Headspace is subscription-based mindfulness app designed to improve mental health and reduce stress through a wide range of guided meditations and mindfulness exercises. For those looking to improve their mental health, this app is well-suited for both beginners and those more experienced in meditation. Amanda Capritto, certified personal trainer and former GGR team member, tested the app and said the only thing better would be working with a personal trainer in person. MyFitnessPal integrates with Apple Health to combine nutrition tracking with fitness activity data.
Our team has seen the same patterns across beginner fitness communities consistently. For most beginners, Hevy’s free tier is the better starting point because it gives you unlimited routines and full progress visibility at no cost. Strong’s free tier is more limited — it is designed to nudge you toward premium.
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After creating an account, you can customize routines, monitor your lifting and body progress, and tap into community-created plans. FitOn has a huge sense of community, which is always nice for support and accountability for reaching your fitness goals. FitOn PRO is a paid upgrade that adds personalized fitness app reviews perks like personalized meal plans, exclusive recipes, offline workout downloads, wearable heart-rate integration, and other premium features.
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5-star ratings were reserved for apps with a seamless user experience where workouts were easy to find, see, hear, follow along with, and track post-training. Our expert product testers tested all of the fitness apps for at least several workouts, while many were tested for a whole month or even longer, especially the apps we really loved using. If you’re past the beginner stage and want a little more progressive overload in your strength training, we recommend a workout app such as Boostcamp. There’s a basic community feed that allows you to view others’ workouts, but not much else. It’s a simple, streamlined app that’s very beginner-friendly, but it’s not the best choice if you prefer to have access to more advanced features. Despite the easy setup, the app offers plenty of great features to help you stay motivated and make sure you’re continuing to make progress over time.
Ladder offers a free seven-day trial, and afterward you can pick from a Pro plan for $30 a month or the Pro Plan-Annual, which is an up-front fee of $180 for the year and offers unlimited access to the app. This app costs $25 a month ($135 a year) but lets you test it for free for seven days if you’re a new member. This is a good way to determine if the workouts on the app are the right fit for you and your goals.
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While we love Boostcamp, and there’s a free version, it’s pretty limited in terms of scope. Some popular programs, as well as advanced analytics, are locked behind the Boostcamp PRO paywall. While there’s plenty to do in the free version, gym goers who love crunching numbers and data will get more stats and charts in the PRO version.
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Go Premium, and you can delve deeper into your stats and monitor relative efforts, alongside a ton of advanced training features. Our experts round up the most useful free and paid apps for cyclists to assist with route planning, tracking fitness, sharing rides and much more… For the seven models that were tested in the Tech Lab, we evaluated the performance, measured the battery power, checked the durability, and cross-checked the heart rate monitor. By the time our experts arrive at a final score for each watch, they’ve collected more than 300 separate data points.
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She reports working with her coach and using the app is easy, and she appreciates the fact that there are demonstration videos for every exercise assigned to your program. We also like that the app allows you to create three programs for free; some of which can last up to eight weeks. You can essentially get a six-month-long training program without spending a dime. The app will only ask you to upgrade to a paid plan once you’re ready to start a fourth program, so we rated it at 5 out of 5 for its free trial.
Sleep tracking can be a little tricky since there’s only so much you can control, but the Sleep Cycle app is a good way to bring some mindfulness to your sleep hygiene. This app can track sleep quality and snoring, set scheduled wake timers, and tailor sleep programs to your unique needs. Sleep Cycle is a solid option for anyone looking to improve their sleep habits and health using a data-based approach. There is a minimal free version and a few reports that the app is not very user-friendly.
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The most common version involves three strength sessions per week, three fundamental movement patterns per session (push, pull, hinge), and three sets per exercise. A variation popular with older lifters combines 3 explosive reps, 3 isometric holds, and 3 slow eccentric reps per set. Apps like Hevy and Strong track this format natively — simply build a three-exercise routine with three sets each. A 2026 Surfshark analysis of 16 popular fitness apps found that they collect an average of 12 different types of user data.
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But if you’re worried that an app designed by Chris Hemsworth, known for his muscular stature in the Marvel superhero films, would be all about bulking up, that’s not the case. Nike Training Club is the only completely free online workout program on this list. It’s a great choice for someone who wants a variety of workouts without a monthly cost or commitment. There are even online workout programs that allow you to interact one-on-one with a personal trainer from your own home.
- It works well for simple step tracking, but it can also track activities, food, water, and much more.
- I’ve had this app for just over six months, and it’s probably been the most life changing app I’ve ever downloaded.
- The app includes 200+ workouts spanning Pilates, yoga, barre, and both guided and self-paced strength training.
- As a fitness coach and competitive athlete, I found it to be a very useful workout app.
- With a massive on-demand library, a ton of exercise types, and a built-in community to connect with, Les Mills+ is an excellent option for beginners and advanced athletes alike.
- It offers more than 20 types of classes, including HIIT, dance cardio, sculpt, and more.
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The Strava fitness app acknowledges this by tracking your relative effort instead of just your running or walking speed. “Anyone who’s been training for an extended period of time knows that it’s tough and sometimes impossible to perform at the same level week after week. Things happen—like a poor night of sleep or a high-stress assignment at work—that prevent us from performing our best,” she says.
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This personal shoulder massager slips over the shoulders and features different kneading and pulsing modes that can include heat if you need even more relief. While they may be downright militaristic when it comes down to getting a killer lift in, they’ll certainly appreciate a thoughtful fitness-forward gift. They probably already have a favorite clothing brand, water bottle, and sneakers for the gym, so you’ll want to avoid the usual staples. We’re all about staying ahead of the trends here, though, and that goes double for the gym. Whether it’s the latest gizmo, gadget, or line of workout apparel, we’re undoubtedly on top of it. The best app to track macros will offer customizable macro goals and detailed daily summaries.