Category: 10 Best Workout Apps for Beginners in 2026

With feet planted firmly in both the iOS and Android camps, I’ve always wanted to find and use a smartwatch that would work across the board. The Fitbit Versa looked to be the way, but it fell a bit short for me, and I went back to my trusty Series 6. The biggest reason is the integration with my iPhone and Mac, as I can just double-tap the side button to unlock 1Password throughout the day, and it just works. At NBC Select, we work with experts who have specialized knowledge and authority based on relevant training and/or experience. We also ensure that all expert advice and recommendations are made independently and without undisclosed financial conflicts of interest. I am a Millennial woman and, as such, have put in my time in the MyFitnessPal trenches for well over a decade.

Peloton App One

• The affordable Fitbit Air is the best screen-free tracker we’ve tested, while the Fitbit Charge 6 remains a top pick for its integrated GPS and color display.
• Cancel at least 24 hours before the next renewal date to avoid being charged for the upcoming billing cycle.
• Beyond yoga, Alo Wellness Club also includes a wide variety of fitness classes, including Pilates, barre, sculpt, HIIT, strength, dance, prenatal/postnatal, and more.
• As the name implies, Fitbit Premium is definitely better with one of the company’s trackers, opening up a whole bunch of additions to the base experience.
• LA Times Studios can help you train and fuel smarter with expert workouts and nutrition strategies sent to your inbox.
• Healthline looked high and low for the best fitness apps to help you out.

There’s no option to work with a personal coach here, so you’re on your own when it comes to consistency. The amount of yoga strength athletes take part in is rising as both formats can greatly benefit from one another. If you fall into that category, gleaning the benefits of both yoga and strength work, we recommend downloading Alo Moves.

An Old-School Live Service

Reciprocal benefits occur when there is a mutual gain for givers and receivers of support, such as giving “kudos” to each other based on their fitness efforts. Even as we engage recreationally in sports and fitness, apps like Strava, Nike+, MyFitnessPal, RunKeeper, and Fitocracy are there to measure our performance and motivate us to do better. If an app has a free trial, take it, and cancel the subscription before the trial period ends.

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I tested the most popular workout apps to help you find the ones worth the cost–some are even free. Below are some apps to consider if you’re looking to move intentionally. If you like to run outdoors, for example, you’ll likely want an app that offers location tracking. If you crave community, tune in to Daily Burn 365, a 30-minute online group workout class that takes place at 9 a.m. You can even chat with community members and trainers during and after the class. Whether you’ve let your exercise routine fade or have yet to start one, a fitness app may help you get on track.

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The base and middle-tier subscriptions provide plenty of specialized activity data, including coaching features that provide tips for exercise and sleep. The screenless Whoop 5.0 and Whoop MG provide more activity detail and biometric data than most wearables. The Whoop MG performed well across all our tests, on par with our picks in tracking workout distances, steps, and heart rate. But for most people who just want those basic data points, it’s overkill. It also has a strong battery life; it’s advertised as lasting 10 days, and during our most recent test, in 2025, it lasted 8.5 days, including near-daily recorded workouts and auto-detected activity.

She started her journalism career as a political reporter in Ottawa, Canada’s capital, and then made her foray into tech journalism at MobileSyrup and most recently, at Yahoo Finance Canada. When work isn’t on her mind, she loves working out, reading thrillers, watching the Raptors, and planning what she’s going to eat the next day. When I’m training for a race or putting in more miles running, I like to go with something like the Garmin Forerunner 745. Garmin’s GPS and tracking are top-notch, their watches are easy to read in the sunlight, and their buttons are easy to manipulate when I sweat (and I sweat A LOT while running). It has just enough “smarts” with the ability to read and perform basic responses to notifications, and NFC means I can pay for things without my wallet. I’ve tried everything from advanced running watches such as the Garmin Forerunner 945 to basic activity trackers like the Xiaomi Mi Band 4.

Comparing the best fitness and workout apps

That’s probably why I regularly wear the Garmin Vivoactive 4 as my go-to fitness smartwatch. Whether I’m going for a brisk walk on my lunch break or hitting the elliptical, it offers the tracking features I need. Not to mention that I get almost a full week of battery life on a single charge, which is hard to beat. That said, some fitness apps offer tutorials and sample videos that focus on how to use certain pieces of equipment and how to do foundational exercises.

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This app also includes a premium version, called Fitness+, that provides workout videos and personalized training plans you can follow for a monthly fee. As much as fitness apps can be convenient and accessible, they also contribute to increased reliance on technology. Some individuals may find that relying solely on an app for their fitness needs reduces opportunities for face-to-face interaction, personal guidance, and social support. It is important to strike a balance between the convenience of technology and the benefits of human connection when considering the use of fitness apps. User feedback and reviews can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness and satisfaction levels of fitness apps. Reading reviews and testimonials from other users can give you an idea of what to expect from a particular app.

