Apple's Fitness Technologies Director Jay Blahnik Talks Fitness+ Ahead of Launch

Apple Fitness+ is set to launch on December 14, and ahead of its debut, Apple's senior director of fitness technologies Jay Blahnik did an interview with WSJ. Magazine to answer some questions about Apple's newest streaming service.

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Though now is an excellent time for a home workout program, Apple has been developing Fitness+ for more than five years. Apple has recruited a total of 21 trainers after an "intensive search" where "no gym was too gritty to visit." Fitness+ syncs the Apple Watch to the Apple TV, iPad, or iPhone so you can see progress, including relative to others. "Metrics is motivation," said Blahnik of the feature.

The metrics react to the things the trainer says and the things that you do. We believe that makes it much more immersive than simply following content that's available anywhere else.

Apple Fitness+ has a robust recommendation engine to suggest workouts to people. "We always say: it shouldn't take 20 minutes to find a 20 minute workout," said Blahnik. Fitness+ suggestions will work based on the workouts that you've done, with some gentle encouragement to try other workout types.

The service is meant to be "equipment agnostic." Many of the workouts can be done with no equipment, and others, such as cycling, will work with existing equipment from many brands. It's also designed for users of all levels.

We love the fact that [Fitness+] is integrated with Apple Watch. It's really inclusive. We put music at the center to motivate a wide variety of people. We've made it really easy to find your next workout, whether you're a beginner or not, and allowed you to use it across all your screens. We treat all areas that we get engaged with as marathons, not sprints.

Apple Fitness+ will come with a three month free trial for anyone who purchased an Apple Watch Series 6, Series 3, or SE after the September 15 launch of those devices. The service will be accessible through the Fitness app on ‌iPhone‌, ‌iPad‌, and ‌Apple TV‌.

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Top Rated Comments

contacos Avatar
58 months ago
Since our lockdown is never going to end, I might give this a chance. I am getting bored of my life. I am pretty much stuck in Groundhog Day. Perfectly timed
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
coolfactor Avatar
58 months ago

I guess they have completely toppes out out on ideas to advance hardware. Because otherwise this is a non starter. Way off track for core business. Here just make good hardware and get the hell out the way.

What next? Apple juice brand ?
Apple is about experience and lifestyle. They are about their customers having the best possible experience, not just about selling products. There's a notable difference there.

Dell will sell you their crappy computers running Windows. They don't care how bad Windows is... they just want to sell hardware and then move onto the next customer.

Apple is a hardware+software company in order to deliver the best possible experience. Fitness+ is exactly that, so it's very much core to their business.

We can all agree that the world needs every push to encourage more fitness that it can get, right? If you think about it, Apple is merely course-correcting a world that they helped to create. The explosion in popularity of digital devices has created a world where too many people live behind their screens all day long. That's not good for health. So they have a responsibility to transform that world to a healthier one. Fitness+ is an effort to do that.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
btrach144 Avatar
58 months ago

I hate Peloton.
Just got the bike+ and love the GymKit integration. Peloton is awesome!
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple_Robert Avatar
58 months ago
Good on Apple for giving people another venue to work out. I hope it helps a lot of people.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jrath1 Avatar
58 months ago
Can two family members with apple watch's do a workout together?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
clcnyc Avatar
58 months ago
This is very exciting to me. I was an avid gym goer until March, and there’s no way in hell I’ll step foot in a Petri dish gym until who knows when, so this is very welcome. Hopefully I’ll be able to ditch my daily burn and Fitbod subscriptions for this!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)