Apple Fitness+ Review

$9.99/month or $79.99/year (US) · £9.99/month or £79.99/year (UK) · 1 month free trial (3 months free with Apple device purchase) · Streaming platform · Strength, HIIT, Pilates, yoga, dance, treadmill, cycling, rowing, meditation and recovery library · Apple ecosystem (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV) · Personally tested: five weeks of structured daily use on iPhone, projected to TV and computer monitor · Custom four-week plan plus 3 Weeks of Strength programme · Dance, Pilates and treadmill sessions · No Apple Watch used during testing · Pricing verified April 2026

🗓️ Last updated: April 2026 · Pricing and features verified against apple.com/apple-fitness-plus

Apple Fitness+ Review 2026: Why I Tested It

I decided to test Apple Fitness+ after purchasing an iPad that came with three months free. No credit card commitment, no catch, just a free pass into a platform I had been curious about for a while. By this point I had been through a long rotation of fitness apps and I wanted to see whether Apple’s ecosystem play could compete with the dedicated platforms I had been testing.

I came to it shortly after spending time on Alo Wellness Club and with a lingering fondness for Fit With Coco, whose programme made me the strongest I have felt. The question I wanted to answer was simple: could Apple Fitness+ deliver enough structure and quality to justify paying after the trial, especially for a woman in perimenopause who does not own an Apple Watch?

What Is Apple Fitness+?

Apple Fitness+ is a subscription fitness and wellness service that offers thousands of on-demand workouts and meditations across more than twelve activity types. It launched in December 2020 as an Apple Watch companion, requiring the watch to use. In late 2022, Apple opened it to iPhone, iPad and Apple TV users without a watch, though the real-time metrics and personalised features still need one.

The activity types cover strength, HIIT, Pilates, yoga, dance, kickboxing, cycling, rowing, treadmill (walking and running), core, meditation and mindful cooldown. New sessions are added weekly. Structured multi-week programmes run alongside the single-session library, and you can also build your own custom plans.

If you pair it with an Apple Watch, you get real-time heart rate displayed on screen during workouts, calorie burn tracking, Activity Ring progress, heart rate zone indicators and the Burn Bar, which compares your effort against other people who have done the same session. Without the watch, you get the workouts and nothing else, which is exactly how I tested it.

Who Is Behind Apple Fitness+?

Apple Fitness+ is developed by Apple Inc. and led by Jay Blahnik, Apple’s VP of Fitness Technologies, who previously worked with Nike on training products. The trainer roster is Apple’s own, recruited specifically for the platform.

During my testing I worked with Sam and Kyle for strength (weeks 1 and 2 of 3 Weeks of Strength), Gregg and Jenn across other strength sessions, Jhon for dance (his Latin Grooves classes are a genuine highlight), and encountered Molly on the Strength for Older Adults sessions that my mum tested.

The trainers are not independent creators with their own followings in the way you see on Peloton. They are Apple employees, filmed in Apple’s purpose-built studio, and the production is polished. One thing worth noting is that at the start, end and sometimes during workouts, the trainers use American Sign Language, an inclusion detail I have not seen on any other platform.

What Makes Apple Fitness+ Different?

Three things set Apple Fitness+ apart from the forty-odd platforms I have tested.

First, the short-session stacking model. Most workouts run 10 to 30 minutes, and the platform is designed for you to pair them. A 20-minute strength session followed by a 10-minute mindful cooldown. A 10-minute core followed by a 20-minute Pilates.

For me, working full time with two school-aged children, pickups, after-school clubs, friends, driving around, fitting in a 20-minute workout is genuinely achievable in a way that a 45 to 60-minute commitment every day simply is not. This is the single biggest reason I kept coming back.

Second, the three-trainer format. Every session has one lead coach who explains and demonstrates, and two trainers following along. One of those two consistently shows modified versions: lower pace, less impact, easier on joints. This is not an occasional thing, it is baked into every class. For a woman over 40 with any joint considerations at all, having a visible modifier on screen at all times is more useful than a verbal “and if you need to modify, do X” that many platforms offer.

