One week with Apple Fitness Plus: beat my weight gain before closing

I’m in one week my new Apple Fitness Plus based workout, and I not only started losing weight, but also learned a lot about how to use Apple’s new service – and how it can be improved.

I weighed 105 kg on Monday 4 January. On Monday, January 11, the weight dropped to 103 kg. It’s a small change, but I’m very happy with it in just one week. I exercised every day, mostly using Apple Fitness Plus classes, mixed with a few longer cardio sessions using the Zwift cycling program on a Wattbike Atom.

Here’s how I found Apple’s service so far.

The classes are fun and engaging. I was worried that they would be too ‘gym’ for me, but I like the coaches I have experienced so far. There is a decent mix of genders and ages, and they are encouraging enough during the workouts to keep me moving and want to complete each exercise. The app works seamlessly with me Apple Watch Series 6, which shows my heart rate and calories on the iPad screen to see if I make the effort. At one dance class I noticed that my heart rate was only 115 bpm – a more demanding high-intensity interval training (HIIT) class saw the number jump to 182 bpm.

But what I feel I lack in service is proper guidance on exactly what classes I need to focus on in order to achieve my goals.

My goal is mainly weight loss, but I also want to be stronger and fitter. So which classes do I choose? Would a HIIT class be better than a cycle? Will a core exercise help me more than a strength exercise? Do I have to combine several classes in one session, and if so, is it better to do it together than others? I know it’s not good to do certain muscle groups too much at the same time, but I also do not know enough about what is involved in each class to make the decisions.

It’s easy to do one strength class of 20 minutes, lock my activity rings on my Apple Watch and pat myself on the back while I think I did the day’s workout. And maybe I did enough – or maybe I should have done more. I was hoping to see more guided solutions in the service, based on your own personal goals, whether it’s losing a lot of pounds after the holidays, improving core strength to help your posture, or training hard for a bike race.

While there are sections such as “More of what you do”, “Try something new” and “Popular”, it does not provide the guidelines I need to put together a good weight loss routine. Without the guidance, Fitness Plus sometimes looks more than just a collection of well-crafted workout videos. It would also not be difficult to put together professionals who would be essentially playlists of classes, such as a one-month weight loss I can upload every day and do exactly what my fitness professional tells me.

Instead, I built my own workout program that combines different exercises during the week, including more cardio-based sessions such as dance and HIIT classes, as well as strength and yoga classes. Based on my limited knowledge of exercise, it seems like a decent everyday program, but I’m worried that I’ll basically increase it and make better use of my time if I change it.

The other problem I found the first few days was understanding the way the classes work. Although there are “absolute beginner” classes to introduce you to the different types of lessons, the main training videos are not separated in terms of “beginner” or “challenging”, but seem to simply differ from each other by the coach. perform the class and genre of music you will be working on.

Eventually I realized that in each video there are several trainers, and you will be able to do the ‘easier’ workouts with one (for example, having your knees on the ground during a push-up), do the standard workout with the head coach or add an extra challenge at the third coach at. I suppose the idea is that it means everyone can get something out of every available video, but I did not quite understand it at first and found it a bit difficult to navigate, and used a “Well, I think this one will do it “approach. Again, more guidance within the app would have made a big difference for a beginner.

That being said, I really enjoyed my first week of workouts, and I’m glad I’ve already lost weight. Here’s what I still enjoyed:

• The dance classes are fun, especially when I work with my partner. I can not follow the movements properly, but as long as I struggle my arms and legs like an electric spider, my heart rate stays high and it seems like I am getting a good workout. We laugh a lot, and it quickly becomes a fun thing we do together during the lockdown.
• The music on many of the classes is not what I would choose, but it works well for the workouts, and the classes are done on the music, as often as the rhythm drops, the movement starts a gear. It feels like I’m really in an exercise class.
• I’m not really in an exercise class. That means I’m not in a busy gym either, because I’m forced to sweat and feel embarrassed in front of 20 other people and then have to change, inevitably next to the one man who insists on standing there with his delicious sausage on display. (Is a towel really that much effort, buddy?)
• Cycling on the Wattbike Atom is excellent. It’s comfortable and I really enjoy using the Zwift app for my longer cardio sessions. I tried my first social cycle and met a friend of mine who used Zwift with his own exercise bike at home. We were able to ‘ride’ together in the virtual Zwift world of Watopia, while clocking more than 16 miles uphill and downhill in the hour we spent. It was a lot of fun, and time seemed to fly by.
• Although I practice in a small room, there is just enough space to do most of the lessons with my partner, with only one occasion during a dance session when she almost slapped me in the face during a particularly energetic moment (she promised it was by accident). I use my iPad Pro because there is not enough space to practice in our living room where the TV is – this is not the most elegant solution, but it works.

It did not take me long to understand how Apple Fitness Plus works, and the weekly routine I put together was challenging enough to leave me exhausted at the end of each one, but I was not so sore managing the following as well. day. If I mix the longer cycles with Zwift, I am confident that I will continue to enjoy the process and, still, lose weight.

See also: Best Workout Enrollment Programs for 2021: Apple Fitness Plus, Peloton, Daily Burn and more

The information in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a doctor or other qualified healthcare provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.