Working Out with Apple Fitness+
A deep dive on my 2021 experience with Apple Fitness+ and Apple Watch
If you’re interested in how I arrived at the point of trying Apple Fitness+ read the first section - otherwise, skip it to get to the review faster. I don’t write reviews for a living (obviously) but I thought that after using Fitness+ in anger for 4 months, perhaps my perspective with it will be useful for others who want to get started working out - especially if they already have an Apple Watch!
How Did We get Here?
Our family is reasonably “all-in” on the Apple ecosystem. Although I had used Macs in college as a Computer Science major at Stanford (and NeXT machines and Sun SparcStations), the workplace had put me firmly in the WinTel world of PCs and laptops (think: IBM ThinkPads and Dell Latitudes). In 2007 I bought an Intel-based MacBook Pro, knowing that I could run necessary Windows applications in VMWare. In 2008, an iPhone. Now we are a house run amok in Apple devices - including more laptops, iPads, iPhones, and Apple Watches. We got here gradually, but gradually we have acquired the devices that mark us as Apple fans to those who aren’t in the ecosystem.
During the pandemic, our family did our best to shelter in place and to socially isolate from others. Like most people, we were imperfect in this effort but we did our best. After a few months we knew we should be investing in our own fitness. I started walking more regularly for a company 5k challenge that some folks at BP3 put on every year. But I wanted to uplift my exercise routine, and I had seen the Apple Fitness+ announcement, so I was looking forward to giving it a try when it went live.
Fast forward to the holidays - after eating our way through them - my wife Cindy and I were ready to make a mutual commitment to exercise in the new year.
Our Journey with Apple Fitness+
New Year, New Resolution: 31 days
We each committed to close our exercise ring every day for the 31 days of January. It felt nearly impossible, when we decided to do that, because we had not made time in our routines for 30 minutes of exercise a day for years - were we really going to do it now?
But we were determined to do it. We decided that while we were at it we should close our Stand and Activity rings, too. Go for a perfect month, and no cheating on the exercise ring, 30 minutes every day. I won’t bury the lede: we did it! I’m posting the receipts from my iPhone’s Activity app:
We thought about other options: a Peloton or one of the other fancy new devices getting a lot of press in the pandemic. But we had a few things already: some dumbbells of various weight, a bike on a magnetic trainer, and a rowing machine that we had purchased several years earlier in a previous attempt to get fit. Maybe “equipment” wasn’t our problem. Besides, we could always go for a walk or a run, we have shoes.
The appeal of Fitness+ was that we didn’t need new equipment, we could choose a variety of workouts that were accessible right away. And it was effectively free (considering we were already all-in on the Apple ecosystem).
That first day of January, let me be honest: I couldn’t do a 30 minute workout. I was out of shape, fundamentally. Not just a few pounds overweight, but out of physical condition. And walking long distances was causing pain in my hip (a long story about Legg Calve Perthes). I know from past experience and medical advice that the key to relieving that pain was to build the musculature around my hip and core, but walking wasn’t going to do that for me faster than the discomfort would grow. So I needed a different approach to get my fitness effort in gear.
But, Apple’s Fitness+ offering is actually well suited to someone starting from square zero - or perhaps square negative 1 - as I was.
First, workouts are offered in different categories that will be easier or harder for you depending on your own strengths and weaknesses: Treadmill, Cycling, Rowing, HIIT, Core, Strength, Dance, Yoga, and Cool Down. As you can imagine, the Cool Down workout is less intense than the HIIT workouts… So you can choose to have a “light” day and a “hard” day somewhat by choosing the right workout. Still sore from yesterday’s HIIT? Maybe try a Yoga workout, or a Dance workout. Or go for a brisk walk - the definition of lower intensity and impact.
Second, each workout is offered with an instructor and a couple of assistants. When possible, one of them will illustrate an easier version of the moves for HIIT, Core, Strength, and other workouts. These people became my friends as I got started, because I could not hang with the workout as designed by the instructors.
Third, each workout is offered in different increments of time - usually 10, 20, and 30 minutes. Some are also offered for 5 minutes (Core and Cool downs), and a few offer 45 minute workouts (cardio cycling and rowing). In the month of January, I pieced workouts together. 10 minutes of Core, then 10 minutes of strength, then a 10 minute Cool Down. Or 20 minutes of a workout followed by a Cool Down. As my fitness improved, more and more I was doing 30 minutes of workout, followed by a cool down (rather than the cool down being inside the 30 minutes).