Third, the Apple Watch integration. I did not test with a watch, so I cannot review this from personal experience, but the metrics layer is the platform’s headline differentiator. Real-time heart rate on screen, calorie tracking, the Burn Bar comparing your effort to others, Activity Ring progress during the workout. If you own the watch, this is where the value proposition gets significantly stronger than what I experienced.

How Do You Get Started with Apple Fitness+?

Signup is through your Apple ID, either from the Fitness app on iPhone or iPad, or through the Apple TV. If you have bought a new Apple device recently, the three-month trial activates automatically. Otherwise, anyone can start a one-month free trial. You do need to enter payment details for the trial, which is a step up from Alo Wellness Club’s completely card-free signup, but standard for the industry.

Once inside, you land on a personalised home screen showing recommended workouts, new additions and any programme you are following. You can browse by activity type, by trainer, or by programme. The search field works and I used it when I wanted something specific, like finding Jhon’s dance classes or filtering strength sessions by duration.

One friction point: the filtering system. Apple offers filters for trainer, duration, and in some activity types, body focus (upper body, lower body, total body). But these are not consistent across all workout categories, and I found them less prominent than I expected.

I wanted to filter simultaneously by time, coach and body area, the way I can on some other platforms, and I could not always do that cleanly. For a company that prides itself on user experience, the filter design feels like an afterthought.

What Equipment Do You Need for Apple Fitness+?

Most sessions need minimal equipment. I used dumbbells (ranging from 4kg to 9kg during testing), resistance bands in various strengths, ankle weights, a kettlebell and a mat. A treadmill is useful for the walking and running sessions but you can substitute outdoor walks. Many sessions are fully bodyweight.

What I Actually Tested

I tested Apple Fitness+ for five weeks of structured daily use. I am in my mid-forties, navigating perimenopause, with a previous meniscus injury and a schedule that realistically allows 20 to 30 minutes of training most days. I do not own an Apple Watch, so my testing reflects the platform experience without the metrics layer.

I built my own custom weekly plan for the first four weeks:

Monday: 20-minute strength training (full body) + 10-minute mindful cooldown. Tuesday: 45-minute treadmill session (varied between walking and jogging depending on energy) or a dance class. Wednesday: 20-minute strength training (full body) + 5-minute mindful cooldown. Thursday: 20-minute Pilates with resistance bands or another 20-minute strength session. Friday: 30-minute treadmill session or a dance class. Saturday: 20-minute HIIT. Sunday: Rest day, outdoor walk, or meditation.

I followed this schedule because I know myself. I have tried enough platforms to understand that I will stick to something short-term manageable that covers the bases: muscle-building sessions, cardio, and one HIIT day. After four weeks on my own plan, I moved into the 3 Weeks of Strength programme and followed it for five weeks (repeating weeks as I built up), alongside continued dance and treadmill sessions on alternate days.

I also sampled five sessions from the Strength Basics in 3 Weeks programme (to assess the beginner experience), several Pilates sessions with bands, multiple dance classes with Jhon (Latin Grooves), and walking treadmill sessions. I tried the Time to Walk audio stories with Mel B and Rita Ora during outdoor walks but they were not for me. I prefer to walk with music or in silence. My mum (68, regular walker and Pilates doer) tested the Workouts for Older Adults series at my request.

What Are the Apple Fitness+ Workouts Like?

Apple Fitness+ workouts are polished, short (10 to 30 minutes) and always feature three trainers on screen: a lead coach, one at full intensity, and one showing modifications throughout. Sessions are filmed in a clean, pleasant gym setting with excellent lighting, clear camera angles and good audio. It looks expensive, which it probably is.

Every workout starts with a warm-up and ends with a cool-down baked into the runtime, which matters more for a body over 40 than it did at 25.

The three-trainer format is the platform’s structural superpower. The lead coach demonstrates and explains, the second trainer follows at full intensity, and the third consistently shows modifications: lower impact, slower pace, less range of motion.

This means you always have a visual reference for a less intense version, without the coach having to break their flow to describe it verbally. After testing platforms where modifications are an afterthought or mentioned once and forgotten, the consistency here stood out.

