The same thing is promised by every fitness app. to out train their rival and make you stronger, faster, and more fit. There are so many applications connected to influencers and fad diets that it’s truly a minefield out there. However, there is an app for you, we promise, no matter what your passion. And you don’t even need a phone anymore because of the Apple Watch.
Although there is no shortage of fitness trackers available, the Apple Watch has consistently shown itself to be among the finest. Of course, there are a tonne of apps available to help you improve. These are a few of them.
1. Best all-rounder: Apple Fitness+ (£10 pm)
It should come as no surprise to learn that Fitness+, an Apple Watch software that is ideally suited for the wearable, is one of the greatest apps available. Few activities are not able to be tracked with Apple Fitness+. You have at-home workouts, cycling, and running. There’s meditation, dance, rowing, and guided HIIT. Do you want to strengthen your core? Apple Fitness+ has a routine that it can deliver.
You can see exactly how hard you’re working with personalised data like a heart rate and calorie counter, and a membership will get you a tonne of guided sessions and personalised workouts. Apple Fitness+ is a good option for people searching for a less expensive equipment option to Peloton.
Get the Apple Watch app, Apple Fitness+, here.
2. Best for road runners: Strava, (Free + IAP)
For many years, joggers and off-road mountain bikers across every terrain have used Strava as their go-to map programme. With its friend capabilities, it’s pretty fantastic at making solitary jogging social, and it syncs with almost all GPS watches and head units.
By dividing your rides and runs into recognised parts, Strava’s smart gimmick allows you to compete against friends, yourself, even frustratingly fast strangers who have completed the same course. It’s easy to use, captivating, and comes with a stand-alone watchOS app that lets you run and ride without an iPhone.
A subscription to Strava costs £6.99 per month or £47.99 for the year, and it unlocks a plethora of new tools and mapping capabilities. Its route planner is incredibly user-friendly and may be followed via roads, meandering routes, or by utilising the heat maps of people who have independently found new routes.
Get the Strava app for your Apple Watch here.
3. Best for beginners: WatchTo5K
While the world was under lockdown in 2020, several people set out to complete the Couch to 5k challenge. Those who had only ever run for the bus were supposed to be able to confidently pace a 5k in six weeks, however the exact timing would depend on the programme you choose. From the abundance of apps available that guarantee success in a short amount of time, it appears that the project has been extremely effective.
Our personal choice is WatchTo5K, which you can use without having your phone jangling around in your pocket. Using your Apple Watch, WatchTo5K tracks your run’s route, mileage, calories burned, average speed, and heart rate. All of this data is stored in Apple Health.
Get WatchTo5K here for the Apple Watch.
4. Best for rambling: Alltrails
Whatever that term means, being fit doesn’t have to mean slaving away in a packed gym doing nothing but squats and sprints. Sometimes, all that needs to be done is venture outside. With route maps selected by experienced walkers and casual strollers, Alltrails is the ultimate outdoors software for anoraks. Additionally, using it couldn’t be simpler.
Enter a place in the search window, and from its library of more than 350,000 maps, hundreds of hand-drawn routes will appear, depending on your location. It will provide you with information on the walk’s length, elevation gain, looping or straight walking style, and level of difficulty based on feedback from previous walkers. It also provides a number of wheelchair-accessible routes.
Get the Apple Watch Alltrails app here.
5. Best for getting bendy: Yoga Studio (£2.50)
The all-in-one app Yoga Studio can help you learn the crescent lunge and improve your posture. Regardless of your talent level or availability, the programme provides a plethora of practice options. Additionally, a “pose dictionary” provides an extensive collection of various exercises that you can attempt. An added benefit of Pocket Yoga is that it doesn’t require an internet connection to function, so you can practise anywhere—from Brentford’s tropical climate to Bali’s beaches.
Get Pocket Yoga for Apple Watch by downloading it here.
6. Best for gym rats: Gymaholic (Free with IAP)
It can be intimidating to step into a gym for the first time, much like strolling into a record store. Having an ally present to guide you through the process might be helpful at times. That ally is a gymaholic.
One of the many applications available that accomplishes the same thing in essence is Gymaholic. They keep track of your exercise, provide you with motivation along the way, and guarantee washboard abs—as long as you follow their advise. While Gymaholic doesn’t completely reinvent the wheel, it is packed with features and designed with bodybuilders, weightlifters, cardio enthusiasts, and really any kind of gym-based exerciser in mind in mind. Gymaholic also has a virtual assistant that walks you through each workout and demonstrates perfect form.
7. Best for water dwellers: MySwimPro (Free with IAP)
Apps for runners and bikers are overly prevalent, while those who live near bodies of water receive rather less attention. Although it seems that the current administration wants to eliminate community pools and recreation centres, MySwimPro is a fantastic resource for anyone who wants to go paddle boarding.
MySwimPro provides individualised and supervised training that is tailored to your performance, goals, and timetable. The software compiles swim information over time, including splits, stroke rate, and strokes per lap, to provide a picture of your fitness progress. It performs just as well in open water as it does in a pool, and the “MySwimPro coach” feature provides instruction on a variety of topics, including goal-setting and dryland exercises.
Click here to get MySwimPro for the Apple Watch.
8. Strong (Free with IAP)
There are just two kinds of people who work out. Either you are the one sitting at the machine scrolling through your phone, or you are the one patiently waiting for that guy to quit using the machine to scroll through their phone. Strong is for you if you belong to the latter group and find that using your phone while working out is too distracting.
Strong is an intuitive software that records your workouts, sets, and repetitions over time. However, its greatest feature may be that it can be operated just with your wrist, negating the need for a smartphone.