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• Track everything with Apple Fitness and Health

• Find free fitness videos on YouTube

• Create a fitness playlist on Spotify (or Apple Music)

• Record my fitness activities with Strong

• Record repetition intervals using Interval Timer

• Track my nutrition with MyFitnessPal

• Find new routes using the Hiking app

• Use Bend for rest days

• Discover fitness and wellness courses with Mindbody

• Try to join the fitness community

Changing your fitness plan or starting a fitness journey can be scary, but not impossible. With so many free resources on your iPhone in your pocket, why do you have to search elsewhere?

I've always relied on my iPhone to help me plan my job, improve productivity, and even move, but I've been using it to improve my overall health for over a year. Here is how I did it.

Track everything with Apple Fitness and Health

The most important part of my fitness program is tracking what I think is important in my fitness journey, which may vary depending on your goals. I love monitoring my daily steps, protein intake, macronutrients and progressive overload at the gym. To track basic information such as steps, sleep, and calories, Apple Fitness and Health are the best tools available to iPhone users.

I sync Apple Health with any third-party fitness app that allows sync and use it to record my emotions. If you want to be more specific, Health allows you to record body measurements, heart rate, nutrition, and sleep patterns. Health can also be used to record medications, which is also useful for recording daily supplements.

Apple Fitness uses Move Ring to record my daily step goals, and I find that the calendar view (plus achievement badges and rewards) can effectively help me reach my goal while keeping me motivated. You can promise this app by subscribing to Fitness ($9.99 per month), which will give you unlimited access to fitness videos and custom fitness plans. If you plan to subscribe to Apple One, Fitness is a great option to consider.

Find free fitness videos on YouTube

A free resource for starting my fitness journey a few years ago, what I often reviewed on days when I couldn’t go to the gym was the fitness videos on YouTube. You can explore millions of home fitness following videos and playlists on YouTube.

During COVID-19, I subscribed to YouTube Premium just to skip ads in fitness videos that last up to 30+ minutes and I have been a loyal subscriber ever since. As a Premium subscriber, I have access to ad-free music on YouTube Music, where I have music playlists for several gyms. I try to make classified fitness playlists such as dance, pilates, stretching and high-intensity interval training. Recently, I also found that accessing short videos to YouTube Shorts is very effective when you are confused in the gym.

Create a fitness playlist on Spotify (or Apple Music)

I can’t do some good rhythm without some good rhythm when doing high-intensity strength or aerobic training in the gym. The last thing is that I don't want to keep pausing between groups to shuffle or change songs, which is why I have my fitness playlist ready. You can create fitness playlists on any music streaming platform of your choice, but as an iPhone user, Apple Music may be a great choice for seamless synchronization on Apple devices like Apple Watch.

I've always tended to use Spotify to help create my fitness playlists, and I use features like Smart Shuffle to help me discover new songs. I also use Spotify’s Jam to collaborate on our playlists when I work out with my friends. Every other month or so, I browse Spotify’s featured fitness playlist to add new songs, and I’ve created a fitness folder with multiple fitness playlists based on the type of exercise I’ve worked on that day (like yoga, weightlifting, and running).

Record my fitness activities with Strong

Once I started documenting my fitness plan, my gym progress and consistency improved dramatically. Depending on the type of fitness plan you are doing, there are many third-party iPhone apps you can use to record your fitness activities, but my favorite is Strong. This exercise tracker has a simple interface that helps you quickly start recording your aerobic and strength training. I use this app to record each exercise, the number of repetitions and groups, the weight used, and the rest time between groups, which allows me to understand how my progressive overload changes over time.

Strong comes with animated videos of each exercise you record, which is perfect for you when you are not sure about your posture or how the gym machine works. You can track your body measurements, sync easily with your Apple Watch, and track progress with detailed charts. Strong also allows you to mark groups as warm-up, reorganization and failure groups, which I found very effective for high-intensity exercises.