Workouts are overwhelmingly in the 10 to 30 minute range. Strength sessions tend to be 10, 20 or 30 minutes. HIIT is typically 10 to 20. Dance classes run about 20 minutes. Pilates sits at 10 to 20. Mindful cooldowns are 5 or 10 minutes.

You can stack sessions back to back, which is how the platform is clearly designed to be used. I almost always stacked: a 20-minute strength followed by a 10-minute cooldown, or a 20-minute Pilates followed by a 10-minute core. The stacking model is what makes this work for someone with my schedule.

You can choose your music genre for each workout, which is a nice touch. The coaches are high energy and the atmosphere is consistently positive. Sometimes, honestly, it feels a bit acted, a bit too upbeat, but that is a minor quibble and you get used to it. The energy is infectious rather than grating.

What Programmes Did I Test on Apple Fitness+?

I focused on 3 Weeks of Strength (the progressive overload programme), dance classes with Jhon, Pilates with resistance bands, treadmill sessions, the Strength Basics beginner programme, and asked my mum to test Workouts for Older Adults. Here is what each delivered.

3 Weeks of Strength (Progressive Overload)

This is where Apple Fitness+ genuinely delivered for me. The programme runs three weeks with progressive structure. Week 1 with Sam started at a faster pace with lighter weights (I used 4kg and 6kg dumbbells). Week 2 with Kyle slowed the tempo and increased the load. By week 3 I had added explosiveness to some movements and bumped my weights to 5kg and 7.5kg. Sam also leads some sessions with Gregg and Jenn across other strength blocks.

I ended up repeating the programme, running it for five weeks total because I had been inactive for about a month beforehand (two weeks of holidays with mostly walking, followed by a week of being ill, then the family getting sick). Coming back to dumbbells after that break, I dropped my weights from the 9kg I had been using previously. My muscles were quite sore the first week after each session, which is exactly the response you expect when returning to resistance training after a break.

A note on the weight gain I experienced, because it is relevant for any woman over 40 starting or restarting strength training. My weight went up by 1kg in the first week. By the end of five weeks it had dropped back down plus an extra 0.5kg, so a net loss of 0.5kg overall, and I was visibly more toned.

The initial gain is almost certainly water retention: when you create micro-tears in muscle fibres through resistance training, your body retains fluid around the damaged tissue as part of the repair process, and glycogen storage in newly-worked muscles binds with water, adding 0.5 to 1.5kg temporarily.¹ This is normal, it is a sign your body is adapting, and it resolves within a few weeks.

If you are a woman in perimenopause who already feels paranoid about the scale, know that an initial bump after starting strength training is your body doing exactly what it should.

For a complete beginner, these strength programmes are a genuinely good entry point. The Strength Basics in 3 Weeks programme covers foundational movements with detailed technique explanations. You can repeat it as often as needed, simply increasing weights each round.

For someone like me who has been training on and off for years, the sessions from 3 Weeks of Strength provided enough progressive overload to produce visible results in five weeks, even with a month of inactivity beforehand. I fixed my posture on a few movements after watching the basics sessions, which is a reminder that revisiting fundamentals is always worthwhile.

Dance Classes (Latin Grooves with Jhon)

I started my non-strength days with treadmill sessions, but once I tried the dance classes I was hooked. Jhon’s Latin Grooves sessions are 20 minutes of good music, high energy and a coach who makes you want to move. I click play and the time is over before I notice. I always finish energised and in a better mood than when I started, which is not something I say about many workouts. If you need a cardio option that does not feel like cardio, start here.

Pilates with Resistance Bands

The Pilates sessions with bands and ankle weights work different muscles than the strength training, or at least that is how it feels the next day. Research supports this: a study in the European Review of Aging and Physical Activity found that Pilates engages stabiliser muscles differently from traditional resistance training, and that adding elastic bands was more effective at increasing strength than Pilates without load.²

For me, these sessions complement the strength days rather than duplicating them, and they are a good fit for days when I want to train but do not want to pick up heavy dumbbells.