During trials, our tester enjoyed how much interaction you have with the app through readiness prompts each day before training. These prompts gauge how prepared you are for a given workout, along with other inquiries asking if you’re dealing with any soreness, fatigue, or other factors that may influence your training. There’s no personal coaching involved with this app, though I do enjoy the coach-guided runs. Essentially, you select a goal-oriented coach-guided run, integrate your personal playlist, and listen to the coach’s instructions.

Best for iOS users

Some sync with your phone or buzz you if you’ve been still for too long. Putting on a fitness tracker feels like flipping the switch on a healthier, more active life. Intuitive in-app features, clear metric monitoring and world class instructors are just some of the perks of being a Fiit member. From strength training to treadmill-only workouts and spin, you can build strength and improve cardio from the comfort of your own home. But in April 2019, I started spinning and changed up my routine heavily.

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It’s also a step ahead of the pack in women’s health with cycle insights, fertile window estimates, and pregnancy insights. The ring’s polished companion app charts metrics like cardiovascular age, sleep regularity, and more over time, making it easy to spot trends. It also interprets the data for you, providing holistic readiness, sleep, and activity scores, while offering detailed, personalized recommendations to improve your well-being. I’m currently testing the Oura Ring 5, which has an even slimmer design and promises longer battery life than its predecessor. Fitness apps offer fitness training classes, store users’ exercise and fitness data, and provide recommendations for healthy lifestyles (1). Fitness apps can improve the regularity of users’ physical activities, the frequency of fitness exercises and walking behavior (2).

I don’t have an exercise bar, but I used a set of the best adjustable dumbbells and still got a great workout. If you’ve ever done a BodyPump class in your local gym, you’ll have been introduced to the world of Les Mills. It’s a series of tempo-based classes, set to music, designed to get you fitter and stronger. The app is an extension of this, with hundreds of classes to choose from, all set to ladder app review an infectious beat, with motivating instructors. The app can feel a little overwhelming at a first glance, but classes can be filtered by trainer, time, and the music you prefer to work out to.

Fitbit Charge 6

At an additional cost, users can access personalized health coaching and have private chats with fitness coaches. Frequent exercise can help people maintain moderate body weight and decrease the risk of certain diseases, such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. It can also strengthen the heart, improve lung function, and improve mental health.

The workouts are built around your available equipment, which our testers found convenient. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and subsequent public health measures have drastically impacted lifestyles worldwide and have had adverse effects on health behaviors [1–6]. In addition to self-reported changes, studies using objective smartphone-based data also showed a decline in daily step count worldwide [5,7].

What is the best workout app?

Portfolio includes fitness, wellbeing, and health applications used by thousands of users daily. Long-term client relationships demonstrate sustained app success rather than short-term launches that fail to retain users past initial enthusiasm. Actually tracked my own fitness app usage over six months using twelve different apps. The fitness app market exploded during COVID but most apps still suck at keeping users engaged long-term. Incorporating variety into your workout program keeps you engaged, reduces the risk of injury, and challenges different muscle groups (4). Diverse activities, like swimming, hiking, and group classes, prevent burnout and encourage long-term participation.

Some apps use your audio function for instructing and motivating you. Others will use your GPS to track and provide you with the best routes for running, walking, trekking or hiking. Fitness apps are readily available for download, which we can use to train for a marathon, burn fats, build muscles, or become flexible. After three months, the intervention group was split, with half receiving personalized text feedback for nine more months.

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What I like about how Muscle Booster handles progression is that it requires you to complete your current workouts before unlocking new ones. It sounds simple, but it enforces a level of accountability that a lot of apps skip over, and it ensures you are actually building a foundation rather than jumping ahead before you are ready. On low-recovery days, the app scales back volume and intensity while keeping you active. This prevents the boom-and-bust cycle that kills consistency for most people.

Strength+ costs $10 per month, but it is free for anyone with an existing App+ or All-Access membership. This app also includes a premium version, called Fitness+, that provides workout videos and personalized training plans you can follow for a monthly fee. Strava is a GPS-based running app that also functions as a social media platform for runners, swimmers, and cyclists. You can connect your wearable devices, such as Garmin, Apple Watch, or Coros to the Strava app and log your daily workouts as well as analyze your overall performance.