Record repetition intervals using Interval Timer

In addition to Strong, I also use Interval Timer, a fitness timer application to record the repetition times of each set and each exercise. This app comes with a variety of timer themes including low-intensity or high-intensity timers, which I found perfect for high-intensity interval training and tabata training. You can customize settings and countdown times, break times, timer sound, group count and pauses during breaks. Timers can be used for any physical activity, so they are perfect for home and gym workouts.

Since I can run Interval Timer in the background and it works when the iPhone is locked, it also makes it easy to time my group and rest time while continuing to play my playlist.

Track my nutrition with MyFitnessPal

If tracking your calories or macronutrients is an integral part of your fitness journey, you might want to try a calorie tracker that you can access directly from your iPhone. I use MyFitnessPal to monitor my macronutrients (I don't count calories) to make sure I reach my daily protein intake. While I was a little lazy when recording food, using a tracker helped me stay more disciplined and helped me get back on track when I was off routine.

I save meals that I repeat frequently because I save time by meal preparation and use detailed insights from the application and macronutrient breakdown.

You can also record steps, exercise, moisture intake and scan the barcode of meals/items you purchased for quick recording. I found that MyFitnessPal is one of the best food and calorie tracking applications due to its vast database of meals that allow me to record food from different cuisines, especially meals that are unique to my culture.

Find new routes using the Hiking app

When summer comes, I like to go out frequently, whether it’s morning walks, dinner with friends, or hiking on new routes. Over the past year or so, I have started using hiking apps like AllTrails to discover routes near my residence, which was very useful when I moved abroad two years ago. Using this app, I try to explore local parks, hiking trails near lakes or rivers near me, and longer running trails.

The app offers park guides and other activities like mountain biking and backpacking routes, which can be very helpful depending on your location. AllTrails provides navigation help if you are unfamiliar with your area or route and record your hike and progress over time.

Use Bend for rest days

Recovery is key in my fitness program, and those recovery days are crucial for your grouping training if you do any strength training. I try to keep an active recovery routine, working to reach my steps while making sure to stick to a relaxed stretch routine. I've tried stretching videos on YouTube and improvising against the background of playing some Lo-fi music, but the most effective is an app dedicated to recovery.

Bend is a flexible application for beginners and advanced users. You can browse stretches by body areas and learn them, or try stretching routines that vary by time. Bend comes with an AI feature that helps you describe your "perfect routine" and helps customize your stretching exercises. Bend's library helps you save your favorite routines and exercises. What I like about Bend is its simplicity and effectiveness, and its easy-to-follow stretch routine. You can even create your own custom routine from scratch.

Discover fitness and wellness courses with Mindbody

It’s great to go to the gym or work out at home, but sometimes, I get tired of doing the same routine. At those times, I like to check out fitness and wellness classes or workshops that I can attend near me. You can try an app or website like ClassPass, which provides you with the opportunity to access top fitness classes and wellness studios near you. I've used Mindbody, a similar app to try out fitness classes in studios near me like rotating, pilates, and high-intensity interval training.

Apart from fitness, you can also find health appointments, including beauty and hairdressing options. Every three months or so, I will explore massage options near me to further my recovery and reduce the chance of injury, which may be crucial if you do strength training. You can discover a range of classes near you, including ballet, yoga, dance and training camp. Mindbody offers some great beginner offers and promotions that prompted me to sign up to try new things beyond my comfort zone.

Try to join the fitness community

The last optional but very inspiring step that helped me change the way I navigate on my fitness journey was to join a fitness community. Many fitness apps, including well-known apps like Nike Run Club, have a "community" tag where users can share their workout experience. Although I'm not directly involved in the discussion threads on fitness apps, visiting such a community can be a big incentive if you feel like you're off track of progress.

I found it very reassuring to just browse posts from people who are at the same level of fitness as I am, completing the same high-intensity workout I am trying. The community can be very encouraged, especially if you are a beginner and want to ask questions about applications, practices, or your posture.

I also try to participate in online fitness discussion threads, such as on Reddit or YouTube where you can find tips and tricks about exercise, nutrition, and mobility.

Developing a fitness plan that you can follow continuously can be difficult, especially if you are just starting your fitness journey. However, the right tools can make a huge difference, and you don’t have to go too far to find the best app for you.

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