For a couple of years, I have a morning routine of doing exercise after waking up from bed. I used to go out for running or visit an Equinox near my office at Palo Alto (I have a post on Equinox earlier). However, in 2020, everything goes virtual, including workouts. I canceled my membership at Equinox. I have tried a live virtual workout with a personal trainer and exercise videos from Peloton’s mobile app. Recently, Apple Fitness+ was finally released and I received a 3-month free subscription from my Apple Watch. So far I like it.

I have already tried a few 30-min HIIT classes, a 10-min core class, and a 20-min dance class (which I quit after 10 minutes). I think the classes are designed for a general population as wide as possible, so the intensity is controlled at a medium level. My max heart rate during exercise is typically 130-140; in comparison, my heart rate usually goes up to 160 with personal trainers and 150 with Peloton. Still, it controls the pace very well to keep me sweaty and energized. I like the diversity of activities in HIIT classes. I don’t find myself clicking into the same class twice and there are new classes released every week. In Peloton, there are limited 30-minute-long HIIT classes, so I quickly found that I keep revisiting a class released in early November.

Summary in Apple Fitness+ after Exercise

I think Apple Fitness+’s killer feature is its integration with Apple’s other devices. When I watch the course on iPhone/iPad, it keeps sync with Apple Watch to fetch the real-time measurement of heart-rate and calories and display it in a widget on the left side of the screen. There’s a pink “Burn Bar” that compares my performance with other users, which adds a little excitement to the competition. I think it is a big plus to be able to play exercise videos on the iPad since its big-screen displays coaches’ actions as well as the real-time performance metrics more clearly than an iPhone. Especially when I place my device on the ground and start doing a jumping jack, playing on the iPad enables me to follow the coaches very closely.

Once COVID-19 is under-control and everything comes back to normal, will I go back to gyms? I think so. Compared with home-exercise, the abundant supply of equipment in gyms makes my exercise more effective, from strength, core, to HIITs. But I believe a decent portion of the exercise will be facilities through workout apps like Apple Fitness+. With well-designed class contents, curated songs, and close-monitoring through Apple Watch, virtual workout apps provide me desired exercise intensity as well as convenience and accessibility at a much reasonable cost. I am looking forward to a more radical redesign of gym space that well integrates with these virtual workout services and elevates the users’ experience around workout.