At the “California streaming” event, Apple introduces its Fitness+ subscription to new workout types including Pilates, group workout, guided Meditation, a new low-impact, body-conditioning workout type all at the beginning of the Apple event and all-new workout types will be available this September 27, 2021.
Apple will also be planning to bring its Fitness+ subscription to 15 more countries later this year in addition to Austria, Brazil, Colombia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates. Fitness+ will be available in English with subtitles in six languages.
Apple also plans to include seasonal themes into its workouts, starting with routines to help customers prepare for the next snow season, which will be based on their skiing and snowboarding abilities. Workouts to Get Ready for Snow Season is a winter sports-inspired program that will help users gain strength, balance, and endurance so they can have more fun on the slopes from the first run to the last.
Guided Meditation
Meditation can assist users in reducing daily stress, developing a stronger feeling of awareness, and developing resilience to deal with life’s problems. Guided Meditation will assist users to adopt a regular meditation routine and increase their overall sense of well-being, building on the success of Mindful Cooldowns in Fitness+.
Users will be able to choose from nine guided Meditation themes for an engaging video experience with the Fitness+ trainers – Purpose, Kindness, Gratitude, Awareness, Creativity, Wisdom, Calm, Focus, and Resilience. Each practice will last five, ten, or twenty minutes.
In addition to the high-definition video experience on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV, the same meditations will be published weekly in audio format to the new Mindfulness app on Apple Watch, allowing users to experience guided meditation whenever and wherever they want.
The Breathe app is renamed the Mindfulness app in watchOS 8, and it now includes an improved Breathe experience, a new session type called Reflect, and Fitness+ guided Meditations. When coupled with AirPods or other Bluetooth headphones, these new audio meditations in Fitness+ can be played directly from Apple Watch.
Users who want to practice meditation while moving can use the Workout app on their Apple Watch to track their activity while doing so, allowing them to meditate while walking, hiking, or stretching.
Guided Meditation will be conducted by a collection of Fitness+ users’ favorite Mindful Cooldown and Yoga trainers, including Dustin Brown, Gregg Cook, Jessica Skye, and Jonelle Lewis, as well as two new Meditation-focused trainers, Christian Howard and JoAnna Hardy.
Christian and JoAnna have a combined 40 years of personal and inclusive experience teaching both traditional and insight meditation. The guided Meditation instructors will provide a variety of experiences with various techniques and approaches that are friendly to everybody, whether it is a person’s first practice or they are an experienced expert.
A new Meditation for Beginners program will assist users to master the foundations before plunging into the studio sessions for those who are just getting started.
Pilates
Strength, Core, and Yoga are among the most popular body-conditioning activities in Fitness+. Pilates will now be available as a low-impact workout option in Fitness+, giving users more options for maintaining and increasing their strength and flexibility.
Most Fitness+ Pilates programs can be completed with just a mat, but some additionally include resistance band exercises. All Pilates routines will last 10 minutes, 20 minutes, or 30 minutes.
Marimba Gold-Watts and Darryl Whiting, two new Fitness+ trainers, will lead Pilates. Darryl is a former competitive athlete who takes an athletic approach to his Pilates routines, and Marimba is an award-winning Pilates trainer who began her career as a professional dancer.
Both trainers bring a variety of techniques to Pilates for Fitness+ customers, making the workout accessible to everyone who wants to try it. Marimba and Darryl will be accompanied by members of the Fitness+ trainer team to demonstrate adaptations for individuals who are just getting started, need a different option for specific routines or are ready to try more advanced moves, as with all Fitness+ studio workouts.
Artist Spotlight and Time to Walk
New exercises including the music of Billie Eilish, Calvin Harris, Imagine Dragons, and Nicki Minaj will be added to Fitness+’s popular Artist Spotlight series. An entire workout playlist is dedicated to a single artist in the Artist Spotlight series.
For the next four weeks, new exercises containing music by each of these musicians will be added to the service in various modalities every Monday. Cycling, Rowing, HIIT, Strength, Yoga, Dance, and Treadmill are some of the workout kinds available, with music genres like Latest Hits, Chill Vibes, Everything Rock, Pure Dance, Upbeat Anthems, and Hip-Hop/R&B.
Apple Music and Apple One subscribers can enjoy the Fitness+ Spotlight series, which includes a unique playlist for each Artist Spotlight musician, including motivating, high-energy tracks from their entire catalogs, as well as collaborations and remixes for motivation outside of their Fitness+ workouts, and is inspired by these Fitness+ workouts.
New episodes of Time to Walk, an uplifting audio experience for the Apple Watch designed to encourage Fitness+ users to get active by walking more often, will be released throughout the fall.
Time to Walk offers some of the world’s most fascinating and powerful individuals who share their experiences, images, and music with Fitness+ subscribers. New guests will be added each week as the series enters its second season, including singer-songwriter Bebe Rexha, singer-songwriter Camila Cabello, country musician and actor Reba McEntire, activist and Me Too movement founder Tarana Burke, professional basketball player and 10-time NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony, and actor, activist, and author Gabrielle Union.
Group Workouts with SharePlay
Also, later this fall Fitness+ will be adding Group Workout with SharePlay where users can work out with up to 32 people at once to keep each other motivated and connected. Users will be able to start a Group Workout from a group message thread or FaceTime call on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV with AirPlay.
They will then go to the Fitness app, choose a workout or Meditation, see their friends and family onscreen, and begin. Users may view their stats and progress toward closing their Activity rings while working out in a Group Workout, as well as see and hear their buddies.
Users will be notified when someone advances on the Burn Bar or closes their Activity ring in Group Workouts, allowing them to rejoice together — or even trade-friendly smack talk to keep each other going.
Apple Fitness+ was introduced last year in October 2020 in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand and the 15 more countries will be joined later this year. The Fitness+ subscription starts at $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year.
Apple Fitness+ is already included in the Apple One Premiere plan which also includes Apple’s popular subscriptions like Apple Music, AppleTV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, and iCloud with 2TB of storage and Apple One Premiere plan can be shared with up to 6 family members.
Apple Fitness+ requires Apple Watch Series 3 or later with watchOS 7.2 or later, paired with iPhone 6s or later or iOS 14.3 or later. However, Apple recommended upgrading devices with the latest software to get the newest features of Fitness+ on their devices.