Finally, the time just passes faster when you have someone on the screen smiling and talking in your ear as you go through your motions. It really helps when you take on a longer cardio workout, which can easily get boring without some kind of stimulation.
January Results
I hoped that working out every day like this would impact my weight. But after a month, I hadn’t lost a single pound as far as I could tell. But there were signs of progress: I was able to do more of each workout at the higher intensity of the lead instructor, I was able to do longer intense workouts, and I was feeling more energy when I wake up in the morning. A few times I had trouble sleeping, because of the change in energy level, but that seems to have leveled out now.
I also know that a key to losing weight is the input (diet), not just the output (exercise). But I wasn’t discouraged. I think that when you’re embarking on something like this, tackling one positive change and sticking with it helps build the positive habits and confidence you need to tackle more.
So what happens after January? It would have been tempting to just declare victory and move on. But at this point we had new habits:
Every morning before I wake up, Cindy is up exercising and closing her exercise ring. I’m envious of her ability to power through early morning starts.
Every evening, I tackle my own exercise ring. And usually during my workout, my Move ring is completed as well.
I felt like I was being mildly more conscientious about what I was eating, but not enough to make a difference on the scales.
So we kept going - closing our rings every day. At about 8 weeks in, I started to notice that I had lost some weight. Just a couple of pounds, but it was consistent.
I also noticed that my hip was feeling better - I could walk farther before it started to hurt, and it felt more “stable”. Many of the strength exercises for example focus on stability as well as a strength motion - which puts stress on smaller muscle groups or in different ways and helps build stability in a way that a simple motion won’t. Some of the moves remind me of physical therapy exercises I’ve been taught in the past.
In March I started mixing in some Ultimate Frisbee with my son as well. That is a very different kind of exercise and intensity - more like a HIIT workout followed by a couple minutes of rest (when you sub out to the sideline). Being able to play without pain in my hip was a real joy. However, I’m 49. I don’t bounce back like I used to, and I look and feel every day of that 49 after playing with middle school aged boys and girls. I felt good about being able to play without putting myself at too much risk of getting hurt. On ultimate frisbee days I don’t need to do an additional workout to close my exercise ring, believe me.
In March, my resting pulse dropped 10 beats per minute over 12 weeks. That felt like a sign of real progress under the hood, even if I didn’t look any thinner or more fit yet.
It is now the end of April, and I’ve lost 6 pounds. My resting pulse is now consistently 12 points below where I started. I think I’ll need to lose some weight to move that heart rate downward from here. And I will probably need to be more mindful of my diet to lose weight - exercise alone may not get me to my goal - but I also feel like I’m in a better headspace to tackle that effort now than I was just four months ago.
What about the Fitness+ App and Regimen:
The Fitness+ App
It is a slick presentation and UI for the Fitness+ app. Workouts are organized by workout type at the top of the page, followed by various ways to get your attention: “New this week” or “More of what you do” - which recommends workouts you’ve done before - or “Try something new” - which recommends workouts you haven’t done before.
Each workout includes a preview, and a “Let’s go” button, which you then confirm on your Apple Watch, which does the heavy lifting for tracking your actual workouts.
Once you start a workout, your vital stats are tracked in the upper left - time, pulse, calories. In cardio workouts, a “burn bar” is also included, which measures your workout performance against others who have done that workout. I don’t find it to be a particularly useful tool, however. As you can imagine, the vast majority of people will perform… in the middle… So the burn bar probably needs a re-think to either focus on your own past performances on similar workouts, or against some basic standards that they sort out to help you understand your performance better.
In the upper right, your activity rings are on display so that you can see how close you are to closing those rings. When you do close a ring, there’s a by-now-familiar animation of rings closing to celebrate the occasion.
Obviously most of the screen real estate are the trainers in a very Apple-y workout studio. My kids asked if the backgrounds were CGI…
Support for Devices
Fitness+ works on my iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. I haven’t tried it from the Apple TV app on my laptop but it might even work there.
Apple Fitness+ Workouts
The trainers do a great job of keeping the energy up and keeping your attention off of your complaining body and keeping your attention on the progress and the next rep. The workouts have been effective for me.