The Strong Workout Tracker Gym Log is a great tool for tracking strength workouts. Turoff appreciates the “Beacon” safety feature, which allows you to share your live location with up to three people. Upgrade to a premium subscription ($79.99 per year) to https://madmuscles-review.com/workout-apps/apple-fitness-app-review/ take advantage of other features, such as training programs and route planning. “Alo Moves is my all-around top pick for a fitness app because it has so many high-quality programs, classes, and trainers from yoga, Pilates, strength, calisthenics, and more,” MacPherson says. “It’s constantly being updated with new trainers and programs as well,” she notes. Charles Thorp is the Fitness and Reviews Editor at Men’s Health, where he shares the best product recommendations in gym equipment, recovery tools, supplements, and more.

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You can even follow a program over the course of a month and decide how often you’re looking to work out. Because Nike is such a big name in fitness, many of its workouts draw inspiration from famous athletes, such as Simone Biles and Serena Williams. If you prefer a workout app that’s more specific to your interests, such as yoga, we recommend others in the list below. The app supports various training goals including general fitness, strength training, muscle tone, bodybuilding, and Olympic weightlifting. As a beginner, you can start with simpler goals and naturally progress to more advanced training styles as your knowledge grows. Cora is the best app for workout consistency because it combines recovery-based training, adaptive workout plans, and habit tracking in a single app.

What is the best app for workout consistency?

That said, hiring an individual for these needs can have hourly rates ranging from $25 to over $100. (1) Thankfully, Caliber offers three tiers of subscriptions that cater to a variety of budgets. If you’re looking for an immersive training experience that’s rich with motivation, advice, and engagement, we highly recommend subscribing to Future. Yes, the monthly membership is expensive at $199, but with that you’re essentially getting a full-fledged personal trainer in your pocket (or on your watch or TV).

Strong Workout Tracker Gym Log

This smart progression prevents frustration while consistently pushing your limits. We selected The Movement Athlete as best for calisthenics because it makes this challenging discipline approachable while maintaining the integrity of proper progression. Pliability offers an unlimited free trial, allowing you to experience the benefits before committing to a subscription.

• Live classes or sessions with virtual coaching almost always need a working connection, so it’s important to check how each app handles offline access.
• But that’s what the Charity Miles app does, and it tracks your workout via GPS, donating money to the charities you pick.
• In addition to Alo’s premium apparel, the West Coast athleisure brand has also made a splash in the at-home workout space.
• Founded by the actor Chris Hemsworth, Centr offers specialized training programs and more than 1,400 HIIT, strength, Pilates, and yoga workouts — many of which you can do at home.
• Health professionals particularly appreciate Cronometer, with Cronometer Pro offering specialized features for dietitians and nutritionists to work with clients directly through the app.
• The fitness apps that actually work are the ones that fix the system.

Exercise database small without detailed instructions or video demonstrations. No social features, challenges, or motivational elements to encourage long-term usage. Interface functional but not polished compared to professional fitness app standards.

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For someone just starting their fitness journey, this seamless experience means you’ll never feel lost in the gym. Each workout feels perfectly created for exactly where you are right now. Do you feel a bit lost about how to actually achieve your long term fitness goals, or are you still trying to figure out what you really want to achieve?

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Descriptive statistics, including frequencies and percentages, were generated for categorical variables; means and standard deviations (SD) were generated for continuous variables. Both models were adjusted for factors selected a priori, including age, gender, education, and the existence of current medical conditions. Post-hoc sensitivity analyses were conducted to include only Australia-based participants, given the large proportion of this group in the sample. What started as the star’s personal wellness journey evolved into what is now Centr, a digital destination for all things health and nutrition. It offers personalized coaching, specialized equipment, and also has a focus on mental wellness. “Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned in the fitness world, there’s something for everyone, including HIIT, Pilates, yoga, and strength training,” explains Maricris Lapaix, CPT, a Centr trainer.

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But this app is great for beginner cardio and general fitness workouts that will keep you moving forward toward your goals. The app allows you to stream classes in 10 different categories (cycling, running, bootcamp, outdoor, strength, and more) anywhere, with live studio classes uploaded daily to an extant library of over 10,000. We especially love attending the live classes, because you get the actual push from those around you and from Peloton’s lineup of fitness-celebrity trainers.

Are you ready to slay your fitness goals?

Participants revealed that they had to adapt their use of mobile apps to fit their needs during the highly restricted circumstances caused by COVID-19. Exercise adherence is vital for achieving long-term fitness goals and overall well-being. The Alive app is SID class of 2024 trainer Gabrielle Savary’s “go-to” for strength training workouts.

Luckily, there are quite a few free workout apps that go above and beyond. Whether you’re searching for a running app, Pilates app, or another form of exercise, there’s plenty to choose from. Some applications allow free trials, but you’ll eventually hit a paywall. Do your due diligence and find a plan that works best for you and your budget. If you feel as though pre-recorded workouts and group chats aren’t enough to help you stay motivated, Future may be a good option for you. That’s because it connects you with a real personal training coach, which includes virtual calls and a custom fitness plan.