Updated June 2026 · MyoAmigo Blog
Best Apple Watch app for lifting weights (2026)
You lace your gym shoes, walk to the rack, and want to log your sets without fishing your phone out of your locker. Apple Watch makes sense—it's already on your wrist, tracking your heart rate. But which app gets weightlifting right?
The short answer: the built-in Workout app is free and excellent for cardio, but it doesn't track sets, reps, or weight. If you want structured logging from the wrist, Strong and Hevy are mature ecosystems that sync to your phone. And if you want a fully standalone watch experience—logging every rep, timing rest, stamping heart rate on every set—that's where the new breed of watch-first trackers points.
Apple's built-in Workout app
Let's start where everyone already is. The Workout app comes free with watchOS, pairs seamlessly with your rings, and delivers reliable heart rate and calorie estimates for any activity.
For cardio, swimming, or running, it's excellent. For lifting, it falls short: you pick "Traditional Strength Training", train, and at the end you get duration, calories, and heart rate—no sets, no reps, no weight. Useful for ring closure, useless for programming a meet prep or analyzing a stall.
The trade-off is clear: zero friction, but zero structure. If you're only chasing Move ring closures and don't care about PRs, it's all you need. For serious lifters, it's a dead end.
Strong's watch app
Strong is the long-standing iOS lifting app with a watch companion. It lets you log sets, reps, and weight directly from your wrist, and syncs back to your phone for analytics.
The watch app is genuinely useful: you can tap through exercise names from your plan, dial in reps and weight, and the app handles the logging. The watch experience works best as an extension of a phone-first workflow—your plan lives on your phone, and the watch becomes a quick input device. Heart rate is logged from the watch, though it's not stamped per-set.
Strong's watch app has been shipping for years and is stable. If you already own a Strong subscription, adding watch logging is natural. If you're starting fresh, though, you're still tethered to managing your program mostly on the phone—the watch is a logging satellite, not an autonomous coach.
Hevy's watch app
Hevy, a younger competitor, offers a cleaner watch companion. Like Strong, it syncs workouts to your Hevy account and lets you log sets from the wrist.
The interface feels modern and uncluttered. Set logging is fast, and social features on the phone side (workout sharing, gym-mate following) appeal to a community-driven crowd. The watch app works well as a pair with the phone app—you plan on the phone, execute on the watch, sync back.
Hevy is a solid alternative if you prefer a fresh ecosystem. Like Strong, though, the watch is a companion tool, not a standalone experience. You still manage your routine and plan primarily on your phone.
MyoAmigo—built watch-first
MyoAmigo (coming soon) takes a different approach: the watch is a full coach, not a satellite.
Start a session on your watch without your phone. Navigate exercises and dial reps with the crown, tap to log sets. Pre-fills come from your last session, and progression listens to the effort you log. A rest ring counts down and fires audio cues when the timer ends. Per-set heart rate—average and peak—stamps on every set as you log it, a detail the mainstream watch apps don't stamp per set. When you're back in range of your phone, everything syncs.
The watch is the actual workout. Your phone is an analytics dashboard and plan editor, not a prerequisite.
Beyond the watch: MyoAmigo works fully offline and stores data on-device (no cloud account required); sync is optional and encrypted. The app also reads your gym location (geofence) to offer today's session when you arrive, and displays your membership barcode on the watch—still at full brightness in a noisy gym. Custom programs are generated with starting weight estimates inferred from lifts you've already logged, and the reasoning is attached (so you understand why the app chose a weight, not just trusting a black box). There's more on the features page. And it's the only one whose data your own AI can read via MCP—Claude or ChatGPT working from your real training history, not a chatbot bolted into the app.
The catch: it's pre-launch. Strong and Hevy are shipping now. MyoAmigo is built — join the waitlist.
Comparison table
| Feature | Apple Workout | Strong | Hevy | MyoAmigo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standalone watch session (no phone) | Duration + HR only | Needs phone for plan | Needs phone for plan | Full standalone cockpit |
| Log sets, reps, weight | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Per-set heart rate stamped | ✗ | No | No | Avg + peak |
| Rest timer on wrist | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | Integrated, audio cues |
| Set logging speed | — | Fast | Fast | One tap after crown dial |
| Offline, no account | ✓ | Account required | Account required | ✓ (optional sync) |
| Price | Free | Subscription | Freemium | Pre-launch (waitlist) |
The choice
Choose the Apple Workout app if you run, swim, or cycle and want ring closure. Choose Strong if you already use Strong on your phone. Choose Hevy if you like a modern interface and active gym community. Choose MyoAmigo if you want a watch app that actually gets weightlifting—one that logs heart rate, rests, progressions, and plans—without your phone ever leaving your locker.
For more on how MyoAmigo stacks up on features, read MyoAmigo vs the Apple Workout app, or dive into how the watch works standalone.
FAQ
Can I use these watch apps without a phone?
The Apple Workout app works standalone (but logs only duration, calories, and heart rate). Strong and Hevy require your phone to create a plan or manage routines; the watch is a logging companion. MyoAmigo is built for full standalone sessions—plan, execute, log, rest, sync when convenient.
Do these apps track heart rate on the watch?
All of them read your watch's heart rate sensor during a workout. MyoAmigo stamps the per-set average and peak; Strong and Hevy log a session average. The Apple Workout app logs HR but doesn't tie it to individual sets.
Can I import workouts from Strong or other apps?
MyoAmigo imports Strong CSV exports, so you can bring your history over. Strong and Hevy keep data in their own ecosystems. The Apple Workout app doesn't export structured strength data.
Which app is best for beginners?
The Apple Workout app is the easiest to start (it's already there). Strong and Hevy are approachable, though parts sit behind their subscriptions as of this writing. MyoAmigo is pre-launch; it's built to be beginner-friendly (starting weight estimates, reasoning for every program choice) and works offline without an account.