New 2024 Apple Fitness+ Workouts Include Rihanna and ‘Yoga for Golfers’

If getting in better physical or mental shape is among your New Year’s resolutions, then Apple Fitness+ has you covered. In addition to a great collection of existing workout regiments, Apple is upping its game with a new series of sound meditations, new workouts tailored to those who spend their time on a golf course, and even a new Spotlight Series tied into this year’s Super Bowl LVIII extravaganza.

While there are many ways to stay in shape, Apple Fitness+ is one of the best for Apple fans since it ties in directly with your Apple Watch and can be bundled in as part of an Apple One subscription. By itself, the service will set you back $9.99/month, but if you opt for Apple One Premier, you can get it included with Apple Music, Apple TV+, iCloud+ with 2TB of storage, and more for $37.95 per month. Since that works out to $29 less than subscribing to all those services individually, you’re effectively getting it thrown in along with Apple Arcade and Apple News+ for about the same price as just those first three services.

Apple Fitness+ launched in late 2020, providing a series of workouts on your Apple TV, iPhone, or iPad led by professional trainers in Apple’s studios. Since then, it’s expanded to the Mac, added SharePlay support to let you work out with up to 32 of your friends online, and added a series of Activity Awards in iOS 16. With iOS 17, you can now even create your own custom workout plans.

Over the past three years, Apple has also expanded the available workouts to new disciplines and added fun new artist collaborations, including dance workouts with BTS and ABBA, special workouts for expectant mothers and older adults, and even a Time to Walk series for those who would rather exercise with a stroll through nature instead of being glued to their TV screen.

Now, Apple is offering up another set of updates for 2024 to help even more users get into the groove and stay in shape — whether that’s calming your mind or improving your swing.

Sound Meditations

One of the great things about Fitness+ is that it’s not just about building your muscles and losing weight. Apple pays just as much attention to ways to help with your mental health, and this is reflected in everything from the new mood logging in the iOS 17 Health app to the mindfulness app that debuted in watchOS 8.

An evolution of Apple’s Breathe app, Mindfulness added calming reflection modes and a tie-in with Apple Fitness+ to experience guided audio meditations to help you settle and calm your mind.

Apple Fitness+ already offers ten meditation themes, such as Calm, Gratitude, Sleep, resilience, and Creativity, and now Apple is adding another one to the mix: Sound.

Apple describes this as “a new way to feel relaxed and restored […] with a variety of soothing tones and rhythms — such as the tranquil sounds of singing bowls and the deep pitch of gongs — all arranged to create a sense of ease.”

The new Sound Meditations will be rolling out starting this week, with a starting set of seven available in the usual five-, ten-, and twenty-minute increments. As with the other categories, new meditations will drop each week.

Workouts for Golfers

It’s not the first time that Apple has taken Fitness+ in the direction of some specialized workouts, and this time, it’s brought on professional golfer Rose Zhang to design some strength, core, and yoga workouts specifically tailored for the balance, flexibility, and mobility needed on the links.

“To play at my best, the training that I do off the course is so important. Incorporating strength, core, and mobility workouts helps make sure my body and mind are ready,” said Zhang. “Whether people are new to the sport or want to advance their skills, I’m excited that the workouts in this program on Fitness+ will help users feel more confident in their swing and have fun on the course.”

Long-time Fitness+ trainer Kyle Ardill will be working with Zhang to lead the mix of four workouts that should help you get ready for golf season.

Celebrating the Countdown to Super Bowl LVIII

In another interesting twist, Apple Fitness+ will be counting down to this year’s Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show by featuring music by iconic halftime performers from previous years, leading up to a final week of tracks by USHER, the headliner for this year’s Halftime Show.

The series will kick off with ten new workouts backed by music from Rihanna, who starred in last year’s Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show, marking the first time her tracks have come to any fitness service. This will be followed by workouts with music by Britney Spears on January 15 and music by U2 on January 22.

Time to Walk Episodes on Apple Podcasts

Apple regularly expands its Time to Walk series with new voices, and this year, it’s kicking things off with Al Roker, longtime weather anchor and cohost for the TODAY show.

“New episodes of Time to Walk will begin with Al Roker, longtime weather anchor and segment cohost for the TODAY show. On this walk, Roker shares what he learned from his mentor that inspired him to pay it forward as a mentor himself. He also talks about the pivotal conversation he had with his father that prompted him to seek out a lifestyle change.”

Following Roker’s debut, Apple will add weekly talks from Trixie Mattel (aka Brian Firkus) of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars fame, Canadian author and actor Lilly Singh, rapper and activist Common, and Emmy-winning actor Colman Domingo, known for his role in the hit TV series Euphoria.

Apple is also leveraging the Apple Podcasts Subscriptions introduced last fall to bring Apple Music Radio Shows to subscribers and deliver Time to Walk episodes exclusively for Apple Fitness+ subscribers.

At launch, 50 episodes of Time to Walk will be available with the guest’s audio, and subscribers can follow for free, automatically download episodes for online listening, and more. Apple will also be offering up 10 free audio episodes for those without a Fitness+ subscription, including episodes with previous guests such as Prince William, Al Roker, Patti LaBelle, Jason Segal, Becky G, Simu Liu, Malala Yousafzai, Camila Cabello, Dolly Parton, and Shawn Mendes.

How to Get Apple Fitness+

As we mentioned earlier, Apple Fitness+ costs $9.99/year in the US by itself but can also be picked up as part of an Apple One Premier bundle along with the rest of Apple’s services for a much lower monthly price.

The service is currently available in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland, the UAE, the UK, and the US, and customers who purchase nearly any compatible Apple device from the iPhone 11, ninth-generation iPad, Apple Watch Series 4 or Apple TV onward can also get three months of the service for free.

Members of Anytime Fitness also get a free Fitness+ subscription, and prospective members who try Anytime Fitness for free can also get up to three months of Fitness+ at no extra cost.

Apple Fitness+ requires an iPhone 8 or later with iOS 16.1 or later, or an Apple Watch Series 3 or later with watchOS 7.2 or later paired with iPhone 6s or later with iOS 14.3 or later.