Apple Fitness+ is the only thing that kept me motivated to move during this pandemic.
I can walk the creek trail near my house with my eyes closed after 240 days (and counting) in lockdown and with gyms shut and a five-kilometre travel limit, variety has been hard to come by.
After my three-month free trial expired, I happily paid $119 to commit to Apple Fitness+ for a full year rather than spend $15 a month. My fiancée and I haven't looked back.
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Since arriving in December 2020, its library has built up to more than 1,200 workouts and starting this week, Pilates and Meditation have been added into the mix.
Four new trainers have arrived as well, in line with Apple's much-praised diverse line-up.
In my initial review, I noted that the likability and variety of these trainers is what set Apple Fitness+ apart (#teamBakari).
That hasn't changed with the addition of former pro-footballer Darryl Whiting's take on pilates or the wealth of experience JoAnna Hardy brings to the new line-up of guided meditations.
I booted up my first pilates workout with a sense of dread as core work has never been my forte. While - like everyone - I dream of a six pack one day, the thought of countless sit-ups is enough to make me down a pack of Tim Tams.
Starting small, my fiancée and I booted up a 10 minute pilates workout with Darryl when it launched on Monday.
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For whatever reason, it wasn't available on the Apple TV app, so we had to mirror my phone screen to the TV.
A minor inconvenience that I'm sure will be fixed in an incoming update.
Some pilates workouts require a resistance band which we didn't own, so we made sure to select one without it.
Make no mistake, this first pilates workout was hard. There were several moves I couldn't do, which only made me more thankful to have a secondary trainer on screen to guide us through easier, 'modifications'.
Something I hope not to need with practice over time.
Afterward, we tried our first guided meditation. Similarly, this was only available via the Fitness+ iPhone and iPad apps at the time of writing; not on Apple TV.
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There were more than 50 meditations, ranging from five to 20 minutes, available at launch.
All of these are beautifully shot in 4K if you'd like to watch your trainer but there are audio only options available straight from the Apple Watch via the mindfulness app; including moving meditations if you'd like to listen while you walk.
Each fits into one of nine categories: gratitude, kindness, purpose, awareness, creativity, wisdom, calm, focus and resilience. These are intentionally positive themes.
I've never been a big meditator, but my fiancée has pushed me to stream meditations on YouTube from time to time and I much preferred having themes to choose from that would better resonate with how we were feeling.
We really enjoyed the "purpose" and "gratitude" options we've tried so far; the latter we did while walking our puppy just this morning.
For those new to meditation, there's a getting started video to help familiarise yourself with the trainers and narrow your focus. All feature ambient music in the background.
Accessibility has also improved. Closed captions for those that speak languages like French, Italian and Spanish will arrive later this year, as will group workouts.
Up to 32 people will be able to join via Share Play once group workouts are up and running but disappointingly, there's still no plans for those working out together on the same device.
My fiancée and I prefer to have our workouts up on the big screen but there's still no option for both of our metrics to be displayed, as recorded by our Apple Watches.
This is still a service exclusive for those with Apple Watches.
If you own an iPhone, iPad or Apple TV you won't be able to sign up, without an Apple Watch.
The Apple ecosystem is a double edged sword: premium compatibility, exclusively with Apple products.
Never-the-less, Apple Fitness+ is a great motivator to buy an Apple Watch in the first place and continues to set its smartwatch apart from its fitness focused competition.
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