my day. I don’t have to drive anywhere. All I need is a mat and a selection of dumbbells. I’ve even grown fond of my trainers!
My usage and my assessment have not changed significantly from what I described above.
I’ve never used any other service like this, so I don’t know if any of the others do a better job of allowing you to follow a plan or a course or create your own plan. I only know that it feels to me like Fitness+ leaves a lot to be desired there.
But I have fairly precise needs and goals, and they’ve only become more so since my last post above because I’ve since started working with a physical therapist on some injury-prevention training.
If I were a more typical user who shows up just looking to choose a challenging and worthwhile workout without a lot of specific requirements, I’d use it more. You can very quickly choose a type of workout, body-area focus, duration, trainer, etc. and get started.
I do enjoy it when I use it, and like @lsieverts I’ve found that I’m easily drawn to certain trainers. If the question were, “Would you recommend it to friends and family?” my answer would be yes.
I bought a Peloton bike in January and have been loving it. With the bike comes the required US$44/month for the app functionality (the bike is worthless unless you have the app for classes and metrics). The bike classes are great and have been motivating enough for me to work out 4-6 times per week since getting it. Peloton also has treadmill, strength, yoga, and meditation classes available on the app as well.
I have tried a few Peloton strength classes, and to be honest, I prefer Apple Fitness +. I appreciate that there are two co-leaders for each class showing modifications, where Peloton is a single instructor. This is also somewhat difficult to describe, but I have felt in the few Peloton classes that the positioning and execution of the exercises has been more difficult for me - I feel like a frustrated pretzel. I haven’t had that experience with the Apple Fitness+ classes.
So for me, while I won’t be going all in on Apple Fitness, I will be using it for workouts other than cycling.
I’ve been using Apple Fitness+ since it was released and have really appreciated it—surprisingly so, in fact. I started with the weight training (“Functional strength training”), do it a few times a week, and have now done most of those workouts. It’s slowly but steadily made me a stronger person, and, maybe more importantly, integrated a bit more physical fitness in my life. I also like the positive vibes of the coaches, although I will say the music is rarely my cup of tea, and I wish Apple’s technology allowed me to choose my own music while doing a workout. In fact, I might fire up a podcast or audiobook on another device if I’m engaged with something else rather while doing a strength workout.
I have tried the treadmill running, the indoor cycling, the HIIT and yoga workouts as well. I run outside every morning, in a place with a nice view, so the treadmill indoors has never clicked with me. Same goes for the indoor cycling, as I commute by bicycle, and the stationary bicycle isn’t quite the same. HIIT is interesting—if you need to burn some calories or need an afternoon wake-up call, those workouts can be intense in a good way. While the yoga didn’t land me with me, the mindful cooldown can be a pleasant shut down activity, and the core workouts are a good complement to the strength workouts.
I pay for Apple One, and Fitness+ is included, but I would pay for this separately if Apple One didn’t exist. I too have never used a fitness app or participated in any kind of health club, gym or other fitness program before, but this one works well for me.
In addition to my gripes about the music, some other tweaks to the app I would like to see include: being able to filter by workouts I’ve completed/not completed (at some point the scrolling is going to get very long) and more accurate metadata. For instance, there are workouts with no equipment that aren’t labeled as such. I like those no equipment workouts when traveling and staying somewhere with no workout equipment, and really wish there were more of them.
Started using Fitness+ during a free trial last September, didn’t have high expectations but I’m surprised at how much I’ve used it. Typically four or five times a week, 30 minutes to an hour each time, and kept up the pace so far. I’ve let my gym membership lapse, and I really like the convenience of doing a short workout whenever I have some spare time at home.
While I started off with mainly doing HIIT workouts, I really like the Yoga workouts (strange even to me since I never took any yoga classes before). I also like the Core, Pilates and the new addition of Kickboxing. The Dance workouts are fun when I don’t feel like HIIT but still want to move. It even has audio Meditations integrated into the Apple Watch which I’ve also gotten more into recently. The Previews for each workout help a lot to figure out what to choose.
The key is that I can pick the workouts that fit the time and the interest I have at the moment. And I can mix a HIIT, Core, then a Yoga workout of varying durations each time. For someone who’s just trying to keep moderately fit (but not on an intense training regimen) the flexibility and variety of workouts keep me from being bored. There’s a section in the app (“Collections”) where several workouts dedicated to a specific goal (like “Run Your First 10K”, “14-DAY HIIT and Strength Challenge”) are curated and assembled, but these are probably not going to cut it if you are looking for serious guidance / specific workout design.
Areas for improvement: more intuitive UI (easier access to your bookmarked workouts; better filtering / more metadata to help choose the right workout efficiently); more options for curated/goal-oriented workout groups.