Apple Fitness+ is adding ‘audio running workouts’ feature

Apple has continued to add new features to Fitness Plus since its launch in December 2020, including audio walks with celebrities and new fitness regimens for pregnant and older customers. It’s announcing a few new things today, the most notable of which are audio running experiences called Time to Run.

Time to Run can help users “become more consistent and better runners,” according to Apple’s press release, and each session focuses on a popular running route in a given locale. Emily Fayette, Jamie-Ray Hartshorne, Sam Sanchez, and Scott Carvin, all of whom also coach the service’s treadmill workouts, will lead the sessions. Apple will also hire Cory Wharton-Malcolm as a running coach. Each episode will also include playlists tailored to the run’s intensity and location.

Time to Run will premiere on January 10th, with fresh episodes airing every Monday thereafter. The show will premiere with three episodes and three different locations: London, Brooklyn, and Miami Beach. On the Apple Watch, users will see photographs of “notable sights” along the path in each location. The episodes, according to Apple, may be used on both outdoor and indoor runs. It will also be offered as Time to Run or Push for wheelchair users.

It sounds a lot like Time to Walk, which is a series of 25–40 minute walks told by a celebrity guest and featuring their customised mini-playlist. Audio or coached runs aren’t exclusive to Fitness Plus; they’re also available in Aaptiv, Runtastic, Runkeeper, and Peloton, among other fitness apps. To see how Time to Run compares to Time to Walk, they will have to try a workout for ourselves, though if it’s anything like Time to Walk, it’ll be more about an inclusive experience than hardcore intervals or sprints.

Collections, which are curated workouts and meditations, are also being added to the site. The goal is to choose a few workouts and guided meditations from Fitness Plus’s library of 2,000 studio workouts and guided meditations that focus on a specific plan over several days or weeks. 30-Day Core Challenge, Improve Your Posture with Pilates, Perfect Your Yoga Balance Poses, Run Your First 5K, Wind Down for a Better Bedtime, and Strengthen Your Back, Stretch Your Hips are the six collections available at launch.

This is a welcome improvement, as one of the most vexing aspects of Fitness Plus since its inception has been the lack of filtering options. While you can search for exercises by trainer, music genre, and time, you must read each workout description to understand more about the goals of each session.

However, Time to Run and Collections aren’t the only new features. Rebel Wilson, Bernice A. King, Hasan Minhaj, Chris Meloni, Ayo Tometi, Chelsea Handler, and Sugar Ray Leonard are among the guests for the third season of Time to Walk. Ed Sheeran, Pharrell Williams, Shakira, and The Beatles will be added to Apple’s Artist Spotlight series, which contains full workouts dedicated to a single musician.