We’re going to talk about the best apple watch apps for fitness that can really help you to stay fit. One of the reason why people buy an apple watch is because of its fitness partner that measures the way you move and health insights. So here are the best fitness apps for apple watch.
In one of our previous articles, we covered the best Apple watch games which you can try and engage with in 2022.
Best Apple Watch Apps For Fitness
1. Strava
This is the first app I will recommend for everybody. The reason I recommend this app is because it is the best standalone app for cycling, running and even swimming.
Having a standalone Apple watch app is a major aspect that makes this one of the best fitness apps for the watch, you can go out for a run using only the watch which makes a huge difference.
Strava user interface is very simple and very easy to use, the app have a selection of workouts to use like running, cycling, indoor ride or just generic workout even Nordic ski.
When using the outdoor run you’ll see that it gives you just the right amount of information on the screen as you’re running which is useful, you will be able to see your time, average pace, distance and even having your heart rate on that screen which is very useful. You can pause your workout as well as do a water lock.
Jumping into the settings will give you the opportunity to change units which includes auto pause for running and riding as well as adding notifications for your different front splits as you’re doing your workout.
Overall for tracking cycling and running Strava is an excellent app and also another good reason that I think it’s especially important as a fitness app is because it really does help you improve your fitness and it motivates you to get better every time.
It is free to download and use but just like most of fitness apps it offers a pro page version which offers a lot of great features it cost $6 per month or $59 per year.
Strava created a community that helps people to share what they’re doing, share their workouts with all the data included and you can keep track of your other friends and others that you want to follow through Strava and see what they’re doing and that can additionally motivate you even more to achieve those goals.
If your using this strava app for the first time you probably don’t know that everything like your name, photos and the routes are available for public and everyone can see it. Although, there are some great privacy restrictions in the app but the beginners might overlook them.
2. The Activity & Workout Apps
Although, this apps are built-in the Apple watch and it’s a good app for you to improve your fitness. Obviously, apple knew what they were doing when they built these apps. They were up to the challenge of building a fitness wearable to compete in an already fairly saturated market but there have been some significant improvements over their various software updates for the workout and the activity apps.
When you first open the activity app you’ll see your three rings for the day which are Move ring, Exercise ring and Stand ring.
The Move ring is based on the active calories you burn throughout the day, then the Exercise ring is number of minutes that you’ve been participating in active exercise during the day and Stand ring is how many hours during which you’ve stood actively for at least one minute during that hour.
What excites me is that you get credit for doing all this activities and you need to close that ring by doing that activity during 12 hours during day.
Trying to close those rings every day and being active for 30 minutes will burn a certain amount of calories and being active during 12 different hours during the day is definitely going to help improve your fitness.
The app gives you more graphical information as to when you’re performing those activities. It gives you total steps and total distance, there’s different workouts to be completed throughout the day. What’s more, the activity app allows you to share your activity with other Apple watch users.
What’s more, the activity app can also allow you start competitions with friends and family members who also have Apple watches and you can challenge them to close their rings more each day and that lasts for seven days and you can get a maximum of 600 points each day by getting percentages of your rings closed and it’s actually quite entertaining and fun to try and challenge your friends and see who can do more during the day for their fitness and obviously that’s going to help you become more fit.
The workout app is the companion to the activity app and it is very similar to Strava that I mentioned earlier. The workout app has many options for you to choose from, you can even add a workout at the end if you haven’t found what you’re looking for included are things like badminton, kickboxing, surfing Australian football, there are so many different options for you to use in the workout app that you wouldn’t find on Strava app or other similar run and cycling tracking app.
The reason I recommended Strava app before the workout app is because of the community and the additional features that Strava has. The workout app however the is more comprehensive if you’re really just trying to get a quick fitness workout.
3. Nike Training Club (NTC)
If you really like to get in a quick workout whether you have weights to use or you want to just do a bodyweight workout Nike Training Club has tons and tons of guided workouts that you can use.
The Apple watch app have it paired to the mobile app and it helps you stay on track with each of the movements throughout the workout.
These workouts are really easy to use, they’re obviously guided so you can see the different moves before you have to do them and all of the time they are already divided out for you. They have tons of different options so using that is a really easy way to get a quick workout even at home and not needing to go to the gym.
4. Nike+ Run Club (NRC)
They’re obviously both built by Nike but this one’s more specifically tailored to those who are trying to get more fit from running.
If you’re trying to prepare for a race, if you’re trying to get a little bit more fit or just increase the distance that you’re able to run Nike Plus Run Club app has the ability to create specific training plans using their algorithms that will adapt to you and your schedule.
This is a huge benefit because if you’re training for something 20 weeks out lots of people and most people aren’t necessarily capable of creating specific training plans for each day and each week until that race day but Nike Plus Run Club will create that for you based on your current capabilities.
They can tell you what you should be running each day during week one, during week 20 and it will take you to race day if you can stay diligent and keep doing what they have you do and continue to follow the plan it will be immensely useful for you whether you’re trying to complete your first marathon or trying to break two hours there are lots of things that you can do with that app to help you increase your speed your capabilities and your fitness through running.