After giving birth, time becomes so precious that I cannot afford 2 hours to swim (including transportation and shower) and one-hour Zumba classes anymore. Apple Fitness+ came out in December 2020, the year with intense COVID and when people stay home more. With postpartum recovery and the pandemic, TV workouts are the most convenient for me. Since I already have an Apple Watch, I started a one-month trial 3 months postpartum and have been loving it. I’m sharing some issues and suggestions for the app, after submitting this feedback to Apple.

My setup

iPhone with Samsung TV 7 Series, US App Store account, APAC region (Taiwan)

What I like

• Short workouts with different workout types: short workouts are perfert for me without a long continuous time. I love that the classes range from 5 to 30 minutes, and I can also mix and match like 20 minute HIIT & 5-10 minute mindfulness. HIIT is especially suitable for me to spend a short time with the same calories burned.
• New content: every now and then, I see new content on Apple Fitness+ for the workout types I do. With $9.99/month or $79.99/year (I picked the yearly option), I feel like an active and affordable virtual gym service with teachers adding new moves and variations.

Issues

• Connection issue: it’s happened a few times at various workout types, and different times of the day. The video simply paused, sometimes it comes back shortly, but it often remains stuck for a few minutes. This is especially frustrating during high-intensity workout like HIIT, where I lose the momentum and heart rate after the wait. 
• Cannot pair with Apple Watch: this occurs once so far, when my watch is right next to the phone and TV but the app cannot pair with the watch. I had to record the workout manually.

Suggestions

• Rewind: because of the connection issue, I had to restart the workout after waiting for more than a few minutes. However, sometimes I already completed half or more of the workout, and just hope to start where I left off. Right now, there is no way to rewind and I have to start from the beginning.
• Dance workout – Latin grooves: I love Zumba, and naturally enjoy taking Jhon’s dance classes that feel similar to Zumba. In fact, I saw Jhon in the official Zumba Switch game (Burn It Up)!  The intensity in Apple Fitness+ is a bit lower for me though, I burned much lower calories than in the Zumba Switch game. It’d be great if the dance workout can have a higher intensity variation, like how they offer a lower intensity one.
• Filtering by equipment (in HIIT at least): I use the filters a lot to find workouts of certain duration. In HIIT workouts, a few of the classes require a dumbbell, which I don’t have and only realize after starting the workout. The equipment requirement is in the class detail page and it’d be nice to be able to have it as a filter.
• Integrating songs (in HIIT at least): it might be technically impossible to sync songs with HIIT workouts, I just thought the music could be more integrated into the moves.

Wrap up

Since the baby started sleeping through the night, I commiteed to exercise every 2-3 days. The intensity might not be as high as I wanted every time, but the workout time itself frees my body and mind from a day of parenting or work. I hope to keep up the habit for months and years to come, and I’d love to see Apple Fitness+ with more teachers and classes in the future.

❤️⌚️

Thanks to Apple Watch, I have the motivation to close my rings throughout pregnancy and after postpartum recovery. Apple Fitness+ makes it even easier to do exercise at home.