Everything To Know About Apple's New Virtual Workout Service

During Apple’s annual September keynote, showcasing the products the tech giant is rolling out for the year ahead, one new launch had streaming-workout fans reeling: Fitness+, a virtual fitness service built around Apple Watch.

Fitness+ will offer 10 different kinds of workouts at launch: yoga, cycling, dance, treadmill walking and running, strength training, core, HIIT, rowing, and mindful cool downs. The service will recommend new videos you might like based on past workouts you've done.

For total streaming-fitness newbies, there’s also a beginners program to get people up to speed with at-home exercise safety.

Jay Blahnik, Apple’s Senior Director of Fitness Technologies, explained during the virtual keynote that all the workouts available through the app can be done with any brand of equipment, and many workouts require no equipment, or just dumbbells.

How is it designed to sync with your Watch, you ask? When you start playing the video from your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV, the workout will automatically start on your Watch. You’ll see your personal Watch metrics, like heart rate or mile pace, on the screen, depending on the workout.

The metrics you see on-screen will also change depending on the workout. If the trainer says to check your heart rate, that metric will get bigger on the screen in front of you. If you go through a tough interval, you’ll get a countdown timer to encourage you to push through those final seconds.

You can choose what video to do based on type of workout, trainer, trainer, how long the workouts are, or the kind of music in the videos. If you’re an Apple Music subscriber, you can also save the workout playlists to listen to later.

New workout videos will drop every week, and access will cost just $9.99 a month, or $79.99 for the year, with a month's free trial. If you buy a new Apple Watch, you’ll also get three months of Fitness+ for free. Per Apple, the service will be available by the end of the year in the U.S.

If your workout-from-home routine has gotten stale in the last however-many months, a new service might just be the thing to get you back up and running (or lifting, or stretching) again.