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When you think of New Year’s resolutions, there is a good chance that increasing physical activity, maybe signing up for a gym, or opting for a smartwatch that can track a workout instantly comes to mind. Conveniently, Apple tends to roll out new features, functionality, and class types to its fitness service—Apple Fitness+—a few days after the ball drops in Times Square.
With 2024 officially in swing, Apple’s doing just that with several new features and a quartet of music spotlights that begin to roll out on January 8th, 2024. Of course, the key to unlocking many of these is a Fitness+ subscription, and you can make the most of it with an Apple Watch or at least an iPhone. The service is still just $10 a month or $80 a year for up to five users and instantly grants access to a library of over 5,000 workout classes.
Let’s walk through the latest programs, a new Meditation type, a robust expansion for Time to Walk, and how Fitness+ is celebrating the biggest football game of the year.
An Artist Spotlight Series celebrating the Super Bowl
Kicking off the latest news with Fitness+ is a fresh Artist Spotlight Series featuring select artists who have graced the halftime stage during the biggest football game of the year. You’ll be able to work out with yoga, HIIT, strength, and dance-themed classes, among others, to Rihanna, U2, Britney Spears, and Usher, who is this year’s headliner during the Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show.
10 workouts themed to Rihanna will drop first on January 8th, followed by Britney Spears classes on January 15th, U2 on January 22nd, and wrapping with Usher Artist Spotlight workouts on February 5th. This is the first time that any tracks by Rihanna have been approved for use by a workout service. It makes sense; she was the first Apple Music Halftime Show performer in 2023.
True to previous Fitness+ Artist Spotlight workouts, you can expect theming to the nines, paying homage to the artists. For instance, with Rihanna, you can expect a themed logo to light up on the brick wall of the Fitness+ studio. Of course, you can rock AirPods Pro or AirPods Max to increase the audio quality and get a more immersive workout experience with these Artist Spotlight classes or any Fitness+ class.
Meditation expands with a “Sound” theme
New in the realm of Meditations offered on Fitness+ is a set of Sound classes. While simple, these will aim to ground you with soothing sounds that go a bit farther than just a standard white noise or sound machine.
The Fitness+ team recorded tracks using xylophones, sound bowls, and cymbals to create tracks that can help you focus, have a soothing effect, and ultimately help you take a break from the fast pace of life. These meditation types will be available in five-, ten-, and twenty-minute runtimes, with seven classes launching on January 8th and more rolling out weekly.
Unlike a Sleep, Calm, or Resilience-themed Meditation offering from Fitness+, these will feature less trainer guidance and focus more on sound to ground the person taking the class. The promise is a calming, peaceful effect, and from the short taste I got, it does just that.
Much like saving your favorite tracks from one of the 12 workout-type classes, you can also save the tracks from these Sound meditations for playback via Apple Music.
Time to Walk expands beyond the Fitness app
Time to Walk is an audio-focused experience that differs from on-screen meditations and workout classes offered by Fitness+ and other services. It’s one of the most unique aspects of Apple’s workout offerings and invites you to hear stories from actors or actresses, activities, and other personalities as you take a stroll.
Depending on where you’re streaming the workout from, you can view photos paired with the conversation in real-time on your iPhone or Apple Watch. Past episodes have featured Jamie Lee Curtis, Prince William, Jason Segel, and Anderson Cooper, among others.
New episodes of Time to Walk will begin dropping weekly on January 8th, with the first featuring Al Roker. You can expect episodes from Lilly Singh, Common, Colman Domingo, and Trixie Mattel (aka Brian Michael Firkus) in the weeks after.
Beyond tracking your activity when streaming from the Fitness app on iPhone or workout app on the Apple Watch, Time to Walk episodes will live in the Podcasts app. That means you can listen to them at your leisure while working, traveling, or playing back on HomePod. Fitness+ subscribers will find 50 of them at launch, and those who aren’t subscribed can enjoy ten episodes for free.
A workout program for golfers
While Fitness+ isn’t adding an entirely new workout type this year—Kickboxing was the last addition in 2023—a new program that’s geared toward golfers lands on January 8th. Fitness+ trainer Kyle Ardill works with legendary pro golfer Rose Zhang for a series of classes themed around improving your performance on the green.
These classes are all designed to help improve balance, strength, and overall mobility for golfers. Rose participates in the classes in the studio and shares some of her personal tips. This program, a.k.a. a collection of classes, will be themed in the strength, core, and yoga workout types. Like any Fitness+ workout or program, it’s designed for golfers at any level as well.
Apple Fitness+: What you need to know
While a bunch of new classes will drop in a few short days on January 8th, 2024, there is no price increase for Fitness+. You can still access it through an Apple One subscription or on its own at $10 a month or $80 for a year. That one subscription is also good for a whole family to use. You also get access to 12 workout types (HIIT, Yoga, Core, Pilates, Strength, Walk, Run, Cycling, Rowing, Dance, Kickboxing, Mindful Cooldown) and meditation classes.
If you’re new to Fitness+ you can score one month for free, and while an Apple Watch provides deeper metrics like heart rate and other statistics live, you only need an iPhone to use the service. In fact, if you pick up a new Apple Watch, iPad, iPhone, or even an Apple TV 4K, you’ll score three months free of Fitness+.
Apple’s also partnered with Anytime Fitness—a health club with locations that are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year—to include Fitness+ for free with that gym and health club membership. This way, coaches at Anytime Fitness can help design a plan consisting of Fitness+ classes for you to take when not at the gym. It’s a unique pairing of a digital workout with a physical gym and in-person classes.
You can sign up for Apple Fitness+ here, and ahead, we’re sharing some discounts on Apple devices.
