Apple Fitness+ Now Offers Over 4,000 Workout and Meditation Videos

[Boeingfan]

I’m exhausted just reading about it. Pass me that burger.

 

[Boeingfan]

They could release it as it is, a lot of people understand English and there is always subtitles.

Well yes but sometimes you don’t want to listen to American accents ALL the time.

 

[timber]

The US accent is probably the easiest to understand for non native speakers.

 

[Razorpit]

There has been almost zero innovation since they launched. I’ve been asking for the ability to play your own music but apparently that’s just too hard for them pull off. It’s annoying to find the workouts you really want and then have to listen to the same music everyday.

That or even a podcast.

 

[Steve121178]

After a hard days work, who has time for all this poncing about?

 

[esaruoho]

Wish they released this service in Sweden.

nope, i wish they released this service in Finland!

 

[esaruoho]

yeah that's cool and all but when will they expand it to more countries? It's been years and it's still not available where I live

yeah we just can't seem to get it in non-u.s. countries.
even russia got there first before finland. they say it's about music licensing issues. so release it without music! i don't care!
i just want the workouts.

 

[esaruoho]

I discovered YouTube offers the same thing for free.

got links to good ones?

 

[addamas]

Wake me up when it comes to more countries (no Rossmann this time as it’s a site for children as well…).

 

[PrecisionGem]

We need Elon Musk to buy Macrumors and bring free speech here.

 

[PrecisionGem]

yeah we just can't seem to get it in non-u.s. countries.
even russia got there first before finland. they say it's about music licensing issues. so release it without music! i don't care!
i just want the workouts.

Maybe you should pressure your governments to stop all the regulations, rather than criticizing Apple for being bound by them.

 

[Alan Wynn]

Lashawn is overweight (surely not by much)

I think she is pregnant (go back and look at her a year or two ago).

 

[Alan Wynn]

Well yes but sometimes you don’t want to listen to American accents ALL the time.

Fortunately, users of the service do not have to ”listen to American accents all the time” as there are British and Filipino trainers, among others.

 

[PrecisionGem]

I think she is pregnant (go back and look at her a year or two ago).

I think you can still buy the 20 minute workout video. This was popular on TV back in the 1980's. Maybe more popular with the male audience... I remember seeing it being played in bars.

 

[WU27f1xcCs]

Don’t do it, a real gym is always better and more “human”. Or better, take your fitness+ to the gym!

I was thinking about this. Is it socially acceptable to do that. I worry people doing their “real” exercises would laugh at my Fitness+ stuff

 

[Martinpa]

Wish they added elliptical training… or elliptical variations for treadmill. I have a so-so knee, so lower impact workouts are better and I got tired of the bike…

 

[esaruoho]

Yeah no. It’s available in parts of the EU and not in other parts. There’s no regulatory issue at all. They could release the service in English in the entire EU and that would be fine since most of these services are English only anyway (like Les Mills)

wweell.. ya know, i actually mailed tim cook about this (Fitness+ not in Finland) and i got a response from Jay Blahnik.

well, here's what he said:

Esa,

Thank you so much for reaching out about Fitness+!

We are so thrilled you have interest in enjoying the service in Finland, and are sorry it is not yet available in your country.

The unique element that makes Fitness+ available is some countries and not in other countries is related not to local language content as much as it is music licensing.

All of the workouts and meditations are created against a playlist of amazing music from renowned artists, and each country has different publishing and music licensing laws that require agreements to be executed on a country by country basis. There isn’t a global license for this particular type of music usage.

It is a slow process of negotiation, licensing rights and a number of other factors, but we will continue to work hard to bring the service to as many users and countries as we can over time. We truly appreciate your interest and excitement to use the service.

Thank you very much for reaching out.

Jay Blahnik | 
Vice-President
Fitness Technologies

 

[breather]

nope, i wish they released this service in Finland!

Well we got the Eurovision, you can have Fitness.

Cha cha cha

 

[esaruoho]

They could release it as it is, a lot of people understand English and there is always subtitles.

yeah, i was asking them about it and got that response from jay blahnik about it. it's about music licensing.

 

[esaruoho]

Maybe you should pressure your governments to stop all the regulations, rather than criticizing Apple for being bound by them.

which regulations are you specifically talking about. did you see the blahnik mail i posted in a recent comment in this thread?
they could, in my opinion, just release the workouts without music for now, if that's what's holding it back.

 

[East India Company]

I was thinking about this. Is it socially acceptable to do that. I worry people doing their “real” exercises would laugh at my Fitness+ stuff

Yes that’s why it is always more chilled at home: no one will look at ourselves!
But some easy trainings to do at the gym with fitness+ are threadmill, rowing machine and bike. Any other ideas?

 

[mdatwood]

I was thinking about this. Is it socially acceptable to do that. I worry people doing their “real” exercises would laugh at my Fitness+ stuff

What do you mean by real? The strength classes are often pretty close to a CrossFit type workout.

People have trainers in the gym all the time. Digital trainers are the natural extension, so from a social standpoint I don't see the issue.

 

[dinomaz]

I think Apple Fitness+ is working quite nicely as an online service for sports. The integration of Apple Watch metrics is unrivaled and works great, the whole thing is very beginner friendly and the workouts are designed to gently engage the muscles, joints and tendons, thus minimizing the risk of overload and injuries. And being able to use it without the watch just on an iPhone makes it even more accessible.

The only thing I'm really missing out are workouts for advanced athletes. Of course, when performing dumbbell workouts you can just add additional weight, but in other disciplines like e.g. yoga this doesn't help a lot. Usually, the yoga workouts at Fitness+ consist mainly of beginner poses, with the option to perform one or two intermediate level poses in the longer workouts. Advanced or Expert poses are left out completely. But that's really not enough if you want to engage a little more - I'm not anywhere near being an expert yogi, but I use workouts in yoga apps or on youtube which consist mostly of more ambitious poses, and the sequences are a lot more demanding there. In Fitness+, I always have the impression to stay on the "eternal beginner level" - there are a few options to do a little more demanding work, similar to a gym course, but if you already reached a certain level which is not necessarily anywhere near competitive sports, but also not on the greenish side of beginners anymore, there is no real chance to grow.

There are so many workouts now, such a huge number of great exercises to choose from, with new ones added on a regular basis.
I think it would just be great to dedicate a few of the new ones to the advanced sportspeople.
Maybe in a separate section, where members could be warned that the content is only recommended for the experienced? This would minimize the risk for the beginners...
Combining the specific strengths of Fitness+ with a programme for well-advanced athletes would just be such a great opportunity, at least in my humble opinion.

Completely agree with you regarding advanced yoga. I think it would be amazing if they had programs with advanced yoga routines. The nice thing is, as a program, these classes would be differentiated from the regular class catalog and would not require cuing for beginner yogis. Personally I am really looking forward to a Jessica class where she cuts loose with some highly demanding poses. Preferably not a ladder flow either.

 

[User 6502]

The US accent is probably the easiest to understand for non native speakers.

Maybe if you’re from South America or Japan, where it’s the one studied at school. In most Europe we study British English at school, so it’s a lot more familiar and easier to understand for us.

 

[User 6502]

wweell.. ya know, i actually mailed tim cook about this (Fitness+ not in Finland) and i got a response from Jay Blahnik.

well, here's what he said:

Considering how terrible is the music they use I’d rather have a version without any music where I can add whatever I prefer rather than that horrible selection. Also this doesn’t make a lot of sense as licensing rights for music are unified in Europe.