First announced at Apple’s September 2020 Special Event and then rolled out on 14 December 2020, Apple Fitness Plus represents the company’s most ambitious and extensive push into the workout market yet.
But what exactly is Apple Fitness Plus? What do you need to access it? And how much does it cost?
For answers to these and more questions, read on.
What is Apple Fitness Plus?
Apple Fitness Plus is a subscription-based workout service powered by the Apple Watch. It offers customised workouts based on 11 core workout types and guided meditations.
These workouts take the form of high-quality video productions run by professional instructors of varying ages and abilities, overlaid by real time health metrics provided by your Apple Watch.
In addition to these screen-based workouts, the Time to Walk and Time to Run tools allow you to get out and about with accompanying audio-based instructions, music, and inspiring stories.
Apple Fitness Plus will actively recommend workouts and meditations that its thinks you’ll like based on previous activity, while also seeking to provide variety.
Each workout lasts between 5 minutes and 45 minutes, so you can specify how much time you have to workout in.
What workout types does Apple Fitness Plus feature?
There are 11 core workout types in Apple Fitness Plus: core, cycling, dance, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), mindful cooldown, rowing, strength, treadmill walk, treadmill run, pilates, and yoga.
As many as 30 new workouts and meditations are added each week.
How do I access Apple Fitness Plus?
You can pay for a monthly or yearly subscription. Alternatively, Apple Fitness Plus is one of the five subscriptions bundled into the premium tier of the Apple One service, alongside Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, Apple News Plus, and extra iCloud storage.
You’ll also need an Apple Watch (Series 3 or above) for tracking metrics such as your heart rate.
With all this in place, you’ll find all of the workouts inside the Fitness app on your iPhone, iPad and Apple TV.
How much does Apple Fitness Plus cost?
On its own, Apple Fitness Plus will cost you either £9.99/$9.99 per month, or £79.99/$79.99 per year.
As part of the Apple One premium tier, it’ll cost you £29.95/$29.95 per month.
At the time of writing, brand new Apple Watch owners get a 3 month free trial of Apple Fitness Plus, while existing owners can get a 1 month free trial.
What devices support Apple Fitness Plus?
You’ll need an iOS device (with iOS 14.3 or later) and an Apple Watch (with watchOS 7.2 or later) to use Apple Fitness Plus. Here’s a list of the compatible iPhones:
- iPhone 6s series
- iPhone SE (1st gen)
- iPhone 7 series
- iPhone 8 series
- iPhone X
- iPhone XR
- iPhone XS series
- iPhone 11 series
- iPhone SE (2nd gen)
- iPhone 12 family
- iPhone 13 family
- iPhone SE (3rd gen)
You’ll also need to use one of the following Apple Watch smartwatches:
- Apple Watch Series 3
- Apple Watch Series 4
- Apple Watch Series 5
- Apple Watch Series 6
- Apple Watch SE
- Apple Watch Series 7
You can also use and iPad to access Apple Fitness Plus (iPar Air 2 or later), an Apple TV HD, or an Apple TV 4K.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