Fitness+ will keep track of which workouts you’ve done before. But I do wish they’d let you select workouts that you want to return to again, or let you mark your favorites. Or rate the workouts.
I found myself impressed how much they get done with basic equipment - a rower, a bicycle, a pair of dumbbells, and a floor mat. The exercises are creative and varied, which helps you find more difficulty in otherwise simple workouts. And I appreciated the focus on balance and core foundation as well as specific strength moves.
Apple Watch and Gamification
One the one hand, the three rings introduced by Apple Watch and emphasized by the Fitness+ app are genius. Daily goals that can help you build a habit that you can keep working on.
On the other hand, I have complaints. When you run a workout - any workout - in the Fitness+ app, you get full credit for your exercise minutes on your watch. When you select a workout on your own, from your watch, you only get credit for exercise minutes if you exceed a certain level of exertion (which, let’s face it, most people simply walking will not trigger unless they are really pushing it). I think Apple should adjust the way the Exercise ring works - intentional exercise (workout started manually) should always count. Exercise that isn’t intentional - you happen to be running long enough for the watch to notice and track it - should only count when you cross certain thresholds.
The Stand ring is kind of silly (in my opinion). It just isn’t nearly as important as the other two, and it shouldn’t be treated like it is.
The Move ring has some frustrating characteristics as well. The weekly goal-setting, if you are exceeding your move ring daily, constantly tries to push up your goal the next week. But I think it is too aggressive if you want to build a habit of closing your rings every day. Apple’s weekly goals will quickly push beyond what is realistic for you to achieve - no matter how much you do it will push higher - until you fail to hit your move ring consistently. There’s a rethink needed for how move ring goals should work.
There’s good news though - you can change the daily goals for all three of your rings in your Watch fitness app, and override Apple’s overzealous goal-setting!
Apple includes a lot of other awards that can help you find a little motivation. Getting a “perfect week” for each of your rings, or a perfect week for all three rings. And then achieving a perfect month for each of your rings. And tracking the number of consecutive days you’ve had a workout, or closed a ring.
Finally, Apple has monthly fitness goals. I have no idea how they are arrived at, but the variance is really high. One month it might be “double your move ring twice”, and another month it might be “burn 33,000 calories this month”, or “close your exercise ring every day this month.” Those goals that require you to do something perfectly every day all month long feel a bit onerous. One month that goal had to do with walking mileage - and medically I just can’t walk that many miles in a month. But to my knowledge there’s no way to change the monthly goal.
Apple Fitness+ Community
There’s no sense of community with Apple’s Fitness+. Separate from the Fitness+ app, you can use your Apple Watch to connect with others around fitness goals and “compete” in weekly challenges.
For some folks, maybe it is motivating. But it isn’t how I operate, I just need my own internal motivation. Moreover it is all based on beating your goals by percentage - which incentivizes using lower goals if you want to just game the system.
And what it really lacks is a sense of community during a workout, which seems to be all the rage for Peloton and others. That sense of being in a spin class at the gym, versus being in your own living room. Again, this form of group-workout isn’t my thing, so I’m perfectly happy with the more solitary form of workouts and participation that Apple supports.
But. I can see an angle that might work well - doing joint workouts. You connect to the *same* workout and do it at the same time. This is something you and your spouse or child or partner could do. And of course if you do this, why not allow you to do this with someone who isn’t in the same room - perhaps a friend halfway around the world, with FaceTime connecting you two at the same time?
Okay, I don’t really want anyone to watch me in the last 5 minutes of any cycling workout I do, so that’s not what I want. But for those who like to work out in groups or pairs, there’s room for Fitness+ to grow into that.
Last Thoughts
Apple’s Fitness+ alongside an Apple Watch is a great way to get started on your exercise goals. Start modestly - work your way up. If you can’t do 30 minutes of exercise even by filling time with cool-downs and easier workouts, bring the goal down to 20 minutes until you have that extra energy.
Apple has done a good job of giving something for everybody in this application. And they saved me from buying another expensive piece of exercise equipment. Anyone who is really hardcore about fitness will find that some of this just doesn’t meet their expectations or needs. And that’s probably fine! Apple has set a new bar though for the amateur exercisers among us - those who are starting over, or those who are starting that fitness journey. The price is reasonable, and the experience is very Apple-y, for good or bad.
I, for one, am in better shape for having focused on closing my rings over the last 4 months.