Apple Fitness Plus review: Is it worth it? By CNET

Apple is giving us a not so gentle reminder to get off our you know and get moving with fitness plus it's 9.99 subscription service offers all types of guided workouts that you can stream on your iPhone iPad or Apple TV, but the key that unlocks this whole thing is the Apple Watch. So let's take a look at what this is all about now, because I am using a test version of fitness plus, it doesn't have access to any of my previous workout history, which is an important part of the service and something that sets it. Apart from the rest, fitness plus is supposed to help take the guesswork out of choosing your next workout, which can be half the battle. In my opinion, by offering up recommendations based on the types of workouts that you're already logging on your Apple Watch. So you'll get offered up one of two things more of what you already love to do, or completely new types of workouts that complement what you're doing once you have all the OS updates. You should see the app on your Apple TV, or it's just a matter of downloading it onto your mobile devices, whichever one you may be working out with and because they all communicate with the Apple Watch.

It'll automatically start logging the correct workout type without having to lift a finger. You can also use it as a remote control to play or pause your workout alright. So now that I'm all set up, I'm going to take you, along on my very first workout, so go easy on me. The cool thing about fitness plus, though, is that you can use just about any Apple TV because they are going to have the fitness plus app. All you need is the Apple Watch to unlock your subscription, so you can be at a friend's house.

You can be at a hotel room. If there's an Apple TV, you can have access to working out on your TV. So with that said, I'm going to start this journey with the fitness app right. Here. It's asking me to connect to the TV, and I will say yes, so I can filter through all trainers, duration and music.

I'm going to filter through durations over here, and I'm going to pick a 30-minute workout. So it's telling me that I need a medium dumbbell. Luckily I have some lying around um. I brought on some five founders and some 10 founders if I'm feeling ambitious, but there are plenty of workouts that don't require any equipment at all right, so I am getting the play button that you see on screen. I'm getting the same thing on my Apple Watch, three two ones! Furthermore, I like that it tells you the elapsed time on the screen, as well as the heart rate, because it doesn't feel like I've been working out for eight minutes, and it's clearly working because my heart rate has been going up.

Furthermore, I like the stats on screen. Furthermore, I've said that before, but as I go through this, I can see the benefit of having it on the screen at all times, so that you can really maximize each workout and keep yourself honest about your effort level. Furthermore, I just closed. My exercise rings. I just closed my exercise ring, so that was kind of an abrupt ending, but only because you have the option to tack on another workout which I'm not going to do or tack on a guided cooldown.

So that's up to you so a few final thoughts on my very first workout. For starters, please excuse whatever mess is going on over here, because I don't usually go on camera after a workout. Now, with that said, I did mention at the beginning that it seemed fast-paced that kind of changed throughout, because that was just the warm-up that seemed a little fast-paced. Eventually, I was able to follow along fairly easily because it kind of got repetitive, and she did give more direction, which I liked. I also loved having the stats on the screen.

I loved having the um exercise ring close in real time, as I was doing, my exercise for someone who likes closing their exercise rings every day that was really motivating, as well as having my heart rate right on the screen, so obviously um. Furthermore, I can log it on the Apple Watch as I'm doing any other exercise, but I don't usually keep my eye on the Apple Watch throughout an exercise, particularly not the times when I'm straining myself- and in this case I could keep my eye on the TV and really push myself to increase my heart rate. One of the things that I didn't like is that it kind of did seem to get a little repetitive, um and not quite as total body and as challenging as I'm used to when it comes to strength training. I usually do longer strength training sessions at home. So maybe it's a matter of just kind of adjusting my search criteria or maybe trying a different type of exercise, but I would say this was beginner to medium.

There are ways to adjust it. Obviously you can use heavier weights etc. , but I was looking for a little more of a total body workout and a little more dynamic, although it was- and I really like the instructor, so I'm willing to give it another shot. So, let's move on to the next one? Now I'm going to venture outside my comfort zone and do a type of workout that I've never done before so clearly. This is not my rowing machine, and I'm going to try doing it on the iPad this time around using it as my screen, and luckily this machine has a nice little holder.

Now there is a whole section devoted to beginners like myself, on fitness plus, but sadly it doesn't have a beginner's class for rowing. What it does have is an intro video at the beginning of each workout type that you can click into to get the basic. Now I'm going to be honest, I'm not sure if I'm going to remember all of that, but it was definitely helpful to get some basics down, but just in case I am going to pick a 10-minute rowing workout to get me started, let's go as you can see. I can start with the Apple Watch. I'm going to go slow, so don't judge! Furthermore, I don't want to get hurt now.

Furthermore, I don't know if you saw that, but there's a little bar that came down in the bottom. That's called the burn bar, and it basically lets me know how I'm doing against other people who've done the workout, based on my own personal stats like my age and weight. So if I want to push myself and want to get ahead of the pack, I can get competitive like that, but I'm not going to do that on this workout just because I am a beginner, but you can one. Oh, I like the countdown with the intense one, that's helpful. My arms are going to be on fire after this workout.

I think I'm favoring my arms a little more than everything else in my body that was a productive, 10 minutes of my life right there. I'm pretty sure I didn't do a lot of things right, but it was my first time and hey. Furthermore, I got my heart rate up and, according to my burn bar I'm at a d plus average, hey I'll, take it. You can click on any of the songs to go to the playlist and add it to my Apple Music to get pumped. Even when I'm not rowing.

Now, as you can see, I've moved my workout outside for this next one, because you can do that with fitness plus on your iPhone. Now I just have about 10 minutes to do a quick little core session after my run, because it's getting cold, and it's probably going to start to rain. So, let's take a look at what we have. I want I'm going to pick core and filter looks like they're all 10 minutes, which is perfect, and in this case, because there are so many options, I can actually click in, and I can look at a trailer or a preview of each one. That kind of gives me a sense of what to expect, so I'm going to go ahead and choose this one and get started.

Let's go stability. Well! That was a quick one, but that's exactly what I wanted, and I'll be honest. This is a much nicer setting than working out in the studio, and it's a nice little option to have in the back of my pocket, literally in the last roughly 48 hours, I have completed seven out of the nine different workout types available on fitness plus and mind you two of those require a stationary bike and a treadmill both of which I don't have. Needless to say, I am exhausted and extremely sore, but I'm not going to lie. It has been a fun little change up to my tired old gym routine.

I really like the variety of workout types available on fitness plus. I think it's allowed me to try stuff that I wouldn't have otherwise, especially because they do include that instructional or beginner video for all the different workouts. It's a no-brainer if you already have an Apple Watch, and you're getting that trial period for free or if it comes included with your apple one subscription, but I don't think it's the sole reason to go out there and buy a brand-new Apple Watch if you weren't, even considering it in the first place. That said, if you are a pro in any of these categories- and you really want to hone your skill, this is probably not the best option for you, because I think it's made for a more general audience, which is not a bad thing. I think it's going to help a lot of people get started on their fitness journey, especially right now with a lot of us at home.

But for me personally, I think I would use it as a compliment to my existing workout routine or if I want to tack on an extra 10-minute workout at the end of a very busy day. This would be perfect and that's kind of the beauty of it. You control what you want to do, whether it's a 90-minute session with a cool down and everything, or just a little 10-minute session to get your heart rate up now. This is just my very first impression of fitness, plus I've only been using it for a couple of days and a service like this really takes months to really assess and obviously to see results. So I am going to continue testing it out and if you have any questions along the way just hit me up on the comment section below, or you can find me on social media I'd be happy to answer anything that I can in the meantime, you will find me lying over there on the couch for the next.

However, many hours it takes to recover from these seven workouts.

Source : CNET