Treadmill Walking and Running

If you have a treadmill at home, the walking and running sessions are engaging enough that I sometimes forgot I was running. The coaches keep a good pace of conversation and motivation during the sessions. I alternated between walking days (when my energy was lower) and jogging. The sessions are fun but they are not the reason to subscribe. You can get a good treadmill walk from YouTube or Spotify. These are a nice bonus, not a differentiator.

Workouts for Older Adults

I asked my mum (68, regular walker, does Pilates) to test this category. Her verdict was mixed. The series has relatively few workouts, so not a great selection to keep someone engaged long-term. She enjoyed the Strength for Older Adults sessions with Molly but found the difficulty level too low overall. Having said that, it is definitely easy on your joints and if you starting over and you are not fit, this can be a great place to start and try out different types of workouts. 

She told me she prefers dipping into the regular Workouts for Beginners library with light or no weights, which gives her a better workout. This matters for the Women Over 40 scoring: Apple’s age-specific content undershoots for women who are active but over 60, and significantly undershoots for women in their 40s and 50s who want peri-specific programming.

What Results Can You Expect from Apple Fitness+?

After five weeks on the strength programme plus supplementary dance, Pilates and treadmill sessions, I was visibly more toned, particularly through my arms and upper body. My weight went up 1kg in week one and ended 0.5kg below my starting weight, a pattern consistent with the water retention and glycogen storage that accompanies returning to strength training after a break.¹

I did not change my nutrition during testing, so these observations come from training changes alone. The progressive overload was real: moving from 4-6kg to 5-7.5kg dumbbells over five weeks, with improved form on several movements after revisiting the basics sessions. My energy levels felt better on training days than rest days, which is a pattern I have noticed across other platforms too.

The more important result is adherence. I showed up nearly every day for five weeks. The short sessions meant I never had a “I do not have time today” excuse. Even on the busiest days, 20 minutes was possible – and I did the workouts few times at around 9pm as I could not fit them in earlier. For a woman in her forties juggling work and family, the programme that you actually do consistently beats the programme that is theoretically better but sits unwatched. Apple Fitness+ made showing up easy.

Is Apple Fitness+ Good for Women Over 40?

It is good, with a meaningful gap. The content itself serves women over 40 well despite not being designed or labelled for them. Progressive overload strength training, which the platform delivers through its structured programmes, is exactly what current research recommends for perimenopausal and menopausal women.

A 2023 systematic review found that strength exercises improve bone density, reduce menopause symptoms including hot flashes, and positively affect metabolic and hormonal changes during menopause.³ Stanford Lifestyle Medicine recommends two to three strength sessions per week for women in perimenopause, combined with moderate cardio and adequate recovery, emphasising training smarter rather than harder.⁴

My custom weekly plan (two to three strength sessions, one to two cardio or dance sessions, one HIIT, plus recovery) aligns well with this guidance. Apple Fitness+ makes building exactly this kind of week straightforward because the sessions are short enough to combine and the activity variety is broad enough to cover all bases.

A University of Exeter study showed that resistance training can improve physical function during menopause, with meaningful gains in leg and pelvic floor strength.⁵ A separate PLOS ONE study found that premenopausal women over 40 gained 2% muscle mass and lost 3% body fat after a 12-week resistance training programme.⁶

What is missing is any acknowledgement from the platform that this audience exists. No perimenopause category, no menopause filters, no hormone-aware programming, no educational content about training through this life stage.

The “Workouts for Older Adults” category is the closest nod, and it is both too basic and incorrectly targeted: most women aged 40 to 55 are not “older adults,” they are active women dealing with specific hormonal changes that affect how they should train. Apple has the content to serve this audience. It has not yet built the structure around it.

Does Apple Fitness+ Help with Perimenopause and Menopause?

Not directly. There is no dedicated perimenopause programme, no menopause-specific content, no coaches discussing hormonal changes, no pelvic floor series, no symptom management content. If dedicated, clinically-informed perimenopause programming is your primary requirement, Pvolve’s Menopause Strong or Owning Your Menopause are the better choices.

