Apple Fitness+ Hits the Weight Room with ‘Gym Strength’ Plans in iOS 27.3
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Reports of the demise of Apple Fitness+ may have been slightly exaggerated, considering that Apple is expanding its workouts into the gym in its latest iOS 27.3, iPadOS 27.3, and watchOS 27.3 updates.
The Gym Strength program focuses on strength training, and while that isn’t new to Apple Fitness+ on its own, this goes well beyond hand weights, with a focus on creating personalized workout plans designed for those who want to engage in serious lifting routines.
The plan is designed to run for four weeks, with workout routines two to five days per week, across more than 350 available exercises. A new section in the Fitness app lets you build a custom program based on your level of experience with weightlifting, the parts of the body you want to work out, and the equipment you have available.
Dumbbells are mandatory, but you can also add in kettlebells, barbells, curl bars, racks, benches, cable pulleys, weight machines, pull-up bars, resistance bands, and more. You’ll also be able to select your preferred trainer(s). That list currently includes Kim Ngo and Kyle Ardill, though Apple may add more in the future. You can select five exercises for 20- to 30-minute workouts or seven exercises for a 45- to 60-minute workout.
Each workout provides recommendations on specific exercises, reps, sets, and how much weight to lift. You can move through them at your own pace with trainer demonstrations before each exercise that expand to show movements from different angles — a great option for those who don’t have a lot of experience lifting heavier weights.
The workout plan will also dynamically adapt each week, using the previous week’s logs to set the pace and parameters for future exercises.
While you don’t necessarily need to visit the gym to take advantage of the new Gym Strength plans, they’ve been designed to be highly adaptable for that purpose, letting you easily swap equipment in the event that you’re training at a different gym, or if you show up and find your preferred machine is already occupied.
Like standard Fitness+ Strength workouts, Gym Strength can also be used with only a set of dumbbells, so you can still take advantage of these routines at home with a program that’s more focused on weightlifting.
Gym Strength is already available in the first betas of iOS 27.3, iPadOS 27.3, and watchOS 27.3. Like most Fitness+ workouts, this works best with an Apple Watch for tracking heart rate and calories burned, and in this case, also lets view the exercises and log reps directly from your wrist, saving you the need to tote your iPhone around as you move between machines.
While there have been several rumors over the past year that Apple is reevaluating Fitness+ and may eventually merge it into a broader “Health+” style service, that hasn’t happened yet. For now, Apple Fitness+ remains available as a standalone subscription for $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year, or as part of an Apple One Premier plan for $39.95 monthly, which also gets you iCloud+ with 2 TB of storage, and Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Arcade, and Apple News+ for the whole family to enjoy.
