Apple’s makes Fitness+ more inclusive with more workouts

Apple keeps you moving

I’ve always argued that Apple actually does listen to its customers and today’s new changes to Apple Fitness+go a really long way toward proving this.

I’d also argued that Apple had missed some key groups, including older people, pregnant women and others, all of whom could really make use of the service. I’m pleased to say Apple has deflected this with a bunch of new routines for people like these.

What has Apple done?

You see, what the company has done is introduce a range of new fitness workouts aimed at groups of people I criticised it for failing to serve.

The brand new workouts are geared specifically toward pregnancy and older adults, as well as several new Yoga, High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), and Strength workouts for beginners. These workouts are designed to help users build confidence working out, no matter their fitness level, whether just starting out, trying something new, or getting back into exercise for the first time in a long time.

Fitness+ is also expanding its team of world-class trainers, introducing a new Yoga and Mindful Cooldown trainer, Jonelle Lewis, in addition to welcoming current Fitness+ trainer Anja Garcia to the HIIT team.

Walking is an exercise too

Starting on April 19, and in honor of Earth Day, an episode of Time to Walk featuring Jane Fonda will be available. The actor, producer, author, and activist talks about standing up to her fears and the power of taking action to fight climate change.

Time to Walk is an inspiring new audio walking experience on Apple Watch for Fitness+ subscribers. It was created to encourage users to walk more often and reap the benefits of one of the healthiest activities in the world. Each original Time to Walk episode invites users to immerse themselves in a walk with an influential and interesting person — such as Wanda Sykes, Anthony Ramos, Dolly Parton, Shawn Mendes, Uzo Aduba, and Draymond Green — as they share thoughtful and meaningful stories, photos, and music.

Jane Fonda walking stories

What Apple says

“Apple Fitness+ is integrated with Apple Watch to build on the goal of helping people live a better day by being more active. With more options for getting started, and staying active and healthy during pregnancy as well as at any age or fitness level, we hope even more people will be inspired to keep moving with our amazing team of passionate trainers,” said Jay Blahnik, Apple’s senior director of Fitness Technologies.

“We are also incredibly excited to welcome Jonelle Lewis to the trainer team and can’t wait for our users to try new HIIT workouts with Anja Garcia. We’ve brought together an incredibly diverse and inclusive team of Fitness+ trainers, and we love seeing our team grow, giving our users even more options to find the best workout for them.”

Workouts for Pregnancy, Older Adults, and Beginners

Workouts for Older Adults help users stay active at any age with a focus on strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, and mobility. Led by Fitness+ trainer Molly Fox, this series includes eight workouts where Molly is joined by Gregg Cook for Strength, Dustin Brown for Yoga, Bakari Williams for HIIT, and Jhon Gonzalez for Dance. Many of the workouts are done with a light dumbbell or just bodyweight, and others show modifications with a chair or against the wall. The workouts are all 10 minutes long and can be done on their own or with other Fitness+ workouts, using the modifications users learn in this program when needed.

Workouts for preganancy: Focused on helping women stay active during a healthy pregnancy and prepare for life with a new baby, the new Workouts for Pregnancy consist of 10 workouts across Strength, Core, and Mindful Cooldown. Each of these is a quick 10 minutes designed to accommodate any stage of pregnancy and any fitness level, and includes tips for modifying workouts using a pillow for comfort as the body changes.

Workouts for beginners: To help more Fitness+ subscribers get started and gain confidence before trying the weekly studio workouts, new Yoga, Strength, and HIIT workouts will be available in Workouts for Beginners. For those who are just getting started, consider themselves a beginner, or are getting back into exercise after a long break, there are now even more workouts to choose from to help build strength, stamina, and flexibility. All the moves are low impact and easy to follow to help beginners feel comfortable doing basic exercises.

The new Workouts for Pregnancy, Workouts for Older Adults, and Workouts for Beginners, as well as Yoga and Mindful Cooldown with Jonelle Lewis, HIIT with Anja Garcia, and the new Time to Walk with Jane Fonda, will all be available in Fitness+ on April 19.

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