What Apple Fitness+ does offer perimenopausal women is an excellent content toolkit if you know what to do with it. The short-session stacking model suits the energy fluctuations of perimenopause. The meditation and mindful cooldown library supports sleep disruption and stress management. The three-trainer modification system means you can scale back on high-cortisol days without abandoning the session.

The progressive strength programmes address muscle and bone protection. But you have to assemble this yourself. Nobody on the platform is going to tell you “today is a high-cortisol day, try this instead.” If you are after that kind of guidance, look elsewhere.

Is Apple Fitness+ Good for Beginners?

Yes, and this is one of its stronger suits. The Strength Basics in 3 Weeks programme covers foundational movements with clear technique explanations at a manageable pace. The three-trainer format means beginners always have a lower-intensity visual reference. Session lengths of 10 to 20 minutes are not intimidating.

I sampled five sessions from the basics programme to assess it, and the explanations were detailed enough that I corrected my own form on a couple of movements after years of doing them slightly wrong.

There are also dedicated programmes for Workouts for Beginners, and the variety means a beginner can try strength, Pilates, dance and yoga without committing to a platform that only does one thing.

The only weakness is that the platform does not hold a beginner’s hand in terms of week-by-week progression the way a coach-led programme like Fit With Coco does. You can follow a 3-week programme, repeat it, and then move to the next one, but you are making those decisions yourself.

How Good Is the Apple Fitness+ App?

The app is clean, the design is pleasant and the content is genuinely easy to find most of the time. I used it primarily on my iPhone, projecting to my computer monitor and TV screen for a larger viewing experience.

The projection worked well most of the time, but I had an intermittent issue where the screen would go black while the audio continued. The only fix was to stop the workout and restart it, which is mildly infuriating mid-session. This happened a handful of times across five weeks, enough to be annoying but not enough to derail the experience.

The app is available on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. There is no Android version and no web app. If you are not in the Apple ecosystem, this platform does not exist for you, which is a significant limitation when competitors like Peloton, Les Mills+ and Alo Wellness Club work across all devices.

Filtering is the weakest part of the UX. Within each activity type you can filter by trainer, duration and sometimes body focus. But these sub-filters are not consistently available across all categories, and they are not as prominent in the interface as they should be.

I wanted to filter by time, coach and body area simultaneously and could not always do so. The search field works as a backup, but for a platform from the company that designed the iPhone, the browse experience should be smoother.

Workout tracking is built into the app: you can start tracking any session and it logs to your Apple Health data. For outdoor walks, you start tracking and can listen to stories or music through the Time to Walk and Time to Run features. Music selection per workout is a nice personalisation touch that few competitors offer.

How Much Does Apple Fitness+ Cost?

Apple Fitness+ costs $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year in the US, and £9.99 per month or £79.99 per year in the UK. Family sharing is included, so other household members on your Apple Family plan can use the same subscription. It is also bundled in the Apple One Premier plan.

New subscribers get one month free. If you buy a new iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV or Mac, you get three months free, which is how I started. No excuse not to try it if you are buying or already own an Apple product.

The value question depends heavily on your context. If you own an Apple Watch, the real-time metrics integration adds significant value that you cannot get from competing platforms. If you do not own the watch, as I do not, you are paying $9.99 a month for workouts without the headline feature.

Meanwhile, Alo Wellness Club offers a comparable breadth of strength, Pilates, HIIT and recovery content for free, with no card and no trial timer. FitOn offers a solid free tier too. For someone in my position, without the watch, the value case for paying after the trial is weaker than I expected.

Is Apple Fitness+ Easy to Stick With?

Yes, and this is one of the platform’s real strengths. I stuck with it for five weeks without once struggling to find time. The 10 to 30 minute session lengths remove the single biggest barrier to consistency: time. You do not need to block out an hour. You do not need to warm up separately (it is built in).

You can fit a session into a lunch break, between school pickups, or after the children are in bed. Stacking two short sessions gives you a complete workout in 30 minutes that covers both training and cooldown.

