Tell it you ran 8 miles yesterday, and it adjusts session intensity and exercise selection accordingly — pulling volume away from legs and shifting focus to upper body or core. This kind of loyalty — the “I just need to track my sets” user — is exactly who both apps serve. The difference is that Strong users tend to care more about data export and granular control, while Hevy users tend to engage with the social feed as a motivation mechanism. To learn more about tracking your max lifts, see our guide to personal records.
Best Workout Planner – Muscle Booster
This smart approach prevents the common plateau cycle where lifters either progress too conservatively (limiting gains) or too aggressively (risking injury or burnout). The most sophisticated tracking features automatically calculate volume load (weight × reps × sets) to ensure you’re consistently doing more work over time—the essence of strength development [9]. The best workout app isn’t the same for everyone, but the ones we love share a few key qualities.
Best Workout App for Women Overall: Caliber
The app (available on iOS and Android) offers a free 7-day trial, followed by a monthly subscription of $15. Alternatively, you can opt for a quarterly subscription for $40 or a yearly subscription for $100. The app supports various training goals including general fitness, strength training, muscle tone, bodybuilding, and Olympic weightlifting.
Benefits of Online Workout Programs
There’s also a dedicated community area for you to share updates and support others to hit their goals. This is because Fiit offers all of the live classes for free, with no subscription required, along with a limited range of guided workouts, so you don’t have to break the bank to stay active. And if you want a more comprehensive selection, you can take out a subscription. If you want to quickly download an app and dive straight into your exercise, these are our top three best workout apps. We’ve given a short overview to the best overall, best budget, and best for iPhone owners, but if you’re after more options, we go into greater depth further down the page. A runner is going to want something totally different from someone primarily looking for an app that will help them strength train.
How we tested the best workout apps
Meanwhile, platforms with expensive monthly subscriptions that aren’t justified earn a 1 or 2. A score of 3 means the app is priced fairly based on its features and functionality (typically around $35 or less). Apps that cost less than $10 per month, or offer a one-time purchase option, earn higher scores. Although weightlifting is the main goal, many programs offer specific circuits tailored to goals, such as building strength, functional fitness, mobility, powerlifting, or competitive lifting. He gave the program a 4-out-of-5 rating, citing the intuitive desktop and mobile PDFs, accessible video exercise demos, and clearly defined weekly goals with warm-up and cool-down protocols as highlights.
Additionally, the app has other programming for pilates, barre, HIIT, and strength training with new modules being added daily. We love how tailored Future is to your specific needs — our testers gave their overall experience a 5 out of 5. Once you complete a quick quiz about your fitness level, goals, injury history, and your preferred coaching style, you’re paired with your instructor. You video chat with them for an introduction, and from there, your training plan is customized to your abilities and available equipment. Generally speaking, the only downside of workout apps for women is they require a lot of self-motivation. It’s a lot easier to ignore a text or a pop-up notification than it is a personal trainer blowing up your phone.
Plus, they can be ideal for athletes struggling to compile a worthwhile regimen on their own. Below are some of the perks that come with adding one of these services to your home screen. 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. The Peloton experience is a little lacking in the accountability department if you go with the basic membership, our tester noted. “If you want more of the at-home gym experience, I recommend the All-Access option,” they said, giving this category a 3 out of 5.
Comprehensive Guide to Mind-Body Fitness Training Programs
It learns from your daily journal entries and benchmark data, providing personalized support whenever you need it. Fitbod also integrates seamlessly with Apple Health, allowing you to track your workouts alongside other health metrics. The subscription is reasonably priced, and free trial gives you enough time to test whether the app suits your needs. Elegantly simple yet incredibly effective at crafting customized workouts perfect for those new to strength training.
Best For Personal Training: Future
You can follow friends or other lifters to see their training sessions, find inspiration, and even copy their entire routines to try for yourself. This community aspect adds a layer of accountability and discovery that many other pure-tracking apps lack. The focus is less on AI-driven plans and more on user-generated content and personal progress, supported by detailed charts and personal record tracking. This recovery data directly feeds into its AI Coach, a premium feature that adapts your workout plan in real time.
Pliability – Best for Recovery
And when it comes to actually using the app, we think ease of use is important if you’re an expectant parent (or new parent). Nicole gives Bloom Method a 4-out-of-5-star rating for our ease of use category. But, there is a ton available on this app (from workout classes to lectures), which can be a little overwhelming,” Nicole admits. Unlike other apps, Bloom Method provides exercises and education on how to strengthen and relax the pelvic floor. There are also birth preparation classes that can help you mentally and physically prepare for the demands of child labor. Zwift feels as if you’re playing Mario Kart, except all the drivers are on bikes and the characters are avatars designed by you and other users.
Best Workout App for Weight Loss: Noom
Boostcamp Pro adds 20+ exclusive coach programs, advanced analytics, and premium tools for lifters who want deeper training insight. Alo Moves is a premium wellness platform that brings studio-quality yoga, Pilates, strength, and mobility classes directly to your screen. Best known for its cinematic production and world-class instructors, it stands out for its emphasis on mindful movement, flexibility, and flow. It is one of the best workout apps for women who want to complement a strength routine with high-quality mobility and yoga or seek a holistic approach to fitness.
- “You can choose workouts based on your goal, like reducing stress or staying fit,” our tester said, giving the instruction a 4 out of 5.
- Men’s fitness apps are stepping up their game with AI technology that delivers personalized strength programming based on your actual performance data.
- The higher end of workout and lifting apps comes in at about $200 per month, meaning most apps will be cheaper than an in-person trainer.
- Use forms, data tables, and logic to build secure, automated, AI-powered systems for your business-critical workflows across your organization’s technology stack.
- The Reverse Health app is free to download on both iOS and Android devices, but the available training plans do feature subscription fees ranging by service plan and billing cycle.
- This provides a transparent, real-world look into how others train, offering practical inspiration and new ideas for your own routines.
DIY Mass Gainer: You Make the Shake, and Your Body Makes the Muscle
The CENTR app, designed by Marvel actor Chris Hemsworth, allows you to sync with AppleHealth or Google Fit to record and track all your workout metrics. It will automatically track what type of workouts you’ve done (including meditations) and how long you trained each day. What’s more, you’ll also get access to a logbook that helps you track the weight, reps, and sets of movements like the front squat or deadlift so you can see your progress before your eyes. A recent study from Estrada-Marcén et al., concluded that 72% of users benefited from the use of an exercise app to support their daily fitness goals. Research like this demonstrates that the value these apps and online programs offer is certainly nothing to dismiss.
Every workout and meditation incorporates American Sign Language, with trainers learning ASL together in weekly classes led by a Deaf-certified instructor, so those who are deaf or hard of hearing feel included. We love a workout app because there’s very little downside to giving one a try. Most offer a free trial, which lets you explore the workouts, features, and overall vibe before committing. Compared to an in-person gym membership, fitness apps are typically more affordable, far more convenient, and they take the guesswork out of programming our own workouts. Since you can use them anytime, anywhere, they’re also one of our favorite tools for staying consistent (and seeing real results). If you’re curious about personal training, the Future app is the next best option to working with an in-person instructor.
Most don’t have a very big library of on-demand workouts, live classes led by certified trainers and instructors, periodized programs, or more than 10 workout categories. Depending on your needs, you may not need the presence of an online coach in your app. For this reason, many of the best workout apps vary on the level of coaching or instruction you get. The bare minimum should be a how to use workout apps for muscle gain library of exercises to let you know how to perform movements in your own workout.