It works seamlessly with the Apple Watch, so you can start, pause and end workouts from the watch, and your heart rate and calorie stats are taken from the watch and shown on-screen during workouts. The Fitness+ service is contained within the native Fitness app, so you don’t need to download anything new to use it – just sign up for the service. Aaptiv is an audio-based fitness app that offers various workout types, including running, strength training, and yoga. The app provides audio cues, music, and motivational coaching, helping you stay motivated and engaged throughout your workout. Aaptiv syncs with Apple Watch, providing real-time metrics and allowing users to track their progress. Must have apple watch apps for health include HeartWatch for cardiac monitoring, Lose It for calorie tracking, and Zones for heart rate training.
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Smartgym works by having you create routines in the iPhone app, either manually by choosing exercises from the app’s library of options or by having the app select them for you using its SmartTrainer tool. Once you have designed a program, you then export it to your Apple Watch, allowing you to follow each move on your wrist without opening your phone to check what exercise is next or record your progress. The best Apple Watch for health monitoring is either the Apple Watch Series 10 or Apple Watch Ultra 2. Both of these devices offer identical sets of holistic tracking sensors and feature Apple’s newest wellness tools like sleep apnea detection. Some fitness trackers work better for specific types of activities, whereas others are more of an all-purpose wearable. Or do you want one that can keep up with you at the gym and the activities in between?
The best premium smartwatch for iPhone
What we like about the Apple Watch support is that you get so much of the main app—including coached runs and mapping features—right on your wrist. At the same time, the design makes everything clear and simple so you can view the necessarily information at a glance while you’re on the move. Avid runners, whether or not they own one of the Nike edition models of the Apple Watch, should load up their wearable with the Nike+ Run Club app. As you’d expect, it tracks your runs, providing detailed maps and statistics for each session. For example, you can hear audio prompts that help keep you on course with your target pace—you can even have friends record these encouragements for you. As the app learns your habits, you’ll also see your progress over time and receive personalized coaching plans tailored to your own pace and targets.

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The premium version can predict when you might experience cramps, bloating, cravings and other PMS symptoms. From monitoring your heart rate to sending “take a break” reminders, Apple Watch is arguably one of the best and most comprehensive health-tech devices on the market. Motion’s community includes Apple Watch users of all fitness levels. Better Battery LifeAll-day tracking with Motion or Strava no longer kills your battery by dinner. Here are the only ones worth your wrist space – from fun gamification to serious athletic training. Closing Activity Rings and tracking progress can motivate users to stay active.
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While other apps focus on making you faster or stronger, Motion focuses on keeping you moving consistently. The Motmot pet creates an emotional connection that data never could. If you’re serious about running, cycling, or hiking, reviews.io WorkOutDoors is unmatched. The map detail on the watch screen is insane – you can actually navigate trails without your phone. Freeletics provides adaptive high-intensity interval training programs that work well with Apple Watch activity tracking.
- The app supports offline navigational maps and can even be set up to alert you if you venture too far from your intended route.
- GPS performance is also strong, as is battery life, which was more than good for the promised 5 days of heavy use in my testing.
- On the flip side, the Ultra 2 is the best option for larger wrists or anyone who wants Apple’s toughest-built wearable.
- However, some of these integrations, as well as features like detailed food analysis and data export, require a $10/month premium subscription.
- Golfers are well served by this excellent app, which allows you to track your score across a round and provides distance to the front, middle and back of the green throughout each hole you play.
- For example, I walked 5 miles with the Apple Watch 10 vs. Pixel Watch 3 on either wrist to see how heart rate, distance, pace, and more compare.
The smartwatch also gives you control over the app’s built-in exercise timers. With the companion Apple Watch app, you can leave your phone behind. Glance at the screen to see how to carry out a particular activity, as viewed from any angle.
You may find yourself in a situation where you do not really know where you are. Or, even worse, you get hurt and you need to describe to someone else where you are located. If high-intensity interval training is more your kind of thing, Seconds Pro is one of the best apps out there. You can create as many brightly colored and easy-to-read custom timers for your workouts as you need to get your sweat on. If you want to track your weights, reps, and sets, or sweat hard in an interval workout, there are apps that make that easy to do. The free app will let you create and track swim workouts (instead of just tracking how many lengths you’ve swum).
Our editors recommend 13 Apple Watch apps they can’t live without
Garmin and Apple use different GPS files, different heart rate sensors and different algorithms to process information, and as such also end up with slightly different results over the same race. So, what do Garmin, Strava and Apple have to say about one of the most famous foot races of all time? I’ve taken a look at the GPS files and information provided by all three services, in order to show you the difference between them.
By incorporating these apps into your daily routine, you can take proactive steps towards a healthier, more active lifestyle. MapMyRun is a popular fitness app that tracks running and other outdoor activities. The Apple Watch app provides a seamless experience for users who prefer to track their runs directly from their wrists.

Best health and fitness Apple Watch apps
Tap the digital crown to enter your Apple Watch’s app view and select the App Store app (the icon is blue with a white ‘A’). There, you can search for and download all of the third-party apps listed below, and many more. But first, here’s a quick refresher on downloading apps to your Apple Watch. Sometimes you just need that extra bit of motivation to go on a run. This might be the virtual coach in the Apple Fitness app, or the social competition of Strava.
Connect to Apple Watch, Fitbit, Garmin, Samsung Health, Google Fit, Health Connect, smart scales, and many more. Spleeft is an innovative app designed to measure barbell velocity and jump height in real-time using your iPhone or Apple Watch. It provides detailed analytics on various fitness metrics, including best-rep velocity, load-velocity profiles, and power-load profiles.
The watch app will show your current location and code when you open it up, and you can also use a voice search to find other people using it. So, if you want to keep tabs on your steps, the best way to do it is using the free Pedometer++ app. Not only has it proven itself accurate in our testing, but it’s also dead-simple to navigate, and you can even add a step count complication to your watch face via Pedometer++. Strava is closer to a traditional social media platform than a sports app. It lets runners, cyclists, and more record and share their routes and lap times with other users in an Instagram-like feed.
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She’s covered everything from phones, tablets and wearables to smart home and beauty tech, with everything in between, and she’s reviewed every Apple product to launch in the last few years. She has a fashion journalism degree from London College of Fashion and was previously deputy editor of Pocket-lint. You’ll never find her without her Apple Watch on, aiming to complete her rings so she can justify the extra bar of chocolate and she loves a good iPhone trick.
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It is specifically designed with the person who works out in the outdoors. It is also one of, if not the only, fitness app that has fully functional vector maps. These vectors provide all of the necessary metrics and information for outdoor workouts.
The Best Apple Watch Apps for Runners
The Apple Watch has become a pivotal tool for many fitness enthusiasts, offering a plethora of apps designed to cater to every aspect of your fitness journey. Among these, Athlytic, Strong, Training Today, and Spleeft stand out for their unique features and benefits. Let’s dive into how these apps can transform your daily gym routine and take a look at the Best Apple Watch Fitness Apps. The S10 chip follows on from the S9, another standout upgrade delivering improved performance, faster Siri processing, and 64GB memory capacity. Unfortunately, even though it charges to 80% in 30 minutes, the watch only lasts for 18 hours in smartwatch mode, so daily charging is required. Streaks Workout is a popular fitness app designed for Apple Watch.