The content variety helps too. Between strength, dance, Pilates, treadmill, HIIT, meditation and yoga, I never opened the app and thought “there is nothing here for how I feel today.” If I was tired, I walked. If I was energised, I danced. If I wanted to lift, the strength programme was waiting. For a woman in perimenopause whose energy levels shift unpredictably from day to day, having that breadth inside one platform is genuinely practical.

Apple Fitness+ Weighted Scoring: How the 6.9/10 Was Calculated

What Are the Pros and Cons of Apple Fitness+?

How Apple Fitness+ Compares to Similar Platforms

Pricing verified April 2026 against official sources.

How Apple Fitness+ Compares to the Closest Alternatives

Apple Fitness+ vs Alo Wellness Club

This is the comparison that kept nagging me during testing. Alo Wellness Club offers a comparable breadth of strength, Pilates, HIIT and recovery content, with better filtering, deeper recovery options (sound baths, yoga nidra, breathwork) and no cost at all.

Apple Fitness+ wins on session design (the three-trainer format with a dedicated modifier is more reliable than Alo’s instructor-dependent modifications), time efficiency (the stacking model is tighter) and production polish. But the value gap is hard to ignore: one is free with no card, the other is $9.99 a month. If you do not own an Apple Watch, Alo is the harder platform to argue against.

Apple Fitness+ vs Peloton

Peloton offers a larger content library, live classes, stronger community features and broader device support including Android and web.

Apple Fitness+ is less expensive, has better modification visibility (dedicated modifier vs verbal cues), and the short-session stacking model is better designed for 20-minute windows. Peloton is the bigger platform. Apple Fitness+ is the more practical one for a time-pressed woman over 40 who needs to get in, train, and get out.

Apple Fitness+ vs Fit With Coco

Fit With Coco is the platform that made me the strongest I have felt, and I plan to go back to her. The coach-led 3-2-1 method with progressive programming is more structured than anything Apple offers, the nutrition component is comprehensive, and the personal coaching feel is in a different league.

Apple Fitness+ wins on variety (12+ activity types vs Coco’s focused library), session flexibility (shorter options, stacking) and the beginner entry path. If you want someone to tell you exactly what to do and push you, Fit With Coco. If you want to build your own week from excellent components, Apple Fitness+.

Apple Fitness+ vs Les Mills+

Les Mills+ is programme-led group fitness with high production values and a strong following. It works on Android and web, which Apple does not. Les Mills+ tends toward longer sessions and a more intense group fitness atmosphere.

Apple Fitness+ is more flexible in session length, has better modification visibility and broader activity variety. For women over 40 who want structured classes with a group fitness energy, Les Mills+. For women who want shorter, more adaptable sessions with stronger modification support, Apple Fitness+.

Apple Fitness+ vs FitOn

FitOn’s free tier is a strong alternative for budget-conscious users. It works across all devices including Android and web, which is a significant advantage.

Apple Fitness+ has higher production quality, more reliable modifications through the three-trainer system, and better structured programmes. If cost is the primary factor and you are not deep in the Apple ecosystem, FitOn. If you already own Apple devices and want to invest in a more polished experience, Apple Fitness+.

Is Apple Fitness+ Worth It?

For an Apple Watch owner who trains regularly: yes, comfortably. The real-time metrics, Activity Ring integration and Burn Bar add a layer of personalisation and motivation that no other platform replicates. Paired with the short-session stacking model and the consistent modification system, it is one of the better all-round home fitness platforms for women over 40 who own Apple hardware.

For someone like me, without the watch: it is worth trying on the free trial, and the content is genuinely good. But the ongoing $9.99 per month is harder to justify when I can get similar (not identical, but similar) workout quality from Alo Wellness Club for free.

What kept me coming back was the time efficiency model, the dance classes, and the progressive strength programmes. Whether that is worth $120 a year depends on whether those specific things matter more to you than the cost savings.

For a woman who wants perimenopause-specific programming: no. This is not the platform for that. Try Pvolve or Owning Your Menopause.

What Are the Most Common Apple Fitness+ Complaints?

From my testing and from what I have read across user forums: the Apple ecosystem lock-in is the most common frustration. No Android, no web app, which excludes a large portion of potential users.

