15
Apr

Best App to Log Workout 2025: 12 Apps Tested by Lifters Setgraph: Workout Tracker App

Similarly, you can browse and import programs created by others. Strong built its reputation on being the digital replacement for Starting Strength and StrongLifts 5×5 programs. The app excels at showing you exactly what you need to lift to progress. You guessed it—this app is brought to you by the people behind your local Gold’s Gym. Now you can (literally) bring the gym home with you if you can’t make it out of your house.

Free Weights vs. Machines: What Does Science Really Say?

After having a baby last year, I finally embraced the convenience of workout apps myself. So whether you’re total beginner, wanting to gain muscle, or simply looking to incorporate some low-key exercises into your day, here are the best workout apps worth a download. All of them work whether you have an iPhone or Android and all offer a free trial period so you can test before you buy. However, advanced features like progress tracking or skill training are reserved for premium users.

Great alternative to expensive personal trainer

Some of the apps we’ve tested are excellent for goal-setting, while others are optimized for community or learning. So even if you don’t have serious goals but just want to find a way to stay more fit and find some encouraging workout friends, there is an app for that. But, when it comes to progressive overload, Aaptiv earns a 3-out-of-5-star rating.

And if that’s not enough, Gymverse offers calorie tracking when paired with a wearable, which is a nice addition and helps you get a better view of your overall fitness. Strong maintains your data even if you downgrade to free, but you lose access to some features. Other apps may restrict access to historical data if you cancel premium. This is another reason to choose apps with data export—you can backup your information regardless of subscription status. JEFIT offers web access, which is useful for planning workouts on a computer.

How to Choose the Right Workout Logging App for Your Goals

  • Before you commit to a monthly subscription, think about your daily reality.
  • Every workout is designed with you in mind; the app considers muscles you’ve worked on before, how long your workouts usually are, and how often you do them.
  • The prescribed workouts can be tailored to your available equipment, and you’re in constant communication with your personal trainer through the app’s chat feature and video call capabilities.
  • Hiring a personal trainer is a major investment of your time and money.
  • It’s undoubtedly the easiest workout app I’ve used so far, with an easy-to-navigate interface and great usability.
  • OK, so maintaining a workout schedule can be tough, but devising a beginner workout plan with no experience to speak of can be an even bigger challenge.

Athletes, personal trainers, and gym veterans don’t expect beginners to understand the complexities of strength training or any other form of progressive exercise. And trust me, you can nerd out about fitness; it’s a highly complex topic. We’re a group of fitness industry professionals, including certified personal trainers, nutrition coaches, CrossFit Level 1 Trainers, USAW L-1 Coaches, and Olympic-level athletes. We took our real-life experience and in-depth testing methodology to score 10 different categories on a 1-to-5-star rating.

If you want to push yourself: Nike Training Club

The best app to log workout for this purpose needs to make tracking and beating previous performances effortless. The AI workout generator creates personalized training plans based on your goals, schedule, and available equipment. For beginners who don’t know where to start, this removes a massive barrier to entry. Turoff appreciates the “Beacon” safety feature, which allows you to share your live location with up to three people.

Personalized Virtual Coaching at a Premium Price

Testing workout apps isn’t about downloading them and poking around for ten minutes. Real evaluation happens in the gym, under fatigue, when you’re between sets and just want to log your numbers without thinking. I’ve spent the last two months testing twelve different workout tracker apps. I’ve logged hundreds of sets, tried every feature, and pushed each app to its limits. Is an easy-to-use app for manually tracking your movement each day. You can also sync the app with your unimeal reviews consumer reports fitness tracker to automatically track your movement.

How to choose the best workout app

“All workouts and plans are free, and you can choose from strength training, yoga, HIIT, prenatal, and more,” she says. Alix Turoff, RD, a New York City–based registered dietitian and National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM)–certified personal trainer, loves that you can also swap out exercises and modify workouts. “This is great if you have an injury or just aren’t feeling a specific exercise that day,” she says. Advanced lifters looking for an app made for pushing real weight will love the Juggernaut AI. Its in-depth insights and workout plans are great for maximizing your strength training and reaching new goals. From there we further tested our top contenders during workouts at our Men’s Health gym, our training spaces at home, local performance facilities, and outdoors.

top rated fitness apps for daily training

Deliver professional training programs in minutes

If you’re on a family plan, you can share access to Apple Fitness Plus with up to five family members. You’ll also want to figure out whether the app’s classes require you to have certain pieces of equipment on hand, like dumbbells or a yoga mat. Make sure you either have these items, or you have the budget to purchase them. The app supports freestyling your workout too, which is a nice touch; I was able to start a blank workout and add exercise types and reps/sets as I went. Hevy also worked nicely with my Apple Watch, which meant I didn’t have to hold—or keep checking—my phone the whole time. I’m not the most competitive person, but I have run the occasional low-stakes 5K, and I do run regularly.

How to Choose a Free Workout App

top rated fitness apps for daily training

This is where the best workout apps for beginners can help you get oriented. Instead of trying to piece together your program from scratch, using a fitness app will allow you to make better decisions as you embark on your fitness journey. Finally, Shred does offer a free version of the platform, but we strongly recommend opting for a Premium membership costing $19.99 monthly or, for a discounted monthly fee, $119.99 yearly. This subscription will eliminate any potential paywalls that hide progress tracking tools or other features and gives you the best landscape the app has to offer. “When compared to other personal training apps like Caliber and Future, the price isn’t too unrealistic, either,” notes our tester, who scores the value at 4 out of 5.

The model succeeds by offering increasingly sophisticated features exactly when you’re ready to embrace them [23]. Some innovative apps even let you train like athletic legends, providing real-time coaching that answers form questions and adapts programs as you progress [17]. Killer tracking capabilities with streamlined interfaces for logging 200+ exercises, making them way more efficient than old-school notebooks [17].

How to Evaluate the Best Workout Apps

She’s also an ACE-certified personal trainer and fitness nutrition specialist and is passionate about helping people live a holistically healthy lifestyle, focused on feeling good above all. Read her work on Self, Shape, Peloton, and Popsugar, where she was most recently the senior fitness editor. Offline, you can catch her hopping on a flight or learning to surf, ski, or mountain bike. “Those who find success with external accountability and motivation will also benefit.” Here are some of the specific benefits you stand to reap from working out with a personal training app. Down Dog offers fully-customized yoga workouts with over 60,000 possible configurations. Choose the music, level, focus, time, and voice that’s perfect for your practice.