The COVID-19 pandemic has been blocking everybody from getting out of home for a long time. I’m not an exception as well. Not only “work from home”, “workout at home” became an essential part of my life. Several resources have provided me access to training guidance — youtube, fitness apps, social media influencers… On the other side, many such options make it hard for me to choose my best fit. Apple Fitness+ launched at the late end of 2020. I’m an Apple fan who always wants to try new releases from apple. However, I hesitated on subscribing to it because of a question wandering in my mind — comparing with something that I’ve got used to, would it worth paying extra for access to Apple Fitness+? Well, the one-month trial was not bad, and I could anyway have had it unsubscribed if it did not work. But things changed. Since I started using Fitness+, I was ready to pay for it monthly and kept it as my primary workout support. Here’s the review of why I got addicted to it.
Set up
iPhone 12 mini: Manage subscription, check daily fitness goals
Apple Watch Series 5: Monitor exercises, record daily fitness goals
Apple TV 4K: The main platform to play training videos
The good
You would realize something new in your exercise
Before using Fitness+, I usually just open a video list regarding my today’s goal (e.g., cardio, strength), find one, follow it up to finish postures/actions, and end it. However, in Fitness+, I’ve learned one step more. There’s a trick in Fitness+ that encourages you to do a mindful cooldown after an intensive workout. I’m a health-related researcher, I know the power of mindfulness. But I was still surprised that Apple could integrate the idea into daily exercise such well. Also, the introduced mindful cooldown helps me a lot to relax after a heavy workload day.
You would have a customized personal trainer team
Classes are various, including core training, HIIT training, strength training, Yoga… Trainers in Fitness+ are diverse too. You can always pick a workout that you are interested in doing. Also, you will ever get your mind stimulated by a trainer that you would like to follow up with. Three trainers represent three levels of difficulty in each workout to help you find the best following to get your workout done. Comparing with the videos that I tried out before, Fitness+ makes me more comfortable at the end of the practice.
Don’t doubt — You could be a dancer
I believe that dance is a suitable workout type. However, I always question my body coordination. Also, I never know how to self-learn to dance at home as an absolute beginner. Fitness+ made this happen. I started a dance workout taught by Ben. Though I was frustrated with not following up initially, the step breakdown gradually made me dance better and feel happier. For now, even my neighbor friend comes to my place to dance together every week. Though having stupid moves, we’ve been enjoying the fun of dancing.
The things I’m still looking forward to
Yoga courses
I had some trouble following the Yoga course using my TV. In my home settings, my TV is on a cabinet. When doing on-mat exercises, it’s hard to look up to see the trainers' postures. Indeed using a phone would be a trade-off, but with my mini’s screen, it’s not that enjoyable. I would be glad to try if some new Yoga videos could come with postures introduction before actual actions.
Filter for body position and sort for the difficulty in a type of workout
Again, I really appreciated that three trainers in a video guide workout. However, besides trainers, duration, and music, I would look forward to a filter for body positions when searching for one category. For example, I have to look into the video description to check which position (e.g., upper body, lower body, shoulder…)it aims to work for in strength workouts. Also, it would be clearer to sort the video from difficulty low to high (if it’s rated) in a playlist.
Workout with my friends
It’s fair that the subscription is individual-based with a single Apple Watch connected. And I’ve no idea about how this could be changed for now. But personally, I’m envisioning that it would be much fun if I could exercise with my friends who also have Apple watches. In that way, exercise rings would progress on multiple watches that allow us to compete and collaborate.
Conclusion
Overall, I’m happy that I moved to Fitness+ for my daily workout. If you just became a member of “workout at home”, Fitness+ would be a good option. In my opinion, it’s been successful during the months-length release. But I would still put an eye on it to see how it will evolve.