The filtering limitations come up repeatedly, Apple Community threads include requests for better body-area filtering that have gone unanswered. The lack of progress tracking beyond session completion is a common ask. And the value proposition without an Apple Watch is a recurring theme: people want to know what they are paying for when the watch features are the headline and they do not own one.

My own addition to that list: the screen projection blackout issue. It happened enough times to be worth flagging. And the absence of any menopause or perimenopause content, while not a common general complaint, is a significant gap for the audience reading this review.

Is There an Apple Fitness+ Discount Code or Free Trial?

There is no discount code. The free trial options are: one month free for any new subscriber (credit card required), or three months free when purchasing a new Apple device (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV or Mac).

Apple Fitness+ is also included in the Apple One Premier plan at $37.95/month (US) or £36.95/month (UK), which bundles Music, TV+, Arcade, News+, iCloud+ 2TB and Fitness+. If you already pay for several Apple services, the Premier bundle can make Fitness+ effectively free.

Apple Fitness+ FAQ

Final Verdict

I like Apple Fitness+ more than I expected to. The short-session stacking model is genuinely one of the best I have tested for fitting real training into a real life. The three-trainer modification format is the most reliable on any platform. The progressive strength programmes delivered visible results in five weeks. The dance classes with Jhon made me forget I was exercising. And the production quality is consistently high without being distracting.

But I tested it without an Apple Watch, and that changes the equation. Without the watch, you are paying $9.99 a month for workouts that compete with what Alo Wellness Club offers for free. The absence of any perimenopause content is a real gap for the audience I write for. No nutrition support means you are solving that piece elsewhere. And the Apple ecosystem lock-in means anyone without Apple hardware is simply excluded.

I will keep using it through my free trial. Whether I pay after that depends on whether I can justify the cost against free alternatives.

What I can tell you is that if you are a woman in your forties or fifties who owns Apple devices and wants something short, reliable and well-made to fit into a genuinely busy schedule, this is worth your free trial. If you also own an Apple Watch, it might be worth your subscription. And if you are after perimenopause-specific programming, keep looking, because Apple has not built that yet.

Sources

1. Cleveland Clinic (2024). Gaining Weight After Working Out? Here’s Why. Micro-tears trigger inflammation and fluid retention; glycogen storage binds water, causing 0.5 to 1.5 kg temporary weight gain when starting or restarting strength training. health.clevelandclinic.org
2. European Review of Aging and Physical Activity (2019). Pilates versus resistance training on trunk strength and balance adaptations in older women: a randomised controlled trial. Pilates engages stabiliser muscles differently from traditional resistance training; Pilates with elastic bands more effective at increasing muscular strength than without external load. PMC6859004
3. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2023). The Efficacy of Strength Exercises for Reducing the Symptoms of Menopause: A Systematic Review. Strength training improves bone density, reduces hot flashes, and positively affects metabolic and hormonal changes during menopause. PMC9864448
4. Stanford Lifestyle Medicine (2024). Strength Training During Perimenopause. Recommends 2 to 3 sessions per week; consistency over intensity; balanced routine prioritising strength, moderate cardio and recovery. lifestylemedicine.stanford.edu
5. University of Exeter (2024). First-of-its-kind study shows resistance training can improve physical function during menopause. Participants demonstrated gains in leg and pelvic floor strength. news.exeter.ac.uk
6. PLOS ONE (2023). Resistance training alters body composition in middle-aged women depending on menopause. Premenopausal women over 40 gained 2% muscle mass and lost 3% body fat after 12-week resistance training; positive effects on appetite-regulating hormones. PMC10559623

Pricing last verified April 2026 against apple.com. HerDailyFit does not accept payment from platforms in exchange for favourable reviews. All scores reflect the reviewer’s honest assessment using the site’s weighted methodology.

This review was written by Katy Cole, lead reviewer at HerDailyFit. Katy has personally tested close to 50 fitness platforms over 15 years. She is not a personal trainer or fitness professional. She is a woman in her mid-forties navigating perimenopause who reviews platforms from the perspective of someone with the same body, the same life stage, and the same time constraints as the women reading this.

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