Nike Training Club Hits the Apple Watch (At Last)

Nike’s training app will bring more than 180 workouts to the Apple Watch.

Nike has always been willing to experiment with wearables and sports tech, but experiment has been the key word. The Training Club app was one of the most serious, long-term tech projects for Nike: a sports training app that collects workouts created by experts and instructed via both audio and video by certified Nike trainers and professional athletes. Compared to a lot of workout apps out there, it’s a high-quality training option…and now it’s finally coming to the Apple Watch!

Nike doesn’t really have an excuse for not allowing Training Club to function on the Watch in the first place. It’s the ideal tool to monitor your workout on the go, get haptic prompts for starting the next phase of your workout, and other useful information…but not the sort of thing you want to constantly reference on your phone (especially in workout clothes).

Nike admits, “The resounding feedback from athletes worldwide was that they wanted us to put the best training app onto Apple Watch,” with a whole lot of people chiming in to say that they disliked how closely tied the app was to their phones.

Watch users will also be able to monitor their heart rates, approximate calories burned, get notifications about their goals, and other Watch fitness capabilities, so Training Club does tie in well…except for one thing. It looks like you can’t initiate a workout from the Apple Watch itself..

That means you have to pull out your iPhone, start the workout you had in mind, put the iPhone somewhere safe, and then start your workout, where the Watch will give you updates on your session. If that involves running or distance exercises, you’ll still need to take your phone along. Hopefully, this part will be improved in a future update!

For now, the Apple Watch functionality hits today, so if you’ve been looking for a new training app, you may want to give Training Club a shot.