Apple Fitness+ gets heart-pumping upgrade with more ways to help you stay fit and healthy

Subscribers to Apple’s Fitness+ service are about to be treated to one of its biggest updates since its launch. This major upgrade, which is being pushed out on Monday, brings new ways to get fit, more help with hitting those New Year goals and more celebrities joining the Time to Walk function. Perhaps the biggest bonus included in this refresh is a new feature called “Time to Run”.

Fitness+ has offered video treadmill training sessions since launch but there’s never been a way to help those who prefer hitting the road or jogging around the park. That’s all changing with this update now offering the ability to use the Apple Watch and AirPods to get some motivation when running outside.

Each unique episode, which can be downloaded before your run, is composed of coaching tips led by one of the current Fitness+ trainers along with new and renowned running coach, Cory Wharton-Malcolm. There’s music to help keep you energised and advice on pace and how to become a more consistent and better runner.

To make things a little more interesting, each run is also paired with a route and music from different parts of the world. For example, the playlist for Miami Beach features Latin music inspired by the vibrant sights and sounds of the city.

During Time to Run, users will also receive photos taken by the Fitness+ trainer of notable sights along their route.

Apple says that Time to Run will launch with three episodes: London, coached by Cory Wharton-Malcolm; Brooklyn, coached by Emily Fayette; and Miami Beach, coached by Sam Sanchez. One new episode of Time to Run will be released each week on Mondays.

So that’s one new feature but there’s plenty more coming in this update including something called Collections. These have been created to help users reach their goals and include a 30-Day Core Challenge, Improve Your Posture with Pilates, Perfect Your Yoga Balance Poses and Run Your First 5K.

Collections will include a suggested plan to help users make intentional training choices which should help make it easier to hit a set target. Run Your First 5K, for example, uses gentle fitness sessions to start before slowly building up, over a number of weeks, to an all-out run.

Anyone who uses Time to Walk will also be excited to hear that more inspirational people are joining the service with Hollywood star Rebel Wilson the first name to be revealed.

Time to Walk has already featured 41 guests to date, including Dolly Parton, Anthony Joshua, Jane Fonda and His Royal Highness Prince William who closed out the second season talking about the importance of keeping mentally fit.

Finally, there’s some new music coming Fitness+ with Apple confirming that it will be adding to its popular Artist Spotlight series with new workouts featuring the music of Ed Sheeran, Pharrell Williams, Shakira, and the Beatles.

“At the beginning of a new year, we know many people are looking for new ways to go after their goals. With these new additions, Fitness+ makes it easy to get motivated and stay active anywhere, with the most complete library of high-quality and diverse content to train your mind and body, no matter where you are on your fitness journey,” said Jay Blahnik, Apple’s vice president of Fitness Technologies.

“We can’t wait for people to get motivated to reach their goals with Collections, and inspired by Time to Run’s exploration of iconic cities with rich running history.”

Apple offers a free Fitness+ free trial with things then costing £9.99 per month.