Apple’s Secret New Custom Workout Builder in iOS26/WatchOS26: Hands-on

Apple has secretly included a nice feature for endurance athletes in iOS 26: The ability to create full structured workouts.

Now what’s interesting about this is the fact that it wasn’t mentioned anywhere in Apple’s keynote or elsewhere. I only found out about it as I was leaving Apple HQ. You see, for those paying attention to the Apple keynote, within the new AirPods Pro 3 section, you’ll have noticed a new tab/feature in the Fitness app called ‘Workout’. This handy feature lets you pair your AirPods Pro 3 (or PowerBeats Pro 2) to your iPhone and record your heart rate as well as other workout stats. It’s kinda like what you’d have on Strava or some other general app in order to record a workout.

The key difference is that in Apple’s case, it includes their new AI Workout Buddy feature, which was until now, only available on an Apple Watch. That also includes the automatic AI Apple Music playlist mixing bits. Further, the Workout tab in the Fitness app does actually work with any Bluetooth HR strap (though, the Workout Builder does not). In any case, the existence of this tab and the fact that it worked with Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 was in the keynote:

And, in media hands-on demos later, I could see this in action with the AirPods Pro 3 on a test phone:

But what was not mentioned/shown, was that if you paired your phone to an Apple Watch, then it unlocked the new workout builder. None of the phones in that AirPods test area had a watch paired to them, thus, it wasn’t unlocked. In fact, it’s more than just a workout builder, it also shows Race Routes and more.

Once paired to an Apple Watch (any Apple WatchOS 26 capable unit), you can now build any custom workouts you want. So, let’s get into it.

Building a custom workout:

So, into it we go. First up, you’ll need iOS 26, which will release to production on Monday, or, is available now in Public Beta (you need the latest build that was pushed out about 48hrs ago). Once you have that, then open up the Fitness app. The same app that you’d see your workout summary stats in, as well as Apple’s paid Fitness+ platform (though, this piece doesn’t cost anything).

Inside the app, tap the ‘Workout’ tab:

Above, you’ll see the workout types supported. If you don’t have an Apple Watch (and are just using a heart rate sensor), then you’ll have a limited selection, and won’t have access to the custom workout builder. Likewise, even with AirPods Pro 3, you’ll get more workout types, but not access to the workout builder. You need to have an Apple Watch on your account with WatchOS 26 to get it.

Next, we can choose a workout type. We’ll just do running for now. Tap the right icon that looks like a timer, in order to access the structured workouts:

Now, you’ll see the new Workout Buddy options at the top, as well as the new ‘Picked for you’ music features. But, down below you’ll also see the Race Routes in green (never seen before on the phone), and if you scroll further, you’ll see your custom workouts (in purple):

If you were to tap on a Race Route, you’d essentially see the details about it, and your best time/date of it.

But let’s not get distracted, and instead, focus on the structured workouts. If I scroll all the way to the bottom, I can create a new workout. It’ll ask the goal/workout type, and I’ll choose custom:

From there, I’ve got a workout builder that I can start tweaking things. I can open up any given section, including the warm-up and cool-down, to change those. This includes changing the goal type (time/distance/open) for those warm-up/cool-downs, as well as the target (pace/heart rate/cadence/power):

Within the main set, I can create individual steps, or, create repeats, For these, I have the classification type (Work/Recovery), the Goal Type (time/distance/open), and then the target (pace/heart rate/cadence/power). For distance, I can choose miles, yards, kilometers, and meters.

And for pace & power types, I can select ‘Average Pace/Power’ or ‘Current Pace/Power’. For cadence/power/pace I can choose a set value, or a range, for heart rate I can select a heart rate zone or custom range.

Finally, you can add repeats by first creating the sections you want (e.g. the work & recovery bits), and then once that’s done, you choose to create a repeat and specify the parts/number of times.

You can do multiple repeat sections if you want as well, by first creation the subcomponents, and then pulling them into a group. Finally, at the end you can give it a name.

And, you can even share the workout too, in the upper right corner.

And sure enough, it worked. I sent it to Des, and he was able to open it up just fine, and it offered to send it to his Apple Watch immediately. Super cool/handy.

Wrap-Up:

Now, workouts builders aren’t exactly new in the competitive landscape. In fact, virtually every company in the market has one. For the last few years though on the Apple Watch, your only option was to either build the workout tediously on the watch itself (solid PITA), or, use a 3rd party app/platform like TrainingPeaks to build the workout (worked super well, but most would cost money). This solves that gap.

I’m just honestly surprised it didn’t get even a 2-3 second mention in the keynote. That said, that’ s the case of many features from many product teams. The keynote is designed to go as fast as possible through as many new features, and in most cases, everything from every team (iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods, etc…) simply can’t all fit in. Plus any other more generic/non-product-specific things that Apple needs to chat about.

Nonetheless, it’s cool to see it back. Now, if we can only get some sort of Apple Watch route importer API for 3rd party apps, then we’d be set. I mean, not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but hey, no better time to ask! After all, the inclusion of Race Routes might be a (slow) step in that direction?

With that – thanks for reading!

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